1. The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra rocks. The string sections have a totally distinctive, aurally identifiable character that is not American, not European, but… well, Israeli-Palestinian, I suppose. As a side-note: it’s unusual these days to see any orchestra, anywhere, without any Asians
2. The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and Beethoven’s 9th: an orchestra and a symphony that were made for each other.
3. How cool is Daniel Barenboim? More on his “Mahlerian” approach to Beethoven to come in my review for Strings Magazine. It’s like he’s like a wave and the musicians can ride on his energy. At the climax of the 9th slow movement you could hear him grunting.
4. I’ve never seen an outdoor summer concert audience as well-behaved as these 20,000 Berliners (including President Christian Wulff)
5. The “Ode to Joy” comes over the loudspeaker-system as the Nazi architecture of the Olympia Stadion towers nearby.
