Daniel Barenboim

And it was an incredible experience just because it really is like having a conversation with him about the music.

He's so generous in sharing his thinking through his playing, the same way Barenboim does that in Beethoven.

But I was struggling to find a way to bring the same kind of emotional impact I feel in Bach's vocal works and string works to the keyboard works without them becoming romantic.

My previous experiences with Bach were all the big romantic arrangements by Busoni, by Liszt, for example, by Feinberg.

It's not enough.

By the way, for those unaware, the West Eastern Divan Orchestra is an orchestra ran by Daniel Barenboim.

He founded it in the 90s along with the Palestinian academic Edward Said.

It's basically a bunch of musicians from the Arab world and a bunch of Israeli musicians.

We'll hear a 1999 Teldec recording now.

Ninth Music Director Daniel Barenboim conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

This is the Prelude to Act Three of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg by Wagner.

[music]The prelude to Act Three of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg by Wagner, a recording by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra led by Daniel Barenboim.

Coming up next, a great work of art or shameless self-promotion? Maybe it's both.

A Hero's Life by and about Richard Strauss.

He was thinking about giving up writing his composition, and was encouraged by a friend not to do so.

But I chose this piece also because of, again, of the moment, and this was the historic concert in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, conducted by Daniel Barenboim.

He cooperated with Edward Said, of course, to create the West Eastern Divan Orchestra, where young musicians from Palestinian territories, from Israel, from across the Arab world came together.

And he said to them, "Music is language," and how it, we have to go beyond politics, and that when the musicians are rehearsing, when they're on stage, they're not allowed to talk about politics, and hopefully not to think about politics.

And he wanted music to try to bring them together.

And when they played in Ramallah, it was the first time that they played in a place which was from one of their countries of origin, and it was a time when the peace process was also in trouble.

And to be in that hall in Ramallah, where there was not a dry eye, including my own, to hear Nimrod from the Enigma Variations by Elgar, performed by the West Eastern Divan Orchestra and conducted, of course, by Daniel Barenboim.

[Nimrod plays]

I mean, I am a really big Yoko Ono fan.

I love the multidisciplinary way that she created art and so I feel like going back to see the original performance of cut piece or something like that would just be really important for how I understand that work and then the other thing as I'll say I love Daniel Barenboim's like if you have a that thing where partners give you one pass where you can sleep with anybody laughing

I'm just saying

like, he's kind of my guy.

We'd like to take a moment to thank the people involved in creating this beautiful CD that we're listening to.

This was recorded in late 1989, early 1990 with the Berlin Philharmonic under the conductor Daniel Barenboim with the choir of the German Staatsoper Berlin.

Amphitas is sung by José Van Damme, Titorel by John Tomlinson, Guernemans by Matthias Hull, Parsifal by Siegfried Jerusalem, Klingzor by Gunther von Kahn, and Kundry is sung by Waltraud Meyer.

Thank you all for this beautiful music.