Prom 31, Mutter, West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, Barenboim review - beauty against barbarism

Founded by Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra first performed at the Proms – to a rapturous welcome – in 2003. For two decades the visits, and the audience rapture, have continued, while the region of most WEDO players’ birth now looks, this hideous year above all, more steeped in blood and hate than ever. 

Said and Barenboim never intended the orchestra, with its core element of young Arab and Israeli musicians later augmented by players from neighbouring lands, as some kind of soppily high-minded peace project. Rather, they sought a way of creatively changing the subject on shared artistic ground, in order to glimpse a musical vision of what harmonious cooperation might feel, and sound, like. Just a couple of days ago, before an outdoor concert in Berlin’s Waldbühne that, like this Prom, paired Brahms’s Violin Concerto with Schubert ‘s “Great” C major symphony, the orchestra issued a new statement that reaffirmed its mission: “In and through our music we seek to model a life of mutual recognition between equals”. 

That mutual care and respect now applies to the founding conductor.  Before she played Brahms’s concerto, soloist Anne-Sophie Mutter gently led Barenboim out on stage by the hand. Diagnosed with a neurological condition in 2022, he still leads WEDO but has had to cancel some events this year. He sat on the podium and, inevitably, employed a smaller repertoire of gestures, and with a lighter touch, than before. In the Brahms, Mutter sometimes seemed to take the lead, always a sensitive and attentive partner to maestro and orchestra alike. Yet Barenboim’s bar-by-bar vigilance looked undiminished.

And the sound he conjures from WEDO remains an endless pleasure. How piquant that an orchestra born from the worst convulsions of the contemporary Middle East should often summon the warmth and depth of an almost-vanished European tradition – a soundscape painted, for sure, by Barenboim’s devotion to Furtwängler and Klemperer, but filled in by fine instrumental colour from across the desks. In the concerto, the large complement of strings laid down a mellow, contemplative base on which Mutter (pictured above) could arrive to cast her spell. Barenboim spun an unhurried, dreamily reflective mood, while Mutter’s silken tenderness and ravishing finesse prized intimacy over swagger. Compared with the upfront virtuosity of her earlier readings, full-bodied sweetness and serenity prevailed, with beautifully assured intonation. Still, the cadenza (Joseph Joachim’s original) never lacked in acrobatic dazzle.

In the adagio, the solo oboist carried the gorgeous tune (resented by some violinists) boldly but not harshly, with Mutter again introspective, even mysterious, full of filigree glitter. For the rondo finale, Barenboim supplied a firmer rhythmic foundation but we still felt far from the hard-driving thrust of some interpretations. In keeping with this inner-directed, almost otherworldly, quality, as an encore Mutter chose the Sarabande from Bach’s second partita, a prayer for – and a foretaste of – a world at peace.

Barenboim’s satisfying traditionalism came to the fore in Schubert’s Ninth, unfolded over a generous 55 minutes with no attempt to hasten the opening theme – or indeed anything much – along. This stately, even lordly, expansiveness allowed us to relish WEDO’s richly blended ensemble sound, never particularly heavyweight but marked by firm, bright individual voices and a well-rounded togetherness in the grandest tutti passages.  Over the broad paragraphs of the first movement, the brass came into its own, first the quiet grip of the horns and later – and throughout the symphony – the creamy eloquence of the trio of trombones. Although, in general, his tempi let Schubert take his own sweet time, Barenboim (pictured above) varied the mood with episodes of push and pace to keep monotony at bay.

In the Andante especially, strong, lively accents from oboe (superb again), horn and a splendid phalanx of eight basses (pictured below) helped lend a dancing lilt and snap to the movement’s development. We really heard the “con moto” inflect the andante, while in the scherzo the weight and bite of the WEDO strings added almost a sense of menace to the playfulness. Barenboim tenderly swung and spun us through the waltz, but his invocation of Viennese Gemütlichkeit never subsides into sentimentality. Whoever’s at the helm, the drawn-out finale of the Ninth remains, a test of resourcefulness as well as stamina. Brass blazed (trombones again outstanding) and woodwinds sang, while Barenboim managed to let us hear Schubert ringing the changes as he builds, dismantles, then rebuilds his motifs on an almost Brucknerian scale. Lovers of the sweeter Schubert will never adore this movement, but Barenboim’s flair for slow-build, long-form musical architecture served it well. And we had some nicely taut and springy passages along the way. 

As with the Brahms, Barenboim’s leadership of WEDO feels properly idiomatic and “authentic” not as a matter of instruments, pitch or even original tempi, but a deep inwardness with the traditions these works carry from the past into the present. You might say that it’s a curiously conservative approach for such a – potentially – revolutionary band of musicians. But it pays handsome dividends. They respect and nurture one another, and their music too. 

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