Edward Said first met Daniel Barenboim by chance, at the reception desk of the Hyde Park Hotel in June 1993; Said mentioned he had tickets for a concert Barenboim was playing that week. They began to talk. Six years later, in Weimar, they dreamed up the idea of a summer school in which young musicians from the Arab world and from Israel could play together. They hoped, Said remembered in Parallels and Paradoxes, that it 'might be an alternative way of making peace'. It was in Weimar, he noted, that Goethe had composed 'a fantastic collection of poems based on his enthusiasm for Islam ... He started to learn Arabic, although he didn't get very far. Then he discovered Persian poetry and produced this extraordinary set of poems about the "other", West-östlicher Divan, which is, I think, unique in the history of European culture.' The West-Eastern Divan: the orchestra had a name; it was never discussed again.

LRB 16 December 2010 | PDF Download