[log in to unmask] writes:

>Yea, I read the whole article after he performed.  If only Barenboim
>with his concerts in Ramallah and his Wagner unannounced against the
>will of his Israeli audience could solve all the world's problems,
>wouldn't life be an much easier thing for all of us?  The man is
>delusional and basically irrelevant as a peace maker of any kind.
>I cannot read his mind, but he is basically contributing nothing.

I've spoken to him about this and he doesn't seem to have any delusions
about being a peacemaker on any large scale.  These really are acts
of conscious and he's only trying to impact the people who are in the
immediate vicinity when he does these things.  He said he had no illusions
about the probability that once his concert is over the people listening
go right back to fighting, but for the time the concert is going on there
is peace - and that's all he as an individual can do.

It might be naive and ultimately pointless but I think it's sincere
and admirable.  His notion is that each individual has to do what he/she
can.  He plays the piano and conducts, so that's how he tries to contribute.
If there could be millions of such naive and ultimately pointless acts
things might, MIGHT be a little better.  There and everywhere else.

He seemed to mean this.  It gets a lot of press, but that really didn't
seem to be his interest.  It felt to me like he was doing something he
had to do.

In a quiet conversation on the subject I thought he was pretty impressive.
So he might not be contributing anything, but he's doing what he can.
And even that's more than most of us can do.

I admire him very much for it.  And trust me, he and I have never been
close...

Michael Morgan
(used to work at Chicago Symphony)