The Divan Orchestra has been a locus of controversy in the Middle East. "There were many people in Palestine who didn’t want to see the orchestra playing in Palestine because they said it reeked of normalization," Barenboim says. "I took the orchestra to Ramallah as an act of defiance."
In addition, Barenboim drew fire from Jewish organizations for his friendship with the late Palestinian activist and writer, Edward Said, and for conducting music by 19th-century composer and anti-Semitic pamphleteer Richard Wagner in Israel in 2001.
However, Jewish groups on campus didn’t raise a stir about Barenboim’s visit.
Seth R. Flaxman ’08, the Education Chair of the Progressive Jewish Alliance, agrees with Levin. "He’s an example and a model for political engagement for anyone who’s not a politician, and especially for artists," he says.
Barenboim’s defiance of convention has its limitations, however. Flaxman points out that the East-Western Divan has not yet managed to play in Barenboim’s childhood home. "It’s sad to remember that they’ve only played to Arab audiences twice, and they’ve never played in Israel," he says.
But Barenboim seems to show that he’s more concerned with change on a person-to-person level rather than sweeping societal change, when it comes to his work.
He recalled an instance in which one Israeli and one Palestinian warily shared a music stand in the violin section. "Once the young musicians agreed on how to play one note together, they were not able to look at each other the same way again."
TAKING ATTENDANCE
But bringing Harvard students together in one amphitheater proved to be a problem all its own. Barenboim’s lines about American exceptionalism drew loud laughter from a crowd that, at each lecture, left Sanders Theatre conspicuously unfilled.
"It’s a shame, isn’t it?" Professor John T. Hamilton, one of the members of the Norton committee, said of the turnout. "I anticipated it to be much more of an event."
Reverend Peter J. Gomes, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Minister in Memorial Church, finds the low attendance particularly disappointing in light of the broad intellectual aspirations inherent in the stature of the Norton Lectures. "This was supposed to be the great flagship of the humanities," he says.
Gomes thinks the turnout may have something to do with the Music Department’s inward focus on its own field of study.
"Remember," Gomes says in discussing the department, "Music is to be seen and not heard."
On Monday, an e-mail was sent out to music concentrators announcing a discussion with Barenboim to be held at the Harvard Hillel this afternoon. The email said that music faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate concentrators were invited.
"We can’t make this event open to the greater Harvard community, but if there is someone in particular you are dying to invite please let me know," the email said.
But the low attendance wasn’t for lack of trying on the part of the Music Department, says Lesley Bannatyne, the department’s Communications Coordinator.
She says that posters were put up around campus and press releases were sent to "major papers," as well as various e-mail lists.
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