Why has conductor Daniel Barenboim been in the news

A.� Barenboim made a decision to conclude a concert at the Israel Festival in Jerusalem last month, with a performance of the Tristran And Isolde Prelude by Wagner, a seriously controversial decision, leading Jerusalem's mayor Ehud Olmert to call Barenboim "brazen, arrogant, uncivilized and insensitive." Olmert also advised that the city would "re-think its relations" with the conductor.

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Q.� But why on earth should performance of one piece of music cause such uproar

A.� The difficulty is not so much the music, as its composer. Richard Wagner was a known anti-Semite, and Hitler referred to him as "my spiritual advisor". Wagner's music has deep and painful associations for a large number of Israelis, some of whom are Holocaust survivors. For this reason, although Wagner's music is available to buy in Israel, public performance of his work is unusual, and has been discouraged since Israel became a state in 1948.

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Q.� OK, so Wagner has associations for some people, is that a reason to refuse to play his music for everyone
A.� That is the bedrock of Barenboim's argument. Having called a press conference to discuss with journalists his plans to include the first act from The Valkyrie, the first opera in Wagner's Ring cycle, and during discussions, a journalist's cell phone rang, its ring tone was Ride Of The Valkyries. Barenboim had made the point that Wagner should not be included in concert programmes for season ticket holders, but suggested that music available to be heard in public as a cell phone ring tone should not be banned from legitimate performance. After intervention from parliament, Barenboim agreed to change, and substituted Stravinsky's Rite Of Spring in the programme.

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Q.� Is this the first time this sort of controversy has occurred

A.� No, Zubin Mehta who is Music Director For Life of the Israel Philharmonic, included the same piece as a concert encore twenty years ago. As soon as the music�started, a Holocaust survivor jumped on the stage and tore off his shirt to show scars from injuries suffered during his internment in a concentration camp. The piece was abandoned.

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Barenboim first used Wagner's music in Israel in a concert in 1991, bowing to public pressure over the concert content, he agreed to bill the concert as a 'rehearsal for paying customers' which meant the music could be played.

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Q.� Could it be suggested that this reaction to Wagner's music is somewhat extreme

A.� Barenboim certainly thinks so. As an Argentinean who was raised in Israel, he is well aware of the strength of feeling concerning Wagner, but his overwhelming thought is that banning music on the basis of a composer's social influence is a disservice to art in general, and to a great composer in particular. As Barenboim pointed out, Wagner died in 1883; it should be his musical influence that lives on, not his direct personal or political influence.

Q.� So why does Wagner arouse such a violent reaction in Israel

There is a school of thought that the feelings on Wagner's influence on Hitler and the Nazis is part of a wider sociological aspect of Israel's views of itself and its people. Some people believe that Wagner is unfairly pinpointed as a Nazi influence, which he clearly was, but that cannot be held to have been at his own request. Granted, Wagner was known to be an unpleasant individual, but in a wider context he was not alone. Anti-Semitism was rife in Europe in Wagner's time, and other composers before and since have held similarly intolerant views, which have not interfered with their admiration as artists whose work is widely enjoyed around the world.

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Q.� Such as

A.� Charles Ives was a homophobic, Percy Grainger was a racist, as were Chopin, Lizt and Mussorgsky. Richard Strauss was also known to be anti-Semitic, and ironically, given the choice of replacement music for Barenboim's concert, so was Stravinsky, a fact that appears to have been overlooked by those who objected to the Wagner inclusion.

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Q.� So in conclusion, what was Barenboim trying to achieve

A.� Barenboim's intention was to try and relax the unofficial ban on playing Wagner's music in Israel on the basis that a composer of such talent, who has had such a massive influence on art and culture cannot be kept from people on the basis of either the composer's own personal opinions, or his influence on historical figures who followed him. Barenboim's point that Israel is proud of its culture, and its democracy, and as such should allow people to make their own decisions about whether or not they attend the performances of any composer's work.

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Q.� What was the reaction to the Wagner performance

A.� After a heated discussion with some members of the audience, around fifty people walked out, but several thousand remained, listened to the performance in silence, and gave the conductor and orchestra a standing ovation at the end.

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Q.� Does that mean performances of Wagner's music will become accepted in Israel in the future

A.� That is a very big question, but as Barenboim attempted to prove, cultural barriers are only broken down if someone has the courage to begin to break them, and his inclusion of Wagner's work must be seen as a first step in that direction. Whether or not there are any further steps does remain to be seen.

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