Beethoven in Ramallah

I was lucky enough to see the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in Ramallah in 2005 when they played Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. I wrote about it in my book, but it was one of the sections that got cut.

I’m publishing it now because the Orchestra will be in New York, at Carnegie Hall no less, next week. I snapped up balcony seats for Wednesday (when they’ll play the 1st, 8th, and 5th) and Sunday (when they’ll play the 2nd and 9th).

Either way, I always assumed seeing them play Beethoven’s Fifth would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Getting to see them again — playing both the Fifth AND the Ninth — is like a dream.

Here’s the excised section from my book about the thrill of seeing them for the first time in Ramallah.

The Great Daniel Barenboim

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Israeli Musicians Discover Ramallah

An Israeli convoy of armored vehicles with a police escort made its way past the Qalandia checkpoint toward Ramallah. It stopped on a hill that commanded a strategic view of the city. The hilltop was the home of the Ramallah Cultural Palace, and the Israeli musicians being transported by the convoy were on a world tour with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.

The orchestra was founded by late Palestinian intellectual Edward Said and superstar Argentinian-Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim and featured musicians from Israel, Palestine, and the greater Middle East. Their concert was played that evening under the banner of “Freedom for Palestine” and broadcast live on the Arte channel, which enjoyed its highest-ever ratings. Journalists from all over the world prowled the grounds, and the venue was overwhelmed by the crowd.

This Week in Palestine reported, “There were at least four ministers from the Palestinian National Authority, security offices in uniform, men and women casually dressed, others in proper attire, ladies with jewelry and gowns ready for a soiree dansante and others with the traditional headdress. There were children, foreigners, disabled persons, nuns—you name it! Palestine was there that night.”[1]

The evening began with Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for oboe, horn, clarinet and bassoon. But I was impatient for the main event: Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.

From the opening notes of the symphony, musicians and audience members alike entered a kind of trance. Something about it—the music, the venue, the fact that minds were opening and changing due to something as simple and natural as human interaction—pulled us along and refused to let go. We listened in awe to the powerful first and sumptuous second movements, then the third with its pompous processional quality, which faded to a pianissimo pizzicato—a recapitulation of the processional theme so achingly soft, the audience hardly dared breathe. Soon the pizzicato faded, too, leaving a single violin playing softly, plaintively in this sudden space. Then off they went, sound and fury, speed and strength, to a breathtaking finish.

The crowd was almost too stunned to react. When we did, the ovation went on and on as the young musicians took their bows with shining eyes.

“We couldn’t understand where that speed came from,” Israeli violinist Doron Alperin said. “He had never conducted Beethoven that way before. There was electricity in the orchestra and emotion pulled at the throat. What an ending to our trip!”

Doron had been terrified to come to Ramallah. In fact, his parents had forbidden him from making the trip. But he had come anyway, because he was even more afraid of disappointing the maestro than of visiting the West Bank.

When asked if his fears were unfounded, he said, “Yes, and I wouldn’t have forgiven myself if I hadn’t gone. During the intermission, I spoke with one of the Palestinian guards and asked him if he was happy we came. ‘You can’t imagine how happy I am,’ he replied, and it simply gave me goosebumps. ‘And you?’ he asked. I told him I was in a state of ecstasy… Now I am only resentful that not everyone can see the situation through my eyes.”

My favorite statement was made by Israeli violinist Yishai Lantner who said, “This is the realization of a dream. I feel as if I am becoming more and more leftist because now I understand that there is life here. They never show that on television.”[2]

It was a source of frustration for everyone who lived in the West Bank. There was so much life in Palestine, so much beauty. But it was never reported on the news or shown in movies, so no one ever saw it unless they were lucky enough to come for a visit themselves.

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Notes

1. Sani Meo, “The last word: A Jew in Ramallah,” This Week in Palestine, August 2005.

2. Noam Ben Zeev, “Next year in Damascus,” Haaretz, August 24, 2005.

Kicking Off a Sweet New Year

As mentioned in an earlier post, I joined Ahmed in his mini-exile in Turkey as soon as I could (in October), and the day after I arrived he proposed by the Bosphorus Strait near the Topkapi Palace!

The next few weekends were packed with travels to meet his brother’s family, sister’s family, and extended family, who were all welcoming and lovely. I love big holiday gatherings of cousins and nieces and nephews. Then we traveled to the famed ruins of Ephesus and a cold and rainy yet enchanting Cappadocia.

Ahmed got his visa renewed just before I left, so he’s back in New York, and I’ll follow soon. I’m in Oklahoma doing some advance planning for the wedding. We’ll have the ceremony at my uncle’s small back country vineyard and the reception in my parents’ backyard, with a dance floor under the carport and our most graceful tree hung with twinkle lights and homemade glass candle lanterns. We’ll make Ahmojitos and Pam-a-coladas and invite the whole family and lots of friends. Should be a heck of a party.

The book is also humming right along. The cover is (finally) finalized, and you can see it on my website: www.pamolson.org

The book will be out mid-March, and my website has a link to the book’s Amazon page, where you can pre-order. If you wouldn’t mind passing the link on to your social networks, it would be hugely appreciated!

My publicist has been helping me set up the book tour, with several great bookstores lined up including Book Passage in Marin, Powell’s in Portland, Elliott Bay in Seattle, and the Tattered Cover in Denver. Here’s what the schedule looks like:

Bay Area — March 13-23
Portland — March 24-28
Richland, WA — March 29
Seattle — March 30 – April 6
Denver, Boulder — April 7-13
Oklahoma City — April 14-19
New York, Boston, DC — April 22 – May 10

I have a few dates available in some cities, so if you have ideas for venues or contacts, please send them my way. Hope to see you somewhere along the road!

Meanwhile there’s exciting news on the Palestine pop culture front: Travel guru Rick Steves plans on doing shows in Israel and the West Bank this spring (not Gaza, unfortunately . . . baby steps). Plenty of people go to Israel, but it’s ground-breaking to do a travel show on the West Bank. He did a terrific show in Iran a few years ago, which was very well received. Things like that make a mindless march to war just a tiny bit harder.

His publisher and mine are both members of the Perseus Books Group, and my editor contacted his people and suggested my book as a source of information for his trip. He’ll get a copy as soon as it’s published, and he might interview me on his travel show while I’m in Seattle. The timing couldn’t be better.

I’m also glad my book is coming out just as Obama begins his second term, with Hagel up for Secretary of Defense and the Israel lobby on the defensive. They’re still very powerful, but that power is ebbing, slowly but surely. I hope my book can knock a bit more wind out of their sails in the realm of public opinion.

On that note, I just got word that Publishers Weekly has designated my book one of the top ten travel books of the year! Not sure how they can do that since the year’s barely started, but hey, I don’t plan on complaining . . .

All my best for an exciting 2013,

Pamela

P.S. Here’s a previous post with a little more about the proposal story, wedding plans, and a picture of the ring. You can see more photos from our trips on Facebook albums here (Ephesus) and here (Cappadocia).

P.P.S. This is a copy of an email I just sent to my list. I don’t always post them here. If you’d like to be on my email list (and receive about six emails per year from me), kindly send a note to pamolson (a) gmail.