Daniel Barenboim and Yo-Yo Ma brought the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra’s August tour to a close at the Lucerne Festival, following performances in Wiesbaden, Berlin and Kiel.
Daniel Barenboim and Yo-Yo Ma have concluded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra’s 2026 summer tour with a sold-out concert at the Lucerne Festival on 17 August.
Performing at the KKL Luzern, Ma joined Barenboim and the orchestra as soloist in Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, before the programme concluded with Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4, “Italian”.
The concert marked the final stop of an August tour that brought Barenboim back to the podium with the orchestra for performances in Germany and Switzerland.
A summer tour across Europe
The tour began on 10 August at the Rheingau Musik Festival in Wiesbaden, where Barenboim conducted the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra with violinist Clara-Jumi Kang as soloist.
The performances marked another significant return to the podium for the 83-year-old conductor, whose public appearances have become less frequent in recent years.
The tour then moved to Berlin, where Barenboim returned to the Waldbühne on 13 August, this time joined by longtime collaborator Yo-Yo Ma.
Ma performed Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, with Barenboim conducting the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra before thousands of spectators at the open-air venue.
Two days later, Barenboim, Ma and the orchestra appeared at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival at the Konzerthaus am Schloss in Kiel. Ma again performed the Dvořák concerto, while the programme also included Schumann’s Symphony No. 3, “Rhenish”.
The four-concert August tour then reached its final destination in Lucerne, where Barenboim and Ma reunited for Dvořák before the orchestra closed the programme with Mendelssohn’s “Italian” Symphony.
Barenboim and Palestinian-American intellectual Edward Said founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in 1999, bringing together young musicians from Israel, Palestine and other countries across the Middle East and North Africa. From its beginnings, the project has sought to create a space for dialogue and mutual understanding through music.
For Barenboim, the completed summer tour represents another substantial undertaking following the health problems that have significantly reduced his performing schedule in recent years. Further appearances with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra are scheduled for September, ahead of the inaugural West-Eastern Divan Festival in Berlin in November.
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