The following summer the mezzo-soprano Waltraud Meier was with us in Pilas, to participate in the activities of the orchestra and to rehearse the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven, which she performed with us five times that summer. On the afternoon of her arrival I told her to warm up her voice before the orchestra rehearsal because we had a surprise for her. She had been expecting to hear us rehearse the First Brahms Symphony, which was also on the programme for the concert tour, and she could hardly contain her curiosity. When she heard the opening of the prelude to Tristan und Isolde she was visibly moved and, although the rehearsal room was full of visitors interested in the programme and a few journalists – an audience of sorts – she stood with her back to them, facing the orchestra, as she began to sing the Liebestod. All of us – Waltraut, the orchestra and I – were moved by the experience. To hear this wonderful German singer communicate with Arabs and Israelis through the music of Wagner was to release the grip of so many oppressive spirits, so many taboos at once. << less