That Barenboim was overlooked for the recently appointed position of music director to the New York Philharmonic did not come as a surprise. In appointing 40-yearold Alan Gilbert to the five-year position last month, which begins in 2009, the NYP appear to have succumbed to the pressure of introducing a younger music director . . . particularly since the Los Angeles Phil have just snapped up 26-year-old Venezuelan hotshot Gustavo Dudamel . . . and ignored the wishes of the outgoing director, Lorin Maazel, who nominated Barenboim for the post.

But, prestigious as that gig with the NYP is, Barenboim made it very clear a month later he had no desire whatsoever to make Maazel's dreams come true.

Considering he resigned from the top position in the Chicago Symphony in June last year due to frustration with the fundraising duties involved in the position, it is unlikely Barenboim will ever take up a permanent position in the US again. The man has, you could say, other fish to fry.

Since 1999, Barenboim has been building musical bridges across a vast, seemingly hopeless political and religious divide through his continued work with the WestEastern Divan Orchestra, which he co-founded with the late Palestinian-American intellectual and political activist Edward Said (Barenboim met Said by chance in a hotel lobby in 1993). The ensemble, comprising a mix of young Israeli, Palestinian, Jordanian, Egyptian and Lebanese musicians, meets every summer to work under Barenboim.

Though he insists that, like this orchestral project, he is absolutely apolitical and solely motivated by humanistic and musical ideologies, Barenboim has, for years now, suffered taunts and insults at the hands of those for whom his ideologies are veritable heresy. Born in Buenos Aires to Russian Ashkenazi Jewish parents, Barenboim, aged 10, moved with his family to Israel after the second world war. As a highly regarded pianist and, later, conductor, his name was soon added to the list of high-profile Israeli soloists on the circuit at the time, joining ranks with performers such as Pinchas Zukerman and Itzhak Perlman.

He caused great controversy in 2001 by performing Wagner with the Berlin Staatskapelle at the Israel festival in Jerusalem . . . the music of Wagner is still relatively taboo in Israel because of the composer's anti-semitic associations.

The Israeli right have developed a real hatred for him because of his outspoken criticisms of the Israeli settlements and of the Israeli government . . . to the point that he once stated Ariel Sharon would not be welcome at his concerts . . . and because of his performances in the West Bank and Ramallah. Few would be envious of that burden.

If the following quote is anything to go by, his book with Edward Said, Parallels and Paradoxes, is definitely worth following up on.

"In times of totalitarian or autocratic rule, music, indeed culture, in general, is often the only avenue of independent thought.

Culture then becomes primarily the voice of the oppressed and it takes over from politics as a driving force for change."

Daniel Barenboim conducts the Vienna Philharmonic at the National Concert Hall Dublin on 5 September.