In a concert hall atop a dust-swept, sun-beaten hill yesterday afternoon, Daniel Barenboim was putting an orchestra through its paces, urging them, as he brandished his way through the opening bars of Beethoven's Fifth: "Wake up! If you are tired, please stay at home! There's no point playing the concert like this. Now: TEE-ya ta-ta TEE-ya ta-ta!"

One could forgive the players for being a little distracted: the concert hall in which they were rehearsing was the Cultural Palace in Ramallah, and the ensemble the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra - the youth orchestra founded in 1998 by Barenboim and his close friend, the Palestinian intellectual Edward Said, consisting of musicians from Israel and Arab countries.

This was a historic day. Few had dared hope that the orchestra - which aims to foster dialogue and reconciliation through music - would succeed in performing in the West Bank. A similar attempt by the orchestra to play in Ramallah last year was abandoned because of security fears.

It is not every day that one sees a rehearsal being guarded by troops armed with semi-automatic weapons, but the atmosphere among the musicians was relaxed and excited.

To enter Ramallah, each musician was issued with a diplomatic passport by the Spanish government (the orchestra's summer training camps are based in Seville). "Believe me, the logistics of this concert are worth writing a book about," said Barenboim.

But, standing beneath the West Bank barrier on Saturday at Ramallah's Qalandiya checkpoint, he praised the governments involved. "We have had the utmost cooperation - and I'm not exactly shy; believe me, I would certainly take this opportunity to complain if I needed to."

Nabeel Abboud Ashkar, a 20-year-old Israeli-Arab born in Nazareth, said after the rehearsal: "It's incredibly exciting to be here. All along the idea of the orchestra was to play in Arab countries, and I hope now that it will fill its whole potential; and I hope we will play in Israel.

"It takes great courage for the Israelis to come to Ramallah, and finally get to see the reality of how the Palestinians live. It's a very symbolic and strong gesture."

Last night the concert hall filled up half an hour before the concert began, and then kept on filling.

In the end people were sitting three-deep in the aisles and standing at the sides and the back of the hall, even the great and the good of Ramallah reduced to a perch on the floor.

The first standing ovation came as Barenboim walked on stage. Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante for oboe, horn, clarinet and bassoon was embarked upon to a chorus of clicking shutters.

After the final thunderous notes of a passionately committed performance of Beethoven's Fifth the next standing ovation lasted over five minutes, before the Palestinian information minister, Nabeel Shath, praised Barenboim as "a humanist and a peacemaker".

Finally, an emotional Barenboim stepped onto the platform. "It is our belief that the destinies of these two peoples, Israel and Palestine, are inextricably linked ... either we all kill each other or we share what there is to share. It is this message that we have come here to bring."

The final message of peace was brought not with speeches but with music, with, as an encore, Nimrod from Elgar's Enigma Variations.