The Palestinian academic and critic Edward Said founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra with Daniel Barenboim in 1999. It was Said's proudest achievement - an orchestra made up of equal numbers of young Israelis and Arabs that meets every summer for intensive rehearsals and a concert tour. Originally it convened in Weimar (hence the Goethe-inspired name) but is now based in Seville, and a number of Andalucians have been recruited to its ranks.

The orchestra made its rapturous British debut with Barenboim at the Proms last year. Its return to London, this time to the Barbican, was greeted equally enthusiastically, but tinged with sadness as this was a memorial concert for Said, who died last October. The mere existence of the orchestra, though, is his most telling memorial. It was easy to hear why Said felt so proud of what he had helped to bring into existence, for the orchestra plays with wonderful energy and unanimity to create a meaty, vivid sound, very obviously central European and conceived in Barenboim's own image as a conductor.

Both performances in this concert exploited that larger-than-life quality. Barenboim was the soloist in Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto, where his playing had an intensity that more than compensated for the occasional rough edges and moments of scumbled passage work, while the orchestra supported him with playing that would have been a credit to most professional orchestras.

Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony was conveyed as an almost unbroken arc of music, the tension steadily rising, and the shamelessly brassy climax of the finale delivered with no apologies.

There had to be encores, of course. Sibelius's Valse Triste provided further opportunity to admire the plush depth of the strings, and a forceful account of the prelude to La Forza del Destino, a much rarer chance to hear Barenboim tackle Verdi.