On Nov. 9, Berliners will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall with a concert that seeks to instruct as well as entertain. The man with the baton that night will be conductor Daniel Barenboim, who has resided in Berlin since 1992, when he became general music director of Berlin's oldest opera house, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden.

At first, says Mr. Barenboim, he was asked to play Beethoven's majestic Fifth Symphony, but he decided instead on a varied program that will do justice to the complicated...