Parallels and Paradoxes

Description

These free-wheeling, often exhilarating dialogues--which grew out of the acclaimed Carnegie Hall Talks--are an exchange between two of the most prominent figures in contemporary culture: Daniel Barenboim, internationally renowned conductor and pianist, and Edward W. Said, eminent literary critic and impassioned commentator on the Middle East. Barenboim is an Argentinian-Israeli and Said a Palestinian-American; they are also close friends.As they range across music, literature, and society, they open up many fields of inquiry: the importance of a sense of place; music as a defiance of silence; the legacies of artists from Mozart and Beethoven to Dickens and Adorno; Wagner's anti-Semitism; and the need for "artistic solutions" to the predicament of the Middle East--something they both witnessed when they brought young Arab and Israeli musicians together. Erudite, intimate, thoughtful and spontaneous, Parallels and Paradoxes is a virtuosic collaboration.From the Trade Paperback edition.

First Sentence

Ara Guzelimian: I want to begin by asking each of you: Where are you at home?

Description

This fascinating exchange between Daniel Barenboim, Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, and Edward W. Said, the leading expert on the Middle East, grew out of the acclaimed Carnegie Hall Talks. A unique and impassioned discussion about politics and culture, it touches on many diverse subjects: the importance of a sense of place; the differences between writing prose and music; the conductors Wilhelm Furtwangler and Arturo Toscanini; Beethoven as the greatest sonata composer; the difficulty of playing Wagner; the sound at Bayreuth; the writers Balzac, Dickens, and Adorno; the importance of great teachers; and the power of culture to transcend all national and political differences--something they both witnessed when they brought together young Arab and Israeli musicians to play at Weimar in 1999. Although Barenboim and Said have very different points of view, they act as catalysts for each other. The originality of their ideas makes this a book that is both accessible and compelling for anyone who is interested in the culture of the twenty-first century.

Subjects

Other Editions

• Parallels and Paradoxes: Explorations in Music and SocietyPantheon2002-10-01
• Parallels and ParadoxesPaperbackBloomsbury Publishing PLC2003-02-03
• Parallels and ParadoxesHardcoverBloomsbury Publishing PLC2003-03-03
• Parallels and ParadoxesPaperbackBloomsbury Publishing PLC2004-03-01
• Parallels and ParadoxesPaperbackVintage2004-03-09
• Parallels and ParadoxeseBookKnopf Doubleday Publishing Group2008-01-01