From the Foreword by THOMAS HAMPSON:

 

According to its author, the book you are about to read was initially inspired by a remark

I made on one of his “More than Music” National Public Radio documentaries, in 2024.1

The topic was Leonard Bernstein. I said: “I don't think anyone should doubt for a second

the weight on Lenny's soul. And I think to understand Lenny's reaction to what was

happening to the United States in the sixties would be terribly illuminating for people

today.” . . .

 

Joseph Horowitz has long been our essential guide to the moral import of American

music. Powered by the intellectual range and ethical urgency that ground his work, Joe’s

understanding of the Bernstein odyssey is a reckoning. . . .

 

Among the revelations of Joe’s book is the magnitude of the promise Lenny

foresaw in John F. Kennedy’s “New Frontier.” Had Lenny lived to see the Kennedy

Center for the Performing Arts politicized, he would have been apoplectic. Had he

witnessed the politicization of the arts and humanities endowments, he would have been

front and center, protesting and responding.

 

Joseph Horowitz characterizes the Bernstein odyssey as “a lesson, an inspiration,

and a warning.” It is in fact an urgent wake-up call for all of us today.