{"id":3651,"date":"2025-09-17T23:02:33","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T03:02:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/?p=3651"},"modified":"2025-09-17T23:02:34","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T03:02:34","slug":"bernstein-and-shostakovich-a-rosetta-stone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/2025\/09\/bernstein-and-shostakovich-a-rosetta-stone.html","title":{"rendered":"Bernstein and Shostakovich — A Rosetta Stone?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The new online issue of \u201cPrelude, Fugue, and Riffs,\u201d the newsletter of the Leonard Bernstein Office, publishes an essay of mine suggesting that Bernstein\u2019s relationship to Dmitri Shostakovich is a \u201cRosetta Stone\u201d in the Bernstein odyssey. It\u2019s a glimpse of my book-in-progress: \u201cBearing Witness: The American Odyssey of Leonard Bernstein.\u201d You can read the whole thing here<\/a>. What follows is an excerpt:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twenty-eight years [after Leonard Bernstein took the New York Philharmonic to Soviet Russia], the expatriate Russian pianist Vladimir Feltsman talked to Bernstein about his impressions. \u201cBernstein\u2019s visit to Russia was very important at that particular time — the scent of freedom was beguiling and irresistible,\u201d Feltsman remembered, and added: \u201cHis most precious memory was meeting Boris Pasternak.\u201d But Dmitri Shostakovich\u2019s validating handshake proved a more lasting influence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the long view, Bernstein\u2019s significance is broadly humanistic. An exemplary cultural missionary, he served a function never as necessary as today, and never before as absent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bernstein the humanist was acutely prescient. He prophetically understood that classical music would dissipate from the American experience unless or until it struck deeper New World roots. He foretold the erosion of the American arts. He fought the erasure of American cultural memory. The demise of the Kennedy White House, in which he had been a guest, tarnished his American dreams. Then came Vietnam and Watergate. His signature concerts included memorials for JFK and RFK. . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Bernstein appreciated earlier than others, Shostakovich\u2019s ultimate genius was to bear witness. The Bernstein odyssey, in its many dimensions, equally bore eloquent witness to a twentieth century of American ferment and travail. In the Bernstein saga, the Bernstein\/Shostakovich nexus is a neglected Rosetta Stone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The new online issue of \u201cPrelude, Fugue, and Riffs,\u201d the newsletter of the Leonard Bernstein Office, publishes an essay of mine suggesting that Bernstein\u2019s relationship to Dmitri Shostakovich is a \u201cRosetta Stone\u201d in the Bernstein odyssey. It\u2019s a glimpse of my book-in-progress: \u201cBearing Witness: The American Odyssey of Leonard Bernstein.\u201d You can read the whole […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3651","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QLHN-WT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3651"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3655,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3651\/revisions\/3655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}