The book comprises a series of conversations between the two intellectuals and deals with parallels within the various facets of their lives and themselves. For example let us look at the Oslo talks. The one thing that is obvious is that the progression of what has began there was very slow. If I conduct the last movement of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony very slowly it will make no sense whatsoever, it will ruin the piece. It is the same in politics and human relations.
Music is no different.
A few weeks ago Barenboim was at the center of a huge internationally publicized dispute about the future of Berlin's three opera houses. He demanded more money for his company and threatened to resign unless he received the needed funds to pay the orchestra musicians a more decent salary. In the heated and very public discussion that erupted in Berlin, one important political figure in the city made an antisemitic remark against Barenboim. The difference between the antisemitism before 1948 and later is that now we have our own state, we have a place we can go to. I believe that that stupid remark was nothing more than that, a stupid remark with no real antisemitic effect.