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Americans unaware of recent events might have been excused for thinking that the photos from the White House lawn were part of some weird Monty Python sketch. Yasser Arafat, whose most recent political allegiance was with Saddam Hussein, being hugged by Bill Clinton? Yitzhak Rabin, who as Minister of Defense six years ago initiated Israel's hard-line response to the Intifadah, shaking Arafat's hand? It all seemed a bit unreal, as if Godot had suddenly appeared to Vladimir and Estragon...
Plain words, devoid of the electricity of "All men are created equal" or "Liberty, equality, fraternity" or "Workers of the world, unite!" Certainly the image of Rabin and Arafat, once implacable enemies, standing together on the White House lawn captures the drama of the moment more vividly than these words. But the Arafat-Rabin letters will echo loudly through history precisely because of their practical quality. War cries tend to strident emotionalism, while bitter enemies feeling their way toward reconciliation speak wisely in tones of caution. In this case the very flatness of the words was reassuring; Arafat and Rabin...
...people sitting on the lawn and the sides of the main theater slowly gravitated towards the stage, Perlman and Zukerman spun out dizzyingly fast and perfectly crafted notes in what seemed to be two parallel and inexorably linked sonatas rather than a duet...
...music is indisputably excellent, though it may be that I visited at the peak. It's not every day that the Israel Philharmonic swings by Pittsfield. Mass. Clearly, the majority of people willing to pay $12 per spot on the lawn knew they were getting good music, or at least what they were told was good music. Nonetheless, most of the conversation that could be heard was more like "Have you met my cousin Morry?" than "Have you heard Zukerman's new Beethoven sonatas...
...outdoor theater, supplemented by scores of inconspicuous speakers. Even those of us sitting at the very edge of the theater ("They must have gotten here real early to get those seats!") could hear the soloists nuances without much trouble. For those sitting at the back of the lawn, however, a difference of a couple of hundred feet means that you're paying for cocktail party space more than music. Of course, this arrangement suited some in the audience quite well...