Musical Lives and Times Examined – Keynotes and Clippings, 2006–2019

"Who else but Richard Taruskin could combine dazzling erudition with such humor and irresistible charm? His final book, cast as a series of gracious and heartfelt tributes to beloved friends, is the ultimate measure of the man himself, the embodiment of one who always sought, in Joseph Kerman's words, 'broad, original, humane horizons' in music."--Pauline Fairclough, University of Bristol

"For nearly four decades, Richard Taruskin tried to reverse the decline in status suffered by art music in the United States, arguing that music must be emancipated from its purely aesthetic ghetto and brought into contact with the public's most pressing ethical and political concerns. One is grateful for this latest collection of his inimitably brilliant and informative dispatches from the cultural battlefield and sad to learn that it will be his last one."--Karol Berger, Stanford University