Unable To Conduct Himself, Ctd

A reader writes:

I saw your post on Bernstein, and Gottlieb’s remarks, which could not have been more incongruent with the video. I have a doctorate in orchestral conducting from the #1 ranked conducting program in the nation, so I’m not a layman on this topic. Watch the video again. And notice the camaraderie. The respect. The ease with which he rehearses them. This kind of rapport doesn’t exist anymore, except at off-the-radar orchestras in mid-level locales and certain lucky academic institutions. The top-level orchestras have become sanitized from this kind of warm, collegial, sometimes jocular style of rehearsing, partially because of the extreme reaction to the angry dictator-conductor (think crazy hair, and the yelling white European male). But also because now, the skill level of professional orchestral musicians is so ridiculously high. You’d have to look to Navy SEALs or brain surgeons to find the same level of expertise nowadays. That’s not hyperbole.

Yes, Bernstein was a narcissist, in his own right. But don’t throw out the baby with the bath water. Seriously. The cure for our sustained disinterest in anything requiring more than seconds of our time is the depth and richness of classical music, literature, film, and dance. Just spend two minutes watching this upending performance of Bernstein conducting Vienna in Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2, which will never be rivaled.

Another:

I was lucky to do copying and editing work for Bernstein late in his life and spent a good deal of time at his apartment at the Dakota as well as his house in Fairfield.

I have stories, but would prefer not to air dirty laundry. Yes, not surprisingly, he was sometimes childish, inappropriate, and self-centered. But he was also kind and learned, and loved teaching. Unlike some other men who liked to claim how he hit on them, he always treated my like my nice Jewish grandfather. Perhaps he knew I wasn’t interested. Perhaps he wasn’t interested. But I’d also like to point out that as a conductor, specifically when he was doing his later Mahler cycle, he was fucking brilliant. The moments when handlers disappeared and we talked, or simply watching him in rehearsal with the NY Phil are some of my most treasured memories. Getting a bit choked up while telling me which works he wrote at his studio desk in Fairfield is hard to beat at a moment, especially when those works include Chichester Psalms.

For all of his compositional unevenness he was incredibly skilled and sometimes devastatingly hit the mark in his work. That he never received the Pulitzer I believe irked him to no end and probably was due to a combination of his fame and their jealousy, his ability to suck all of the air out of a room, and – worst of all – being looked down upon by the establishment because he also wrote musical theater. He lived through a “Cold War” in composition, the ascendancy of the modernist and serialist composers and a near-total separation between pop and classical music. It was not easy being Bernstein then. He was always told he did too much and wasted his talents, as opposed to how amazing it was that he did so many things brilliantly. When I look at the number of composers who have received the Pulitzer in the last 3 decades since he died I have to wonder. It’s crazy that he did what they are doing now – combined high and populist art, kept the tonal tradition alive – in a far an earlier time, when it was more detrimental to your reputation, and often with far more skill and sophistication they they did. And yet… they have the award, not him. This goes for both concert and theater music. The score to West Side Story not better than Rent? Are you kidding?

I do agree that later in life, after his wife’s death, he did lose his moorings a bit. There weren’t enough people around him to tell him no. That always left me profoundly sad. That he was difficult and narcissistic isn’t a trait unique to him. Ever meet a rock star, a conductor, or – worse – a politician?