Listening on and off all day to a radio in my kitchen and suddenly Mahler’s 9th late this afternoon. Not a work as often played on radio as you might think. Reeled out the electrical extension cord and took Mahler to my garden. This is good. This conducting is great. It’s not Abbado, nor, nor , nor. Who? I should know this! And then: announced Bernstein. Leonard Bernstein. Who as a conductor (retrospectively) was not always that highly praised given his reputation. Indeed of his Mahler. He conducted the Berlin Phil here. Having heard this interpretation before, I was very surprised at myself. Such is the joy of music. Listening to a/the work without any pre-conceptions can often be bliss.
My thoughts turned to the Orlando massacre on the weekend. Well not turned. Simply: the problems faced by so many Americans is always that of demonization. It always has been. On the one hand a country that celebrates diversity and individuality and yet embraces if not covets conformity. Don’t walk the ‘trail’ that is sign-posted for you!? There’s punishment. Bernstein didn’t ever believe in sign-posted trails. He championed musical discoveries and endevours.
There’s solution sold for every problem in America. It is ever obviously rarely a solution. Being different in America is now a cash cow. It makes (and ever did) money for all sorts of branding/ entertainment. There’s even a Bernie Sanders branding (not unlike in effect of the old and now new Clinton brand). No disrespect or cynicism intended to anyone: just fact. There's a cash cow in death! Money all the way round the very large or even very lean cow.
The radio announcer humbly stated earlier in the day that after such tragedy all a music station can do is play music. That’s what they do. And even if they didn’t it’s not a ‘cop out’.
Leonard Bernstein was so SO very political in many ways. And yet: what was the overriding will to his endeavours? Joy in music. Overcoming suffering through music. Understanding something-just a little something- about our crazy world through: music.
The Captain of the Achille Lauro (the cruise ship that was hijacked …) recounted in his diaries how he was somehow moved and transported by the melismatic Eastern music played onboard by the hijackers. Such a statement/observation in no way condones an act of killing. It makes one think about a/the world. What it could and might be without agendas, with embrassing different faiths.
Arthur Miller’s 1955 play A View from the Bridge won Best Revival of a Play and Best Director for Ivo Van Hove at last night’s Tony Awards.
“Even those who understand you will turn against you, even those who feel the same will despise you!”
Andrew Lucre: found/redacted/distressed/uncovered objects (June 13, 2016)
