Legacy Management, Hollywood Edition (Opus 8 or 9)

Resources For the Rest of the Maestro Story

Of course music people are exasperated with Bradley Cooper’s Maestro, the up-close yet oddly distanced look at (some) aspects of the personal life of Leonard Bernstein. You expected maybe a more-than-cursory peek into a heated rehearsal? Even a seconds-long backstage moment showing the legendary conductor, composer and music educator preparing to explain sonata form to astonishingly engaged 10-year-olds at a Young People’s Concert?

Maestro dwells in music only long enough to establish Bernstein’s field; the rest is love stories. It assumes the audience knows something about the Big Name Celebrity at the center of the action, and makes almost no attempt to explore how this person did his work or why the work was revered. The film is as context-free as a Spotify playlist.

It has sweaty scenes where Cooper as Bernstein is at the podium recreating the Bernstein conducting flourishes (thanks Yannick Nezet-Seguin!) through Mahler and others. But it misses the opportunity to portray the range and depth of Bernstein’s work. It doesn’t situate Bernstein as a singular figure in American music, the rare artist who, through twinned forces of intellect and charisma, not only created enduring art but advocated for art in a way that sparked deep curiosity. Passion, even.

There’s plenty more rantage to do on this, of course, and I’ll spare you. (Happy New Year!) Instead, below are some slivers from the Bernstein archives that tell a story that’s wonderfully detailed and musically articulate. Enjoy. And try not to focus too much on how the discourse around music and art has devolved over recent decades.

Harvard lecture 6 from 1973: The Poetry of Earth, which asks the eternal question: “Is this music sincere?”

Another eternal question: What is a Melody?

Highlight from Harvard Lectures…