Lenny: Mahler, Pedagogy, Leonard Bernstein, and My Cat

Leonard Bernstein rehearsing with Benny Goodman, 1940s. [Photo: Public Domain via Wikimedia]

Dinner with Lenny: The Last Long Interview with Leonard Bernstein by Jonathan Cott

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A brief look at Jonathan Cott's profile at Rolling Stone magazine reveals a long list of interviews (including dinners) with some of the greats of music, literature, and film, including Bob Dylan, Susan Sontag, John Lennon, Mick Jagger, Henry Miller, Richard Gere, and Francis Ford Coppola. I found this book, which was originally meant to be an article for Rolling Stone, refreshing. During the course of some twelve hours, Jonathan Cott interviews the conductor and composer most famous for West Side Story, but is not allowed to ask questions such as "What is your favourite book/composer/music (etc)?" The interview was conducted in 1989, and within a year, Bernstein, a heavy drinker and smoker, was dead. There are some great reviews that cover the basics of the work, including Amanda Mark's review in the New York Journal of Books. I agree with Mark's criticism of the interviewer injecting a little too much of himself into the interview, but it is clear that "Lenny" was taken with him. Suzy Klein's interview in the New Republic captures more of Lenny's sassiness.

But for me, two things stand out most. First, Leonard Bernstein was a great conductor. And not just because others say so, but now I am armed with more knowledge of his work as a conductor, I have been able to compare the works conudcted by Bernstein with that of others. For example, I have taken a keen interest in Mahler. This interest stems from a number of coinciding interests. I first "discovered" Mahler after reading Thomas Mann's Death in Venice. This led me to watching the movie starring Dirk Bogarde, where Mahler's music forms a major part of the soundtrack. (This led me to discover the literary work of Dirk Bogarde.) Around the same time, I was fortunate enough to attend the inaugural performance of John Adam's Saxophone Concerto at the Sydney Opera House, where John Adams conducted the work. Despite a non-existent microphone, Adams held the audience captive as he spoke to the audience about Mahler (among other things). I have never heeard such silence from such a large crowd. John Adams is easily my most favourite composer (of any genre), but there is clearly a connection here with Mahler. So I was surprised to learn that Bernstein fits into the theme of things I enjoy, and I have been comparing recordings of Mahler's work conducted by Lenny with other conductors. There are clearly interesting differences that I would otherwise have missed.

Second, I had no idea that Bernstein had a clear pedagogy. He is credited with teaching a new generation about classical music with the 1950s television series Omnibus. Suffice it to say that Bernstein had a way to lift the lid on education, to inspire, entertain, and really teach. I like West Side Story, but I was never really enamoured with it, as many others seem to be. But reading this book has given me a glimpse of the great man. Finally, and despite my initial reservations about the interviewer, I have a new appreciation for Jonathan Cott's work, and will investigate some of his other published works. I am not sure how I stumbled upon this book, but I have a suspicion it was from Maria Popova's wonderful blog, Brain Pickings, which is easily one of my favourite blogs. And by way of an aside, we named our cats Karl and Lenny (of The Simpsons fame), but interchangeably refer to them as Karl Marx and Lenny Lenin. But now I can only think of my cheeky cat as Lenny Bernstein. And, based on Cott's interview, reincarnation was not something that Lenny took lightly.

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On the trail of the Christian use of the Delphic maxim "Know Thyself"

Saint Teresa of Avila's Vision by Peter Paul Rubens, 1612-1614 [Public Domain via Wikimedia].

The Interior Castle by Teresa of Ávila

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It took me some time to get through this masterpiece by Saint Teresa of Avila. Written in 1577 during the Spanish Inquisition, I found it difficult to get through the self-effacing humility of the good saint and had to take several breaks. 

One of the blessings/curses of the Dover Thrift Editions is that the books are deceptively small, and while this book is only 168 pages, the pages are dense in words. It is a blessing that the books look short, and a curse because they aren't. Yet they are very affordable and the deception encourages me to read books I would otherwise put off for later. Like Karl Marx's Capital, sitting near me (and almost as long as Tolstoy's War and Peace at some 1,361 pages.). 

I found a few things about Interior Castle confusing. St Teresa writes there are seven mansions that the soul passes through (one chooses to enter the crystal castle from the wilderness). As one enters the first mansion, some of the critters get in with you. You can see both the light of the innermost mansion, yet you can still see the dark. 

St Teresa tells of the experiences of the soul progressing to the seventh mansion where the soul is at one with God. Although the development of the soul as it progressed was obvious, I am still in the dark as far as knowing which mansion one might be in at any given time, if at all. 

St Teresa writes for other nuns, and while I understand that this is a modern translation, it is interesting how she frequently asks the reader to excuse her stupidity in being unable to explain things. 

Clearly, the book was not written in one sitting, and often St Teresa admits that she cannot recall what or if she mentioned something in a previous chapter, and that she would not re-read what she had written. This is clearly not a first draft, however, and this edition includes footnotes that indicate what was a marginal comment, with alternative wordings, additions, or omissions from one of the two "learned men" St Teresa had correct her drafts. Such caution was prudent during the Spanish Inquisition, indeed. 

For many pages I made no notes, and then numerous notes in a handful of pages. St Teresa covers the importance of self-knowledge, of learning, of humility, and raises an interesting question of the soul versus the spirit. While she does not give a definitive comparison, she suggests that the soul and the spirit are closely intertwined, but are not necessarily the same thing. I have often wondered about this difference. 

One could argue that the ideas of Voltaire, Benjamin Franklin, James Allen, and Stephen Covey came from this work. St Teresa confirms the theme of Candide, Franklin's virtues, James Allen's "he who conquers self conquers the universe", and Stephen Covey's "Circle of Influence" as principles for living the interior life. 

I read this book because of the title, hoping to find something more about the "inner citadel" the Stoics spoke of, and others who have used "interior castle" to mean something similar. St Teresa puts a different bent on the Stoic idea, but one can see the influence of the Stoics on Christian thought. 

There are two main lessons St Teresa has confirmed for me. First:

...try to be least of all... and your foundation will be so firmly laid that your Castle will not fall.

And second:

...unless you strive after the virtues and practice them, you will never grow to be more than dwarfs.

Further, St Teresa provides a quote which goes a long way to explain what I refer to in my leadership teaching as the "duty cycle" that prevents people from realising their goals:

...the devil sometimes puts ambitious desires into our hearts, so that, instead of setting our hand to the work which lies nearest us, and thus serving Our Lord in ways within our power, we may rest content with having desired the impossible.

Finally, a friend once asked about the Delphic maxim "Know Thyself" and that, despite having been told by others that the phrase appeared in the Holy Bible, it doesn't (and it really doesn't), this is the earliest Christian reference to the Delphic maxim I have encountered to date. Whether this was a result of the work of the Toledo School of Translators is something I hope to investigate further.

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There is no time like the present to cultivate your own garden

Woman with bound feet reclining on chaise lounge, China [Public Domain via Wikimedia].

Waiting by Ha Jin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a lovely story that has all of the drama of Candide without the travel. If the theme is anything, it is that, rather than "good things come to those who wait", we might often wait for something that was never good, and then regret what we deliberately left behind. I don't think the theme comparison with Candide's "cultivate your own garden" is too far from the author's intention. 

Set in a period that encompasses the Cultural Revolution, this novel captures what it may have been like to live during this period of history in China. Ha Jin's work is brilliant. I saw this book in the bookstore and I was drawn to it. 

After reading Eileen Chang's Lust, Caution, I have decided to investigate a variety of literary works outside of my Anglophone comfort zone. While Chang's work was translated, Ha Jin is a Professor of English at Boston University, so this work was written in English. 

His style is engaging and I found it hard to turn the light out to sleep for two nights as I wanted to finish it in one go. This novel had me reflecting on my own life and the choices I have made. 

Not that I regret the past - or at least I inspire to live in the spirit of amor fati - but I couldn't help think that there are many lessons of the past that I hadn't really embedded in my psyche. After sharing the journey with the protagonist, Lin Kong, I am still returning to memories to mop up the remnants of lessons long forgotten or ignored. 

I think a great novel allows the reader to learn from the experiences of the characters. In effect, to learn from the mistakes of fools rather than make the same mistake. This novel won the 1999 US National Book Award, and no wonder. While I do not pretend that a book award is the be-all and end-all of great books, it provides some reassurance. And I wasn't disappointed. 

Ha Jin has written many other novels, and I hope to be reading another of his works very soon. It was helpful to have a working knowledge of Chinese modern history, and especially Chairman Mao's philosophy, but it is not necessary to enjoy the story. 

At the beginning here I wrote that it is a lovely story, and it is, but in a way that one sits and thinks for an eternity before putting the book down. It is also a very sad story. If I were to sum up the story in one of Poor Richard's (Benjamin Franklin's) maxims, it would be thus:

Would you live with ease, do what you ought, and not what you please.

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