Genuflectimus non ad principem sed ad Principem Pacis!
Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. (Isaiah 49:1 KJV)
ping
Concerning politics I would have agreed with him about little, I suppose. But he was a great musician.
I used to have a copy of Life Magazine from the early 50s.
The cover had the picture of “100 American Communists”. It used the term Communist too, not leftist etc.
I recall one was Leonard Bernstein. Before seeing that, I didn’t know anything more about him than he was a conductor.
Google & read Tom Wolfe’s 1970 classic, “Radical Chic and Mau Mauing the Flack Catchers”.
The Bernsteins’ reception & party for the Black Panthers was pure Stockholm Syndrome. Wealthy Manhattan liberals schmoozing with worthless hoodlums who’d have gladly slit all their throats had no parallel until the modern version of dhimmi infidels sucking up to muzzie terrorists who BTW make the Panthers look like pathetic punks.
I used to have some New York Philharmonic LPs with Lenny conducting, but as the libs like to say, the personal is the political and after reading Radical Chic I lost all respect for the once great maestro.
Twenty-four years ago today my brother, SIL, spouse and I went to Lenny’s 70th bday party at Tanglewood, MA. We tried to sneak in two infants and they charged us $20/each for lawn tickets for the babies!
He was a stinking commie, but he gave us West Side Story.
Is all forgiven, nearly, but not all.
RIP Leonard Bernstein.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpaS2v-r7cE
Bernstein did more than anyone to bring Mahler's music back.
I don’t care for that Communist’s sparkling interpretation of the classics, and neither did Shostakovich.
And Edward M. Kennedy has been burning in Hell for two years now.
I thought he was dead.
Classical music list.
He is 94 today. Just not looking real great.
I say we need MORE violins on television!
Greatest musician in American history? Probably.
I had the privilege of knowing Uncle Lenny fairly well, and he PERSONIFIED the joie de vivre in music. Yeah, you never EVER mentioned politics to The Maestro, but outside of that he was actually a fun guy.
People know him as a conductor, and he was one of the greatest, but his true gift was as a pianist and composer.
“West Side Story” is THE American music-drama.
His performance of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody In Blue”, with himself as piano soloist/conductor is one of the glories of performance history.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxb7yNG0DGc
(Its in 2 parts, the link is to part 1)
Less than a year later, he met the Ultimate Judge, and if I had had any power to condemn or pardon, it would have availed nothing at that point. I doubt I'll be meeting him on the other side.
An interesting bit of evidence on how the Left's line constantly twists and turns is that back in the day Bernstein was the conductor of the Israel Philharmonic. That was back when liberals (and too many conservatives) thought Israel was the Cuba of the Middle East. Wonder if he'd be with the BDS people today or if he'd have dissented from current left/liberal orthodoxy?
Speaking of relevant dates:
Judge Crater officially went missing 62 years ago today. He would be 123 years old if found alive.