Change the word ironically to tragically and it would work better.
]]>West Side Story is an excellent operetta. Time will tell if it has the staying power of Der Fledermaus, The Mikado, The Merry Widow, La Belle Helen, or the Brecht/Weil Threepenny Opera. Even in the United States the can-can from Belle Helene is certainly much better known than anything from West Side Story. In Europe “Da geh ich ins Maxims” is much more famous than “Maria.” West Side Story may speak to us more powerfully than these other operettas because we are closer to the traditions from which it arises: tin pan alley musicals and jazz. Those traditions are dying even faster than classical music. Why should we expect jazz to last any longer than the tango or the waltz? Mahler’s Fifth, like Bernstein’s “serious” compositions, is a very different kind of work. It will cease to be preformed when there cease to be enough classically trained musicians to make up professional symphony orchestras. May that day be long in coming! When it comes, all of Lenny’s work will be forgotten.
I feel that in Europe, including the UK, classical music is more culturally central: no doubt in part because most of the classical repertoire is made up of European composers. Generous state subsides are also to thank. In Europe writers and public figures will often talk at length about their taste for classical music. Merkel gave a long interview about her love for Wagner. Jeremy Corbyn loves Mahler & David MIliband is married to a member of the LSO. The prime minister of the Netherlands is failed classical pianist. French TV news anchors are revealed by gossip magazines to be having affairs with sexy violinists. In America, a talented writer like Paula Martinez Cohen can recognize Bernstein for the American original that he is, but be untouched by the musical tradition that formed the core of his being.
]]>But the Mahler dig—even apart from the misspelling of his name—was hardly necessary.
In his frustration about a career as a conductor conflicting with his greater aspirations as a composer, as well as his ability to mesmerize audiences and reveal music in new ways (to say nothing of his Jewishness), Mahler was Bernstein before there was Bernstein. And as much as Lenny would want to know that people would still be listening to his music long after he was gone, I doubt he would put his compositions ahead of, or even equal to, Mahler’s.
Bernstein was a musical missionary. But his god was Mahler.
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