Dinner with Lenny: The Last Long Interview with Leonard Bernstein

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Leonard Bernstein was arguably the most highly esteemed, influential, and charismatic American classical music personality of the twentieth century Conductor, composer, pianist, writer, educator, and human rights activist, Bernstein truly led a life of Byronic intensity passionate, risk taking, and convention breaking.In November 1989, just a year before his death, Bernstein invited writer Jonathan Cott to his country home in Fairfield, Connecticut for what turned out to be his last major interview an unprecedented and astonishingly frank twelve hour conversation Now, in Dinner with Lenny, Cott provides a complete account of this remarkable dialogue in which Bernstein discourses with disarming frankness, humor, and intensity on matters musical, pedagogical, political, psychological, spiritual, and the unabashedly personal Bernstein comes alive again, with vodka glass in hand, singing, humming, and making pointed comments on a wide array of topics, from popular music the Beatles were the best songwriters since Gershwin , to great composers Wagner was always in a psychotic frenzy He was a madman, a megalomaniac , and politics lamenting the brainlessness, the mindlessness, the carelessness, and the heedlessness of the Reagans of the world And of course, Bernstein talks of conducting, advising students to look at the score and make it come alive as if they were the composer If you can do that, you re a conductor and if you can t, you re not If I don t become Brahms or Tchaikovsky or Stravinsky when I m conducting their works, then it won t be a great performance After Rolling Stone magazine published an abridged version of the conversation in 1990, the Chicago Tribune praised it as an extraordinary interview filled with passion, wit, and acute analysis Studs Terkel called the interview astonishing and revelatory Now, this full length version provides the reader with a unique, you are there perspective on what it was like to converse with this gregarious, witty, candid, and inspiring American dynamo. Best Read [ Dinner with Lenny: The Last Long Interview with Leonard Bernstein ] by [ Jonathan Cott ] – kino-fada.fr Lenny Who can beat im Well, I for one for I can simply navigate over to Spotify and select from a wide variety of Otto Klemperer selections Why go nuts and choose Lennie and the NY Phil Otto Klemperer knew EXACTLY how a symphony should sound He didn t groan n grunt gesticulate wildly, emoting thru every sweat gland even if it WAS Lenny s epochal version of Stravinsky s Sacre from back in the repressive nineteen fifties Lenny made his point back then And ushered in a whole new Lenny Who can beat im Well, I for one for I can simply navigate over to Spotify and select from a wide variety of Otto Klemperer selections Why go nuts and choose Lennie and the NY Phil Otto Klemperer knew EXACTLY how a symphony should sound He didn t groan n grunt gesticulate wildly, emoting thru every sweat gland even if it WAS Lenny s epochal version of Stravinsky s Sacre from back in the repressive nineteen fifties Lenny made his point back t...While this is nothan an interview transcription, this is a wonderful capture of one of the most dynamic composers and conductors of the 20th century Jonathan Cott sat down with Leonard Bernstein for dinner, which wasof a 12 hour interview marathon He published an excerpt version in Rolling Stone in 1989, the year before Bernstein s death Now it is being released in its entirety.What I love about this is how much Bernstein comes through, from the musical examples he sings or While this is nothan an interview transcription, this is a wonderful capture of one of the most dynamic composers and conductors of the 20th century Jonathan Cott sat down with Leonard Bernstein for dinner, which wasof a 12 hour interview marathon He published an excerpt version in Rolling Stone in 1989, the year before Bernstein s death Now it is being released in its entirety.What I love about this is how much Bernstein comes through, from the musical examples he sings or jumps up to play on the piano, to his teasing of the interviewer I felt like I was having dinner with him too, and immediately went out in search of the works and recordings that were mentioned In fact, I m listening to the orchestral transcriptions he did of the Beethoven String Quartet Op 131 as I write this review Bernstein was sometimes criticized by ...It took author Jonathan Cott a year to nail down an interview with his musical idol, the conductor composer educator, Leonard Bernstein Less than a year after the interview, Bernstein was dead But for a whim by the conductor, who at that point was ignoring all requests for interviews, this one almost didn t happen.But it did, and the first result was an 8,000 word article in Rolling Stone Having four timesmaterial than he could use for that magazine piece, Cott later expanded that trove It took author Jonathan Cott a year to nail down an interview with his musical idol, the conductor composer educa...Conductor, composer, pianist, writer, educator, lecturer, television host, human rights and peace activist, Leonard Bernstein was his own one person Gesamtkunstwerk Genius Sheer genius Over a 12 hour dinner at Bernstein s home in Connecticut, in 1989, the author speaks to the lively, passionate, chain smoking man, in his late seventies revealing the inner workings of this remarkable man Reading this book allowed me to hear Lenny s voice, to understand what made him tick A complex,Conductor, composer, pianist, writer, educator, lecturer, television host, human rights and peace activist, Leonard Bernstein was his own one person Gesamtkunstwerk Genius Sheer genius Over a 12 hour dinner at Bernstein s home in Connecticut, in 1989, the author speaks to the lively, passionate, chain smoking man, in his late seventies revealing the inner workings of this remarkable man Reading this book allowed me to hear Lenny s voice, to understand what made him tick A complex, thoughtful, emotional, energetic man who talked about life, life after life, death, women, men, musicians, children and education and his wife, FeliciaLife without music is unthinkable ...Many of us know Leonard Bernstein as an inspiring American composer and conductor Jonathan Cott s Dinner with Lenny reveals Leonard Bernstein the man, the musician, the composer, the conductor, the educator, the humanitarian Bernstein lived life to the fullest The twelve hour interview is truncated into a 192 page book,...Beyond one music history course I took in college, of which I have retained very little, I feel ill versed to converse about classical music or modern composers, so I have been seeking to bridge this void, however feeble Appreciation for today s music can only be further enhanced by better understanding what came before it and what led to its evolution, so reading Bernstein s enthusiastic replies utterly encourages this endeavor His words overflow with love for the genre, for he perceives each Beyond one music history course I took in college, of which I have retained very little, I feel ill versed to converse about classical music or modern composers, so I have been seeking to bridge this void, however feeble Appreciation for today s music can only be further enhanced by better understanding what came before it and what led to its evolution, so reading Bernstein s enthusiastic replies utterly encourages this endeavor His words overflow with love for the genre, for he perceives each instrumental sectionas a character within ...Interesting enough I think I would have enjoyed it a lotif I knewabout Leonard Bernstein s life I was expecting it to bebiographical but it was an interview with Bernstein on a smattering of subjects mostly centered on Berstein s thoughts on music, musicians and creativity There are some interesting bits, but you have to plow through a lot of post modern mumbo jumbo to get to them and I wouldn t pick this up again or even recommend it unless you re a huge classical Interesting enough I think I would have enjoyed it a lotif I knewabout Leonard Bernstein s life I was expecting it to bebiographical but it was an interview with Bernstein on a smattering of subjects mostly centered on Berstein s thoughts on music, musicians and creativity There are some interesting bits, but you have...Dinner with Lenny should be on the reading list of every Bernstein fan, for it provides the reader with a very intimate insight into the life of the greatest musician that has ever set foot on this planet Thanks to Jonathan Cott s writing, the reader really feels as if Lenny was speaking to them directly, which is absolutely captivating For people like me, who were born after his death and would never be able to actually communicate with him, this book offers a glimpse of what it would be Dinner with Lenny should be on the reading list of every Bernstein fan, for it provides the reader with a very intimate insight into the life of the greatest musician that has ever set foot on this planet Thanks to Jonathan Cott s writing, the reader rea...Loved every minute with the book Bernstein s passion for music shines through on every page and he has a lot of stories to share Highlights are how composers write music, how they are able to see the whole piece at once, how to get kids interested in classical music, what it means to be a conductor and finally if an orchestra should have its own sound Bernstein strongly favored that a piece should always be played the way the composer had it in his mind.I also enjoyed his anecdotes ...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 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 rev...

Dinner with Lenny: The Last Long Interview with Leonard Bernstein
  • English
  • 14 January 2019
  • Hardcover
  • 192 pages
  • 0199858446
  • Jonathan Cott
  • Dinner with Lenny: The Last Long Interview with Leonard Bernstein