Maestro!

Off into a new year! And in the news, a movie about a genuine genius.

Maestro is an Italian term, meaning master. It’s been in use since roughly the 1700’s. Used more now than in years past, it’s generally applied to conductors of classical music. Leonard Bernstein was the walking, talking, gesticulating, inspired, difficult, boisterous, brilliant embodiment of the term. The movie of his life is out and stirring the waters. Some say brilliant, and worth the watch. Other reviews are devastating.

So here’s the measure of it, by my lights. The fact that we are still talking about Lenny is in fact a gauge of his importance. One reviewer stated the movie devours itself out of a sense of self-importance, and levies that accusation at the music man himself, implying he fell short of his potential due to his extravagances, his sexuality, his storm-tossed interior life. Okay. But here’s a thing to consider. In a hundred years, that review will be well forgotten (that’s generous, it will be forgotten next month) and the reviewer long since turned to dust, and the world will still be playing Lenny’s music.

The movie is an indulgent, exuberant, ambitious overstatement. As was the man. The times I spent with him were always unpredictable. From late in the day word games in his kitchen in Fairfield, to the stage of Tanglewood, to the ornate, worn elegance of his Dakota dwelling, his moods dictated the agenda. I rarely had to make a pictorial suggestion to him. He was always yards ahead, putting a flower over his ear, grabbing and squeezing a grandchild, wandering off into a wooded glen near his home.

I only saw him conduct once, at Tanglewood. A truly embarrassing moment for me. I was on assignment for Newsweek, and couldn’t get to Lenny. He wasn’t feeling well. I had a crack at him from the wings but the venue management insisted I not use my go-to, normal Nikons as back in the day, they were too loud. Certainly no motor drive. I had to shoot him single shot, with one of my Leicas, an M4 with a 90mm Summicron f/2. Great lens, but I always found rangefinder focus hard at telephoto lengths. Plus, I was burdened by shooting indoor Ektachrome, pushed. Grain abounded. We have such gifts now. My Z 9 shoots silently. Beautiful results at ISO ratings in the thousands.

He finished and took bows. I thought I was losing the cover and screwing up the job. Desperation set in. I said to my assistant, carrying a Norman 200B flash on a stick, triggered by a Hawk remote, “On the stage!” And we both clambered up, ingloriously, in front of the whole audience and continued to photograph. Yep, right in the middle of Lenny’s standing ovation. Tanglewood management was not pleased with me. Lenny loved the exuberant inappropriateness of it and hugged me afterwards.

Perhaps a notion there, as a photog. Always take the leap. (Generally speaking. Location and client assessment, mixed with prudence, can be called for.) But, the creative endeavor of photography is generally guided by the mantra, “In for a penny, in for a pound.” In other words, the moments you see transpiring in front of you will not come round again. So even if it’s painful, potentially embarrassing, or altogether foolish and flat out ill-advised, the leap is often mandated. Larry Downing, now retired, was a quintessentially excellent news shooter based in DC for the wire services. On his Reuters profile page, his quote rings true. “Pictures cannot be recreated. Great photographic moments never repeat themselves.”

This new movie is exuberant and inappropriate, all at once. And captivating. Like its title subject, it demands patience.

I think Lenny would chortle roundly at all the frothy reactions the movie of his life has generated. Sly revenge on the naysayers? Who’s to say, really? Music, as a passion, as a love, consumes the creator. Not unlike photography, really. He said, famously, “I can’t live one day without hearing music, playing it, studying it, or thinking about it.”

He also said, “To achieve great things, two things are needed: A plan and not quite enough time.”

A timely and pertinent thought as we plunge into 2024.

More tk….