The Stars of Stage and Screen…Song #58/250: Symphony No. 2 in C Minor by Gustav Mahler from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack to the Film Maestro

While I am not a hardcore movie lover, I do enjoy watching a good movie and come Oscar time, I try my best to catch at least a few of the movies that have been nominated for Best Picture of the Year. So far this year I have watched Oppenheimer, Poor Things, Barbie and now, a movie based on the life of famed conductor Leonard Bernstein called Maestro. All of these films have merit and are deserving of their nominations for the biggest prize of them all. I don’t know what it says about me (if it says anything at all) that I liked the two movies that featured women in a lead role (Barbie and Poor Things) more than I enjoyed the two films that focussed on male leads (Oppenheimer and Maestro), but I did. But that having been said, all four films featured interesting storylines and star turns by the lead actors. All in all, watching these four movies is something I consider to have been time well spent. For today’s post, I will focus on Maestro. (If you wish to read posts about Barbie or Poor Things, you can do that here and here).

Maestro is a movie that allows viewers to have a peek into the life of one of America’s cultural lions: Leonard Bernstein. This film stars Bradley Cooper as Bernstein. I thoroughly enjoyed Cooper’s portrayal of Lenny, as Bernstein was often affectionately referred to throughout the film. In my opinion, one of the marks of a great acting performance is when the actor is able to disappear into his or her role and make us forget who they really are while making us believe they are somebody else. Bradley Cooper did that very well. He really had Bernstein’s physical mannerisms down cold, and the nervous/energetic cadence of his speaking style was spot on, too. Leonard Bernstein is a larger than life public figure, so any movie that attempts to capture the totality of his life is taking on a tall order. As a consequence of this, Bradley Cooper narrowed the focus of the film and concentrated on exploring the complicated yet thoroughly loving relationship between Bernstein and his wife, Felicia Montealegre, as played convincingly by Carey Mulligan. While Maestro works well as a character study of two highly cultured people whose lives existed in the brightest of spotlights, there were many other aspects of Bernstein’s life that were ignored because of the time constraints of the film. For example, in one of the opening scenes, Lenny is composing in a room with his friend Aaron. No effort was made to introduce us to “Aaron” or explain the significance of who he was. Because of the fact that I have written posts about Aaron Copland (which you can read here), I had an inkling that this is who Lenny’s friend was supposed to be. But if you were someone who came to the film without a decent amount of prior knowledge regarding the American music scene in the mid 1900s, someone like “Aaron” would have been nothing more than just a bit player in a large ensemble cast. So, take Maestro for what it is. It is not the definitive retelling of Leonard Bernstein’s life. But the movie does give us a fair degree of insight into the marriage of Lenny and Felicia and how existing in the public eye adds layers of complexity to the life that both had as a couple and as individuals.   

The film’s soundtrack was chosen exclusively by Cooper, who, in addition to starring in the lead role, also served as director (alongside Steven Speilberg and Martin Scorsese) and as producer, too. In real life, Leonard Bernstein was known as a “triple threat”. In his case, that meant that Bernstein composed original music, he was a skilled musician and could play his own work and that of other composers very well and finally, he was a magnificent conductor of other musicians. Because Bernstein approached music from all angles, he developed a keen sense of the poetry of music. The depth of his expertise was such that he was as valued for his ability to teach others as he was for his ability to perform and create works himself. Bernstein’s firm grasp on the fundamental elements of music allowed him to portray his emotions while conducting from the podium in the most dramatic and demonstrative of ways. One of the most famous examples of this was when Bernstein conducted Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 in C Minor in front of the eyes of a nation that had been rocked to its core.  

This symphony is more commonly known as Mahler’s ”Resurrection Symphony”. It was originally composed by Mahler in the early 1890s in reaction to the death of his mentor, Hans von Bulow. Initially, Mahler struggled with the final movement of his symphony. But then, as he attended von Bulow’s funeral, he heard a poem called Die Auferstehung (which is German for “The Resurrection”) by poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock. Within that poem were lines that stated, “Rise again. Yes, you shall rise again”. Hearing those words and that poem gave Mahler the creative thematic structure that his symphony had been lacking up to that point. Once completed, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 in C Minor was well received by critics and audiences. In fact, over time, this symphony is generally considered to be one of the top five greatest symphonies in history. To prove this point, a signed, original manuscript of the composition’s score sold at auction and fetched millions of dollars, making it the most valuable classical compositional manuscript of all time. Consequently, in 1963 after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Leonard Bernstein instinctively selected the Resurrection Symphony as the appropriate piece of music to play as America mourned the end of Camelot. The emotions that Bernstein portrays as he conducts are amazing to witness. While characteristic of his personality, it is still quite something to watch a conductor embody such a sweeping range of feelings while standing at the podium. It is obvious that Bernstein was channeling every ounce of emotion contained in Mahler’s score, as well as expressing the feelings of an entire nation as its heart was breaking. Bradley Cooper, to his credit, recognized that event as being one of the most important of Bernstein’s career and opted to highlight it during Maestro. Cooper was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Although he did not end up winning, if he had it would have been in large part due to that one scene in which he inhabited the body and soul of Leonard Bernstein so completely at such a pivotal moment in American history. I actually find it difficult to tell the real Bernstein from Cooper’s version of him. In the links below, I will show both Bernstein’s real performance and Bradley Cooper’s Oscar-calibre reproduction. Both performances are utterly amazing in my opinion.    

As an introduction to the life and times of Leonard Bernstein, Maestro does a commendable job. It wasn’t the easiest movie to watch at times due to the pressures both Lenny and Felicia lived under and the many inappropriate decisions that ended up being made along the way. But overall, I think that Bradley Cooper has much to be proud of with this effort. As for me, I am grateful for the introduction to this giant of a man that this movie provides. If I wish to know the full story, then there are many excellent biographies available for purchase or for free at my local public library which will, no doubt, fill any voids of interest that I may possess. But as much as anything else, what I will take from this movie is how absolutely and completely Bradley Cooper disappeared into his character. This is on display all through the film, but never more so than during the scene when Cooper, as Bernstein, conducts Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 in C Minor at JFK’s funeral. Absolutely magnificent acting by Bradley Cooper! Brilliant conducting by Leonard Bernstein, who definitely rose to the occasion in real life. Fabulous composition by Gustav Mahler that has stood the test of time. All so very well done, indeed! As I said off the top of this post, while not my favourite movie of the year, watching Maestro was certainly time well spent. I can recommend it, more for Cooper’s great acting than anything else. But that alone makes this film one that is worth seeing. Enjoy.

The link to the video for the trailer to the movie Maestro can be found here.

The link to the real life performance of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 in C Minor as conducted by Leonard Bernstein can be found here. 

The link to the video for Bradley Cooper’s rendition of Bernstein conducting Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 in C Minor can be found here.

The link to the official website for Leonard Bernstein can be found here.

The link to the official website for Gustav Mahler can be found here.

NOTE: Maestro is available for viewing on Netflix if you have a subscription.

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