But does it tick the orgasm box?
When considering whether he should or should not conduct Mahler’s reconstituted Tenth Symphony Leonard Bernstein unabashedly said to a colleague “I have one question, will it give me an orgasm?”That anecdote appears in Jonathan Cott’s Dinner with Lenny. Classical music today is all about box ticking. We ask does it tick the accessibility box? Does it tick the inclusivity box? Does it tick the equality box? Does it tick the funding box? And does it tick the Twitter box? However, somewhere along the line we seem to have forgotten the most important question: does it tick the orgasm box?
Dinner with Lenny was borrowed from the Second Air Division Memorial Library, Norwich. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Also on Facebook and Twitter.
Comments
Reminds me of the retired military officer who went to the doctor complaining of lack of energy.
"Just don't have any energy, even for things I normally enjoy."
"Well, tell me - when was the last time you had sex?"
"1958."
"Hmmm ... rather a long time ago, isn't it?"
"Oh, I don't know. It's only 2115 now."
Continence and reserve have their place (I too hate applause between movements, and I hate sloppy over the top, overly emotional performances) but sometimes we need to remember what hooked us on music in the first place - that moment when it transported us somewhere else, when it became an otherworldly experience, when it became, well, orgasmic