Leonard Bernstein describes Nadia Boulanger in tolerable French
OrchestrasFrom a 1977 Bruno Monsaingeon documentary.
The Lenny section starts at 07:15.
Fascinating.
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Most, most enjoyable documentary and insights with Mademoiselle!
Thank you! This was excellent.
Even more impressive this time
than at first view many years ago.
I love the bit with a little Emile Naoumoff.
His French is more than “tolerable”, rather admirable, and I say this as a French speaker.
In the 50s and 60s lots of Americans tried to learn French. American kids went to France ( the university at Grenoble was swarming in 1963) Piaf sang in New York. French was fashionable. Jackie Kennedy spoke it well.
How things have changed!
Je suis d’accord.
I was really impressed with his French.
Excellent, I really enjoyed watching that. I should probably know this, but what is the piece playing in the closing credits?
Brilliant stuff. Thanks for sharing it, Norman.
Thanks for that. My mentor, Elie Siegmeister (1909-1991), also studied with Boulanger in the late twenties and early thirties. That bit where Bernstein was describing her critical comment that the B-flat was the wrong note because we had just heard it earlier struck home because Elie would often chide me for the same faux pas. Inevitably, he was right and I have no doubt he got that from Boulanger…
I always show the segment starting at 23:40 to my piano pedagogy class, and they are always floored by her teaching style. Granted, this type of public class is probably different from how she would approach a one-on-one lesson, but it is still quite eye opening to watch!
I think LB’s French is much better than “tolerable”. It’s a charming appreciation he makes.
Every time I see Lenny I realise how much I miss him