Recently I saw the documentary about Jon Batiste, American Symphony, an astonishingly talented and intelligent young musician, as well as the biographical drama film about Leonard Bernstein, Maestro. Both of the movies are focused on the protagonists' dramatic and sometimes conflicted personal lives. In the case of Jon Batiste, while he is skyrocketing to success as a musician, his wife, Suleika Jaouad, is struggling with leukemia, and, as the movie progresses, we don't know any more than he did while the film was being made whether she would live or die. Leonard Bernstein is shown as a bisexual man whose extramarital homosexual affairs come close to destroying the happy married life he simultaneously strove to maintain.
Both artists are incredibly versatile and energetic, extremely gifted and hard working. Bernstein's legacy is monumental. Batiste is likely to garner similar achievements. Their musical talent is backed up by extensive study. Batiste has an advanced degree from Juilliard. Bernstein studied conducting and piano at the Curtis Institute after his BA in music at Harvard. Neither man sprang full form from the forehead of Zeus. However, the films hardly touched on their education at all.
What does emerge from the films is the factor of ego, personality, drive, and showmanship. Not every super talented musician has the flamboyant ambition of Bernstein and Batiste. Very few people can withstand the pressures of careers like theirs. Without the more modest talents and ambitions of the musicians who play with them and others in their retinues, they would be unable to achieve what they do. Partly they are egomaniacs who thrive on adulation. But they are also infinitely generous of their gifts.
