Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City
Duke Ellington talks with Goddard Lieberson about his version of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite in a 1960 Columbia Records promotional film:
(This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.)
“Men act through self-interest; and if they do things you wouldn’t do, you’d better not assume it’s because you have a nobler character. There are noble and disinterested actions done every day; but I think most of them are impulsive. I don’t think there’s any such thing as a deliberate noble action. Deliberation always has half an eye on how it will look; it wants something, if only admiration, for what it does.”
James Gould Cozzens, The Just and the Unjust