ZAGAJEWSKI
407
during those long interludes when nothing-or next to nothing-is hap–
pening, so it thinks up petty experiments, little trial runs.
Finally I selected the Seventh Symphony. And within half an hour I
had discovered that Wagner had called it "the apotheosis of the dance"
and that the second movement in particular, the Allegretto would
become one of my favorite pieces of music. Though years may go by
when I don't listen to it (you shouldn't get too familiar with a piece of
music), each time I hear it now I'm as moved as I was the first time.
I went home, listened to the records, and understood that fortune had
smiled on me: I'd picked the right symphony. The seventh. All four
movements struck me as beautiful, and not just the melancholy Alle–
gretto. Those mad dashes that are the Presto and the Allegro con Brio
also captivated me. And the first movement, Poco sostenuto-Vivace, is
perhaps the most Beethovenesque of all, since in it we hear the com–
poser's voice proclaiming the subject of his epic song, like an ancient
poet in his opening canto.
WE
DON'T LACK FOR CLOCKS.
From my desk I can see at least three
clocks, two electric and one quartz. One is part of my computer and
says it's now
I2:29.
Another's built into the radio and shows
I2:30.
Finally my wristwatch gives me
12:
3
I.
Fortunately my watch has tradi–
tional hands and doesn't rely upon the ruthless go-betweens of glowing
numerals. We've got a lot of time.
I
PROBABLY DIDN'T
listen to the Seventh Symphony as soon as I got
home. I probably waited a day or two, seized by a superstitious fear
that I'd made the wrong choice. Besides, I must have been over–
wrought and needed to wait for the right moment, a moment of calm
and concentration.
And at this very moment I'm listening to the Seventh Symphony in
Houston, from a recording (Deutsche Grammophon!) entitled
Bernstein:
The Final Concert.
Leonard Bernstein, his face marked by illness-the
cover bears the conductor's portrait this time too-directs the Boston
Symphony for the last time in his life. He wears a white tux. One shot
shows him vanishing into the wings. We see him from the rear: a white
head set on a short neck, a white tux with black pants. The backstage,
