The Saunterer

Walter Benjamin on rulers and their leadership

    If you’re distrustful of rulers, you’re in company with Walter Benjamin:

    The course of history, as it presents itself under the notion of catastrophe, can really claim the thinker’s attention no more than the kaleidoscope in the hand of a child, where all the patterns of order collapse into a new order with each turn. The image is profoundly justified. The ideas of those in power have always been the mirrors thanks to which the picture of an ‘order’ came about -– The kaleidoscope must be smashed.

    (Quoted from page 1 of Monuments & Maidens, by Marina Warner. University of California Press, 1985.)
    For a brief biography of Walter Benjamin, click here. For images of or relating to Walter Benjamin, click here.
    For a brief biography of Marina Warner, click here. For images of or relating to Marina Warner, click here.

Bruno Walter on emotional extravagance in teenagers

    You’ve seen it all, perhaps once lived it-–even Bruno Walter was not exempt:

    As a teenager I was enthusiastic for the great pathos and the big emotions, and Mozart seemed to me at that time too quiet, too tranquil. Youth is much more apt to love the shout and the great gestures. It needs some maturity to understand the depth of emotion that speaks in Mozart’s seeming tranquility.... Through Mahler’s efforts I saw Mozart in a new light. It requires maturity to approach Mozart. I was 50 before I conducted the G minor Symphony....

    (Quoted from page 52 of The Golden Age of Conductors, by John W. Knight. Meredith Music, 2010)
    For a brief biography of Bruno Walter, click here. For images of or relating to Bruno Walter, click here.
    For a short video of Bruno Walter conducting a rehearsal, click here.
    For a work biography of John W. Knight, click here. For images of or relating to John W. Knight, click here.