Serious Music? He Loves It. No, Seriously

By DANIEL J. WAKIN (Published: December 11, 2009)
IN a cramped studio with walls draped by cables, the words dribbled off the announcer’s tongue in a serene classical music burble.

“That was the ‘Mother Goose’ Suite, music by Maurice Ravel” — slight lift and pause here — “performed by the New York Philharmonic.” The cadence was cultured, the subject matter refined. But that gravelly baritone sounded oddly out of place. Somehow it belonged to, what? Hollywood? Maybe a madcap situation comedy? “Saturday Night Live” even?

Indeed, the man in that little room was Alec Baldwin, the actor with a restless and tabloid-turbulent career that encompasses all three realms. His latest guise is pitchman for high art, as in Mahler, Tchaikovsky and Beethoven. This season Mr. Baldwin became the official announcer of the New York Philharmonic’s weekly radio broadcasts. His involvement reflects an unusual dimension for a Hollywood figure and one that may come as a surprise to many: a passion for classical music that allows him to talk as comfortably about orchestral repertory as he does about movie shoots and television syndication.

“There’s something serious” about classical music, he said in an interview after a three-hour recording session at Avery Fisher Hall this month. “There’s something beautiful. There’s something that’s really carefully rendered, that I want to be a part of, no matter what my contribution is.”
“I’m not a member of the New York Philharmonic,” he added, searching for an analogy for his role. Then it came: “I feel like I’m the batboy on the Yankees.”

The job benefits both parties. Orchestras, opera houses and other musical institutions engage in a sometimes desperate-seeming search for relevance in a society that has increasingly marginalized serious music. For the Philharmonic the involvement of a major figure from popular culture is like gold. “What classical music does is a little removed from the mainstream,” the orchestra’s music director, Alan Gilbert, said, with no little understatement. “Frankly, anybody who expresses real interest and devotion to what we do is welcome.”
All the better, he added, “if it happens to be a famous person who is really hot.”

Right now, Mr. Baldwin, 51, is hot because of his Emmy-winning role as a network executive on the NBC show “30 Rock.” He will also join Steve Martin as co-host of the Oscars telecast in March. (He asked the Oscars producers to invite the Philharmonic; the orchestra declined the offer.) His latest movie, “It’s Complicated,” will be released on Christmas. But for decades his career has meandered like that of a violinist who plays jazz clubs, orchestra jobs, subway stops and Carnegie Hall solos.
From supporting roles in movies like “Beetlejuice,” “Married to the Mob” and “Working Girl,” he became the leading man in “The Hunt for Red October,” abandoned action-hero status with an acclaimed performance as Stanley in “Streetcar Named Desire” on Broadway and, in recent years, drew critical attention for sharply etched portrayals of rakes, rogues and blowhards in movies like “The Cooler” and “The Departed.” Along the way he set the record for the number of assignments (14) hosting “Saturday Night Live.”

He acquired a reputation for pugnacity and became a gossip column regular with a bitter divorce from the actress Kim Basinger and the leaking of an abusive answering-machine message he had left for his daughter. He wrote a memoirish book about fathers and divorce. He speaks out for political causes; he recently denounced the United States government’s decision to refuse the Philharmonic permission to travel to Cuba on The Huffington Post.

Ever restless, Mr. Baldwin has said a number of times in recent years that he wants to quit acting. “I love what I’m doing,” he said in the interview, “but I want to stop doing what I’m doing because there are just other things I want to try.” He could write another book, he suggested, or host a weekly radio show. “He’s a man of gigantic enthusiasms,” said Meryl Streep, his co-star in “It’s Complicated.” “I think music is chief among them. He’s very passionate about it,”

As Mr. Baldwin tells it, the Philharmonic job also provides an antidote to the sometimes superficial — though income-producing — world of movies and television. He likens it to doing a nonprofit play after finishing a movie. Still, he seemed to recognize the incongruity of his involvement with the orchestra at its news conference last January to announce the current season. He had taken the red-eye from Los Angeles, having just received a Golden Globe Award.

“The thing I love about the Philharmonic as an institution is that they are such bold risk takers,” he said then. Glenn Close, Sigourney Weaver or Kevin Kline would be obvious voices for the orchestra, he said. “But no, no, no, the Philharmonic chose someone who is the star of one of the silliest, most inane TV shows.”
His main job at the Philharmonic is to introduce and comment on the works being played during “The New York Philharmonic This Week,” a program syndicated to 295 outlets by the WFMT Radio Network. During the recording session this month for a program to be performed in February, he leaned into the microphone, sometimes cupping his right hand, sometimes karate-chopping the air slightly as he spoke. His head and eyebrows jerked slightly with the inflections of his voice.

He practiced reading each section, working closely with the producer, Mark Travis, on pronouncing the names of composers and performers. Then he would read through a take, clearing his throat and restarting often. He would ask Mr. Travis for the mood of a piece’s ending, then match his tone to it.
“You roll the words out to the audience as languidly as you can,” he said. “You want it to land on them.”
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