After posting about Tchaikovsky’s “Little Russian” Symphony this morning, on the 150th anniversary of the work’s first performance, I recollected an anecdote once shared by the writer George Plimpton.

Plimpton, of course, was most famous for his forays into “participatory journalism” – getting his hands dirty, with the occasional gash or broken bone, in pursuit of a better understanding of the subject he happened to be writing about, whether it be what it would be like to box with Archie Moore, train to be a goalie with the Boston Bruins, or to play quarterback with the Detroit Lions.

The guy had guts, without the posturing of a Hemingway or a Mailer, and he wasn’t afraid to look foolish. Or if he was, he made pride subservient to the experience. It was an endearing quality in a man who spoke with a patrician accent, cofounded The Paris Review, and could trace his lineage to the Mayflower.

When Plimpton took an interest in what it would be like to be an orchestra musician, he was allowed to tag along with the New York Philharmonic as a percussionist on its Canadian tour. In this capacity, he played the sleigh bells in the opening movement of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 – very badly, it turned out, which infuriated the conductor, Leonard Bernstein.

But Plimpton redeemed himself when he was assigned the gong in Tchaikovsky’s “Little Russian” Symphony. He was so keyed-up in the work’s final movement, as his big moment approached, that when he received his cue from the podium, he struck with such force that he claimed he could see the shock wave travel across the rows of stunned musicians to Bernstein himself, whose eyes widened in surprise. The conductor had to wait for the sound to decay before he could launch into the symphony’s final bars. Bernstein was so pleased with the result that he invited Plimpton to be on the recording of the piece that he and the orchestra subsequently made.

But I’m only paraphrasing from the words of a very capable writer. Here’s the story from Plimpton’s own lips. Enjoy!

https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4539798/user-clip-george-plimpton-joins-york-philharmonic

PHOTO: Plimpton (right) with Bernstein and the Mahler 4 sleigh bells