By Nancy Plum

When audiences think of Alec Baldwin, it is often for his satirical roles on such shows as 30 Rock and Saturday Night Live. There is, however, much more to the award-winning actor and producer, especially concerning classical music. Someone who has described the arts as “essential like water,” Baldwin has been a longtime advocate, drawing attention to the need for federal funding, arts education, and institutional support. A former president of the advocacy organization The Creative Coalition and current board member of the New York Philharmonic, Baldwin has been committed to arts awareness and philanthropy for decades.

Princeton University Concerts brought this side of Baldwin to Richardson Auditorium last Saturday as part of its Music & Healing series. In a format fusing discussion, music, and a bit of storytelling, Saturday afternoon’s event was moderated by WQXR radio host Terrance McKnight and interspersed with piano selections played by Juilliard-trained Tony Siqi Yun. The interaction between McKnight and Baldwin enabled the audience to eavesdrop on a dialog on where the arts have been and are headed, as well as the role of classical music in the lives of both these individuals.

Despite a visible career in film, television, and stage (which has led to 78 award nominations and 22 wins), Baldwin talked as if music has spoken to him
the most.

“Music connects people and brings out humanity,” the actor said, and although he did not receive an abundance of music education as a youth, he recognizes that music can be consumed anywhere, and “once you understand how music affects you, everything changes.”

Baldwin’s commitment to classical music is also rooted in his awe and respect for the dedication and training of the players and what it takes to put them on stage. For almost 20 years, he has been the host of The New York Philharmonic This Week radio program (a position he referred to as being the “bat boy” of the Philharmonic), and his current podcast has included interviews with leading international musicians.

What may have been surprising to Saturday’s attendees was that Baldwin has been particularly partial to the music of Gustav Mahler. Claiming that a first listening of Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 hit him “like a dart,” Baldwin credits the late 19th-century Viennese composer with being a stabilizing thread, refuge, and continual source of calm in his life. Baldwin’s conversation with McKnight included two recorded Mahler excerpts — the final movement of Symphony No. 4 in G Major in which a soprano conveys a child’s view of heaven and the opening “Andante comodo” of Symphony No. 9, which started Baldwin down his classical music path.

One thing which was clear from his commentary is that Baldwin knows conductors and their individual sounds. Whether Otto Klemperer from the early 20th century, George Szell of the middle decades, or current New York Philharmonic leader Gustavo Dudamel, Baldwin showed a discerning ear and an informed outlook on conductors throughout history, especially interpreters of Mahler.

Moderator McKnight has been a broadcaster for New York’s WQXR for almost 20 years and has hosted a wide range of classical music programs. McKnight found parallels between the lives of Baldwin and Mahler, pointing out how Mahler turned the tragedies of his life into art. Following major setbacks over the past five years in particular, Baldwin credits Mahler’s music as pulling him from a depth in which he was “wallowing in my misery.” McKnight demonstrated a complete understanding of Baldwin’s affinity for the composer, agreeing that “once you go Mahler, you never go smaller.”

Pianist Tony Siqi Yun played two selections during the 90-minute conversation, both presented with sensitivity and expressiveness. The Frédéric Chopin Nocturne performed showed Yun’s especially fluid right hand as he found a wide range of dynamics in the music. Both this work, and the Bach piece heard earlier, served to recenter the audience and allow a reprieve in the collective rapt attention in the hall.

The mission of Princeton University Concerts’ Music & Healing series has been to “explore the intersection of music, healing and human experience.” Although Saturday afternoon’s event included only a handful of musical selections, the surrounding discussion was an important affirmation of the impact of music, and introduced the listeners to attributes of both Alec Baldwin and Gustav Mahler that they may not previously have known.