Spring/Summer 2017
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News for Friends of Leonard Bernstein Spring/Summer 2017 Special Edition © ALFRED EISENSTAEDT 2 Let the Celebrations Begin 6 Musician for the World 14 In the News Inside... 4 A Multifarious Career 8 Passing the Baton 16 Looking Ahead 5 Artful Learning 12 LeonardBernstein.com 17 Some Performances SS2017_PFR_art(20RE)_draft2.indd 1 3/31/17 4:24 PM Let the Celebrations Begin! eonard Bernstein at 100! What a by Jamie Bernstein and Age of Anxiety, explored the trou- Lpriceless and unrepeatable oppor- Craig Urquhart bling times of the 1940s. His musical tunity to share his legacy with those Candide was devised as a protest who experienced him in his lifetime, ugust 25, 2018 will against the evils of McCarthyism as well as to introduce him to the next be the 100th Birthday of in the 1950s. West Side Story con- fronted head-on the ramifications of generation. People and organizations Leonard Bernstein. Yes, 100 — though it seems like bigotry and prejudice. His prophetic all over the world are cooking up a A only yesterday that he was among us, MASS from 1971, which examines myriad exciting presentations for sharing his prodigious gifts. a war-torn nation’s crisis of faith, the celebration — as this special issue Leonard Bernstein’s range of brings together musical styles as clearly indicates. accomplishments was uniquely diverse as America itself. For those of you who had the good broad; as a composer, educator, con- Bernstein’s legacy as a conduc- fortune of experiencing Leonard ductor, political activist and more, tor is unequaled. Its very beginning Bernstein firsthand, we have a very he was a significant contributor to is now legend: on November 14, special request for you: the cultural life of the 20th century. 1943, Bernstein stepped in for ailing In the new millennium, his legacy conductor Bruno Walter at the last Please participate in the resonates more than ever. minute, creating a sensation and Leonard Bernstein Memory As a theatre composer, Bernstein appearing on the front page of The Project! and his collaborators brought us New York Times the next morning. So many of you who experienced such outstanding shows as On The From that Cinderella-like debut, Leonard Bernstein up close have a Town, Wonderful Town, West Side Bernstein went on to conduct the story to tell. The Memory Project Story and Candide. As a composer great orchestras of the world for over hopes to collect them and build for the concert hall, Bernstein’s four decades, creating along the way a unique digital memorial to the scores boldly united diverse musical a priceless trove of audio and video recordings, which together comprise Maestro. elements at a time when it was unpopular to do so. His courage a masterwork of the symphonic rep- You can submit anything from a in mixing genres paved the way for ertoire as a whole. brief audio account, to a photo of a future generations of composers to As an educator who understood memento, to a written description of take similar risks. the power of television, Bernstein, a personal experience. We know there Bernstein’s compositions em- with The New York Philharmonic, are thousands of you out there with braced the world he lived in. For brought orchestral music directly such stories! Please share them with example, his Symphony No. 2: The into the living rooms of families us, so that we can help share them with the rest of the world. DON HUNSTEIN You can submit them to the link below, or, if you prefer the old-fash- ioned forms of communication, you may send your contribution to us through the mail, to this very pub- lication. The address is on the back Prelude, Fugue & Riffs Prelude, page. (Remember to include a written permission for us to share it on our website.) We look forward to hearing from you! And we hope all you readers will enjoy many of the upcoming events cel- Spring/Summer 2017 ebrating Leonard Bernstein at 100. LeonardBernstein.com/memories J.B. ■ Leonard Bernstein at the piano. Photo by, and in loving memory of, photographer Don Hunstein who passed away on March 18, 2017. 2 SS2017_PFR_art(20RE)_draft2.indd 2 3/31/17 4:24 PM COURTESY OF THE NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC LEON LEVY ARCHIVES DIGITAL across America and around the Let the Celebrations Begin! world. Several generations were inspired and motivated by the Young People’s Concerts with the New York Philharmonic — programs that still set the standard for music education that engages, delights, and enter- tains. Bernstein’s lifelong method of using the arts as a springboard for acquiring all kinds of knowl- edge lives on in the educational reform model Artful Learning. The model, developed by Bernstein’s son Alexander, is being used in scores of schools around the United States. Not only do Artful Learning stu- dents acquire knowledge; they retain that knowledge by learning how to think creatively. Through his music-making, Leonard Bernstein found innu- merable ways to speak out against the injustices of the world. Over the decades, his music — as well as his own voice — advocated coura- © OF NYC COMMERCE DEPARTMENT AND EVENTS Town in Germany and Austria; and Leonard Bernstein geously for causes from civil rights performances of MASS in London, with students to anti-fascism to AIDS awareness. Paris, Los Angeles, Glasgow, (above) and His role as a citizen-artist provides addressing a rally and Austin among other cities. an inspiring model for the politically at New York City Bernstein’s opera A Quiet Place engaged artists of today. Hall. (left). will be presented in Vienna and The official Leonard Bernstein Budapest. In addition, the Grammy®® ® at 100 celebrations will begin in Museum is preparing a major the autumn of 2017, continuing Leonard Bernstein exhibition which through August 25, 2019. An official will travel to a number of cities in the kick-off at the Kennedy Center this United States. September marks the beginning of The Leonard Bernstein Office the worldwide festivities, events, and is beyond excited to welcome every- reflections about Bernstein’s life. one to participate in this global Festive concerts will take place celebration. We look forward to in cities Bernstein held dear to will pay special attention to his hearing from you and working with his heart — New York, Boston, contributions. you to make Leonard Bernstein at Philadelphia, Washington D. C., Bernstein’s principal recording 100 grand, memorable, and — to use Los Angeles, San Francisco — and companies, Sony and Deutsche one of Leonard Bernstein’s favorite in additional cities such as Austin, Grammophon, are issuing com- words — fun. ■ Atlanta, Houston, Tucson and many memorative box sets and remastered others. Bernstein was a man of the recordings. There will also be new Fugue & Riffs Prelude, globe, and so there will be major recordings of Bernstein’s music, Leonard Bernstein’s range events in London, Paris, Berlin, performed by the successive gener- Vienna, Prague, Rome, Budapest, ations of musicians he inspired. In of accomplishments Warsaw, as well as in Japan, China, addition, there are several documen- India, Brazil, Australia and Israel – tary films in the making, covering was uniquely broad; as and the list goes on. a broad range of topics in his life. The three music festivals with Bernstein’s musicals will receive a composer, educator, Spring/Summer 2017 which Leonard Bernstein was revivals throughout the world, closely associated — Tanglewood, including a worldwide tour of the conductor, political activist The Schleswig Holstein Music acclaimed BB Promotion’s West Side Festival and Pacific Music Festival — Story; productions of Wonderful and more... 3 SS2017_PFR_art(20RE)_draft2.indd 3 3/31/17 4:24 PM Reflections on a Multifarious Career © UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL inspiring, sometimes dismaying suc- released to Milan to conduct Maria cession of people who have inhabit- Callas in Medea. Such were the ed the White House. times. His patriotism was unmistak- In years to come, when people able, yet it was always an idealistic suffering from a horrible new dis- patriotism. Simply put, Bernstein ease called AIDS were shunned wanted the United States to live up and even turned away by hospitals, to its aspirations — and he was confi- Bernstein was a founding and deci- dent enough to speak his mind when sive member of “Music for Life,” he was disappointed. Like many which presented memorable con- people of his era, he had been cap- certs at Carnegie Hall to support the tivated by the Popular Front in the brave early efforts of doctors deter- 1930’s, and subsequently impressed mined to fight the virus. To the end by the tenacity with which the Soviet of his life, he continued to speak out Union had repelled the Nazis. (Let on subjects ranging from the global us not forget that the Gulag was all- threat of nuclear escalation to the but-unknown to most Americans economic policies of the Reagan era. Leonard Bernstein by Tim Page for another quarter century.) When the Berlin Wall came and The National Bernstein’s youthful enthusiasm led down in the middle of a warm Symphony ore than any other American to membership in several left wing November night, prompting the end Orchestra musician, Leonard Bernstein organizations during the 1940s, of communism’s long domination of performing M which in turn led to an FBI file that Eastern Europe (and, soon enough, Haydn's Mass in exemplified the tradition of the the Time of War “homme engagé” — that of a celebrat- grew to 800 pages by the 1980s. the fall of the Soviet Union), it had at the National ed creator and intellectual who will Within that file, one could also to be Leonard Bernstein who led the Cathedral, 1971.