News for Friends of Leonard Bernstein Spring/Summer 2018 WALTER STRATES, COURTESY NEW STRATES, YORK PHILHARMONIC ARCHIVES WALTER Inside... 2 A Man in Full 6 Library of Congress 12 In the News 4 Artful Learning 8 Gluzman on Serenade 15 Exhibits 5 Anniversaries 10 Books 19 New Releases SS2018_PFR_art_draft.indd 1 5/22/18 1:35 PM A Man in Full HEW! My brother, sister The following article appeared in For all his early misgivings, Wand I, along with the entire The Economist on January 18, Samuel later conceded that his Bernstein Office, worked hard 2018 – unattributed, as is their son was a genius. In his passport, over several years to encourage practice. Leonard Bernstein simply called the world to celebrate Leonard himself a “musician”—character- Bernstein at 100 – and now we’re f you were a well-heeled istic humility from a man whose certainly getting what we asked Massachusetts lady in the late broad achievements are unique for. The most recent count, on our 1920s and wanted your hair in musical history. Bernstein was data base that keeps track of cen- fixed like the movie stars, a conductor whose interpretive tennial-related events, has soared Ithere was one man to turn to: gifts over the course of half a past 3,000 and continues to grow. Samuel Bernstein. In 1927, this century shone light on the classics We are truly, and gloriously, over- entrepreneurial immigrant, who from Haydn to Mahler, Bartok whelmed. had arrived in New York from to Stravinsky. He was a composer We three siblings have been Tsarist Russia aged 16, acquired not just of Broadway masterpieces “trifurcating” like mad: attempt- the only local license to sell like West Side Story, but of ballet, ing to attend, or participate in, as the Frederics Permanent Wave opera and chamber music; orches- many events as possible worldwide. machine for curling hair. Like tral, instrumental, choral and A small sample: Nina goes to the many businessmen of the times, he vocal works; and even a film score U.K. to present two concerts of expected his eldest son to follow (On the Waterfront, starring a Bernstein works; Alexander goes him into the family firm. young Marlon Brando). He was a to Los Angeles to see the Grammy But Louis Bernstein, born fine concert pianist and pioneering Foundation’s Bernstein exhibit at in August 1918 and known to broadcaster; an educator, Harvard the Skirball Center; Jamie goes to everyone as Lenny (he officially lecturer, writer and humanitari- Seville, Spain, to narrate a family changed his name to Leonard as a an; a husband, father, lover—and concert about LB (en español!). teenager), had different ideas. The a bona fide celebrity with the Nina goes to Brandeis to nar- family had no musical roots to good looks, charisma and hair rate “Late Night with Leonard speak of, but ten-year-old Lenny (ironically) of a film star. Such a Bernstein” and to Hong Kong found himself drawn obsessively multifaceted life was not without to participate in festivities there. to his aunt Clara’s piano. No mat- complexities, contradictions and Jamie goes to Sapporo, Japan, ter that his father remained vehe- critics—but oh, what a life. to celebrate at the Pacific Music mently opposed to the notion that The Bernstein legend was Festival, which Bernstein founded he should make music his life, forged on November 14th 1943. in 1990, and then to Ravinia to there was but one path ahead. Having been out partying after present a concert for young audi- ences (and catch Marin Alsop’s COURTESY BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY MASS in concert); Alexander goes to London to hear West Side Story at the Proms, and to Chichester, England, to celebrate Chichester Psalms in its birthplace. And we will finally all be in the same place, Prelude, Fugue & Riffs Prelude, our father’s beloved Tanglewood, on August 25th – for the “bull’s eye” celebration. It’s a bit frustrating; no matter how hard we travel, we’re always still missing something marvelous. Spring/Summer 2018 But of course, these are wonderful problems to be having. J.B. ■ Bernstein prepares the premiere of Trouble in Tahiti at Brandeis University, 1952. 2 SS2018_PFR_art_draft.indd 2 5/22/18 1:35 PM COURTESY NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC ARCHIVE the premiere of his song cycle I There are some shining excep- Hate Music, the 25-year-old was tions, such as Yehudi Menuhin, woken by a phone call at 9:00 Mstislav Rostropovich and Daniel am requesting that he replace Barenboim. Bernstein, a lifelong the indisposed maestro Bruno progressive—“liberal and proud of Walter in a major concert that it”, he once said—was a pioneer in afternoon. It was to be a live, this way. nationwide radio broadcast with The charitable and humani- the New York Philharmonic tarian causes he supported were (where Bernstein was two months legion. “All his life,” his daughter into a gig as assistant conductor) Jamie recalls, he “clung hard to featuring a fearsome programme the belief that by creating beauty, including Schumann, Strauss and by sharing it with as many and Wagner. There was no time people as possible, artists had the for rehearsal. Bernstein put on power to tip the earthly balance “the one good suit that I had” in favour of brotherhood and (a double-breasted sharkskin) peace.” After the assassination and went to Carnegie Hall. “No of John Kennedy in 1963, he signs of strain or nervousness”, declared: “This will be our reply remarked a dazzled New York to violence: to make music more of composing—were a mirror to Seiji Ozawa Times the next day—on its front intensely, more beautifully, more the internal tensions he battled as and Leonard page. Whether it knew it or not, devotedly than ever before.” At a gay man who genuinely wanted Bernstein America was seeking a musical the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, to be a family man, loving hus- playing baseball. figure who could harness the “empowered by the moment” as band and father. In 1951 Felicia European classical tradition with he later said, Bernstein conducted had told him, in a letter: “You a certain homegrown energy. a concert of Beethoven’s Ninth are a homosexual and may never They had found their man. symphony and was inspired to change... I am willing to accept Bernstein was curious about change a vital word in the Schiller you as you are.” They remained all sorts of music, including jazz, poem which forms the final happily married until her death in folk, blues and klezmer. His own Ode to Joy movement, replacing 1978. daughter Jamie—one of three the word Freude (“joy”) with Bernstein died, aged 72, in children Bernstein had with his Freiheit(“freedom”). It became 1990. There have since been bold wife, Felicia Montealegre, a known indelibly as the “Berlin classical composers who straddle Chilean actress—tells of the joy of Freedom Concert”; Bernstein was genres; charismatic conductors devouring Beatles LPs with him. ever the showman. who have the common touch; (He was mad for them: “I learned Meanwhile, his own compo- visionary teachers who practise more about music by listening sitions attempted to address the joyous inclusivity and access. But to the Beatles with my dad than world around him. His Symphony Bernstein was Bernstein. This I think I did any other way.”) No. 2: The Age of Anxiety year, more than 2,000 events will Bernstein’s own music, whether explored the psychic damage of attempt to honour that singular destined for Broadway or the the second world war. Candide legacy. From the American cit- concert hall, is helplessly eclec- was expressly conceived as a pro- ies where he was such a beloved tic—as well as unapologetically test against 1950s McCarthyism. fixture (New York, Boston, tonal when Schoenberg-influenced West Side Story tackled, with eter- Philadelphia, San Francisco, serialism was all the rage. His nal relevance, the tragedy of gang Washington and Chicago) to scores blithely, ingeniously united warfare and the evils of bigotry Europe east and west (London, Prelude, Fugue & Riffs Prelude, disparate musical elements and and prejudice. Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Budapest) forged a path for future musical Bernstein’s political side did to countries as culturally diverse mixologists that would have been not go unnoticed. The FBI’s dos- as Japan, China, India, Brazil, unthinkable without him. sier on him included some 1,000 South Africa and Israel, 100 years Great classical artists trade items. Another cache of docu- since Bernstein’s birth, there is, in elevated abstractions and are ments, released in 2011, proves it seems, a place for him every- Spring/Summer 2018 often given licence by the public that the conflicts he exemplified where. ■ to stay in ivory towers, seemingly in his career—between classical unconcerned about the messy real- purism and the Broadway stage, ©The Economist Newspaper ities of life as it is actually lived. between the public glory of con- Limited, London ducting and the private isolation 3 SS2018_PFR_art_draft.indd 3 5/22/18 1:35 PM Celebrating the Leonard Bernstein Centennial: Contributions to Education interested and excited him – and ANGELA MCCRAE this quest for knowledge and understanding went far beyond music. He explored and studied Shakespeare, Russian literature, by Tom Dean history, biology, astrophysics, and more with the same passion as he ost people know Leonard did music. What sets Bernstein MBernstein as a world-re- apart, what makes him special, nowned composer and conductor is that it wasn’t enough for him whose contributions to music to conduct and compose. He felt and culture can be heard in con- compelled to help us understand cert halls around the world.