Read The Leonard Bernstein Letters Online
Authors: Leonard Bernstein
The Leonard Bernstein Letters
Letters by Leonard Bernstein © Amberson Holdings LLC. Used by permission of The Leonard Bernstein Office, Inc.
All other letters are the copyright of their respective owners. All rights, including the right of further reproduction or transmission, are reserved.
Introductory and editorial material copyright © 2013 Nigel Simeone
All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press) without written permission from the publishers.
For information about this and other Yale University Press publications, please contact:
U.S. Office:
[email protected]
www.yalebooks.com
Europe Office:
[email protected]
www.yalebooks.co.uk
Set in Arno Pro by IDSUK (DataConnection) Ltd
Printed in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-publication Data
Bernstein, Leonard, 1918–1990.
[Correspondence. Selections]
The Leonard Bernstein letters / edited by Nigel Simeone.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–0–300–17909–5 (hardback)
1. Bernstein, Leonard, 1918–1990—Correspondence. 2. Musicians—United States—Correspondence. 3. Composers—United States—Correspondence. 4. Conductors (Music)—United States—Correspondence. I. Simeone, Nigel, 1956– editor. II. Title.
ML410.B566A4 2013
780.92—dc23
[B]
2013033122
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For
Mark Horowitz,
Lauren Doughty,
and
Jasmine Simeone
Contents
Introduction and Acknowledgments
1
Early Years, 1932–41 (Letters 1–89)
2
First Successes: From Tanglewood to
On the Town
, 1941–4 (Letters 90–185)
3
Conquering Europe and Israel, 1945–9 (Letters 186–294)
4
Marriage, Passport Problems, and Italy, 1950–55 (Letters 295–358)
5
West Side Story
, 1955–7 (Letters 359–409)
6
The New York Philharmonic Years, 1958–69 (Letters 410–544)
7
Triumphs, Controversies, Catastrophe, 1970–78 (Letters 545–591)
8
Final Years, 1979–90 (Letters 592–650)
Appendix One: Arthur Laurents (with Leonard Bernstein): Outline for Romeo
sent to
Jerome Robbins
Appendix Two: Bernstein's Letters and Postcards to Mildred Spiegel
Index of Compositions by Leonard Bernstein
Illustrations
Endpapers. Letter from Bernstein to his mother, Israel, November 1948, illustrated by Yossi Stern.
1.
Leonard Bernstein at the piano, 1936.
2.
Leonard Bernstein conducting Stravinsky's
Soldier's Tale
at Tanglewood, 1940. Photo:
Berkshire Eagle
.
3.
The Revuers, 1940s.
4.
Leonard Bernstein, 24 May 1944. Photo: Carl van Vechten.
5.
Leonard Bernstein in Hollywood, 1944, with his portable typewriter.
6.
Leonard Bernstein and Lukas Foss, 1944.
7.
Leonard Bernstein with Jerome Robbins, Betty Comden and Adolph Green working on
On the Town
, 1944.
8.
Leonard Bernstein with Aaron Copland at Bernardsville, NJ, August 1945.
9.
Leonard Bernstein studying the vocal score of Stravinsky's
Oedipus Rex
. Photo: William P. Gottlieb.
10.
Two photographs of Leonard Bernstein in his West 10th Street apartment, c. 1946. Photo: William P. Gottlieb.
11.
A series of photographs of Bernstein conducting in Carnegie Hall, c. 1946. Photo: William P. Gottlieb.
12.
Bette Davis, c. 1940s.
13.
David Diamond, c. 1945.
14.
James M. Cain.
15.
Serge Koussevitzky with Leonard Bernstein and Lukas Foss, 1949. Photo: Whitestone Photo, Heinz-H. Wasserstein.
16.
Leonard Bernstein with David Oppenheim.
17.
Leonard Bernstein at a kibbutz in Israel, festival of Shavuot, 22 May 1950. Photo: Behr, Tel-Aviv.
18.
Martha Gellhorn with Ernest Hemingway at the Stork Club, New York, 1941.
19.
Leonard Bernstein with Stephen Sondheim and Jerome Robbins working on
West Side Story
. Photo: Alfred Eisenstaedt, published in
Life
, 7 January 1957.
20.
Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein and Jerome Robbins being presented with the Key to Washington D.C. by Commissioner Robert E. McLaughlin, 31 August 1957. Photo: Nate Fine.
21.
Leonard and Burton Bernstein skiing, 1958.
22.
Felicia Bernstein as Joan in Honegger's
Joan of Arc at the Stake
, 1958. Photo: Carl van Vechten.
23.
Lukas Foss.
24.
Sid Ramin, on the back cover of his LP
Love is a Swinging Word
. RCA Victor, released in 1959.
25.
Leonard and Felicia Bernstein with Boris Pasternak, Moscow, 1959.
26.
Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland with the score of
El Salón México
, c. 1960.
27.
Leonard Bernstein at the MacDowell Colony, working on
Kaddish
, 1962. Photo: Bernice Perry.
28.
Leonard Bernstein: canon written for Humphrey Burton and Erik Smith, 25 March 1977. Humphrey Burton, private collection.
29.
Jacqueline Kennedy with Leonard and Felicia Bernstein and their children Alexander and Jamie at the Theatre De Lys, New York, 28 June 1965. Photo: Bettmann/Corbis.
1 Leonard Bernstein at the piano in 1936.
2 Leonard Bernstein conducting Stravinsky's
Soldier's Tale
at Tanglewood in 1940 in a version with Bernstein's own words (see Letter 57). Serge Koussevitzky and his wife Natalie are looking down from the balcony. The inscription reads “For Helen [Coates]: Le commencement de ‘L'Histoire d'un élève’ – with much love. Lenny, Aug. 1940”.
3 The Revuers (left to right): Adolph Green, John Frank, Betty Comden, Alvin Hammer, Judy Holliday, 1940s.
4 Leonard Bernstein, 24 May 1944.
