The Leonard Bernstein Letters (100 page)

Dear Mr. Bernstein,

Nancy and I are delighted to join with your many friends and admirers gathered in Tanglewood to extend warmest congratulations to you on your 70th birthday.

Your remarkable career as a conductor, pianist, and composer has greatly enriched American culture. Your memorable compositions during a long and prolific career have captured the hearts and dreams of generations of your countrymen.

From
West Side Story
to
On the Waterfront
, your music has cheered us, thrilled us, rallied us, and gladdened us. Today, we salute you for your rare gift for music and your outstanding contribution to the artistic life of our Nation.

Happy Birthday and God bless you.

Sincerely,

Ronald Reagan

Dear DD,

Thank you for the birthday wishes, but how dare you talk of no communication from me when the last I've seen or heard from you was after I'd lost five years of my life learning & teaching & performing your 9th Symphony and you walked off with your 75,000 bucks and little or no thanks and remained unheard from except via certain people who read your weighty input to a Peyser book which I have promised my children on my honor never to read.

… and I think that after decades of saving you from suicide, mental collapse, poverty, public fantasizing, and generally spoiling other people's lives you may owe me a bit more than a green, posterity-oriented birthday greeting, but never mind …

… (as always, ungenerous to my colleagues)

Goodbye & good luck.

L
⁴⁷

Dear Lenny,

I salute you on the wonderful occasion of your 70th birthday and wish you many more years of success, happiness and fulfillment.

I cannot believe that so many years have gone by since we first met and first performed together and Ruth and I introduced you to Felicia, your beautiful bride to be. Then, I felt like an older brother full of admiration for your God-gifts. Today, I feel more like a loving uncle delighting in your enormous growth and achievements. May the gods continue to carry you to the ultimate portals of your deepest hopes and wishes.

Yours ever,

Claudio

Dear Genius,

Happy Birthday!

You are one of the few who deserves everything warm and wonderful that will be said about you on this marvelous occasion of reaching what Abe Lincoln would have called 3 score and ten.

And I think it's sensational this big bash in your honor is being held at your beloved Tanglewood in the shade of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Be assured, Lenny, that between songs here in Reno, where I am performing tonight, I raise a toast in your honor, in gratitude for all you have done for the musical world which bows towards you in appreciation this day, and for all you
have done for the personal world I alone inhabit and which is a far better place because of your friendship, which I will always cherish.

Happy Birthday, young man. I can hardly wait for your next seventy.

Warmest hugs,

Francis Albert

Dear Lenny,

Among all the wonderful things, I was most moved by
Mass
.
⁴⁹
It is way out there (a place I, too, inhabit), takes every kind of chance, and succeeds wonderfully. The pacing of the whole musical, dramatic unfolding is so skilful!

Thoughts of the moment and thanks for the never-to-be-forgotten music.

David

P.S. Look forward too, to Fall!
⁵⁰

Dear old Dovidl,

I've just returned from Europe and discovered your letter of two months ago. I don't want to discuss details, but I do want to say that I'm sorry I wrote you in the way I did. I should never have sent that letter in such a burst of anger (I can't remember ever having written such a letter to anyone, and besides, the anger was probably related to something else and only triggered by you).

So, I'm sorry; but I must say I meant every word of it.

Shalom uv'rachah [peace and blessings to you]

Lenny
⁵¹

Lenny,

You were every bit as terrific as I thought you'd be.
Tattoo
⁵²
came to life like I'd dreamed and in 4 different ways, too. I love your Rubens, Van Gogh, Vermeer, Rembrandt versions of the piece!

And most of all I love you.

All my gratitude, love, and envy.

David

Dear Lito,

Overleaf, behold my refuge from ragweed,
⁵⁴
1941, and the garret where I wrote my Clarinet Sonata, and started a ballet called
Conch Town
(bits to be found in
Fancy Free
, all the shows, including the whole tune of “America” in
West Side
). The house was dark brown then, and all I could afford.
⁵⁵

Love,

LB

Dear Lenny,

Thanks for the telegram, and for the quick glimpses of your face on Sunday night's broadcast when you were listening to the song.
⁵⁶
I empathized with your apprehension at the start of it and was therefore doubly pleased at your relief when you realized that it was going to be affectionate (as well as brilliant, of course).

As you may have gathered, I called you when you were on vacation – it was just to give a nostalgic Christmas hello. I was about to do so again two weeks ago but Harry [Kraut] said you were in the slough of despond and it was not a good time. I'll try again. It would be nice to see you. Or at least talk.

Love,

Steve

My Marvelous Marin,

The bronchitis has finally felled me, and I've cancelled everything for this Sunday (a
necessary
Sabbath!) Forgive me, and do understand that I'm with you, every 16th-note.

Be glorious.

Love

LB

Dear Darling Doriot,

Forgive & forget! I am in temporary collapse, abed, and have cancelled all activities for the day (including my own kiddies' concert) so that I can do this coming week with full powers. I know you'll understand.

Have a great party – and I do so look forward to our Shosty!

Love,

Lenny

Dear Mr. Bernstein,

It was so wonderful to have the chance to see you in New York last week. Thank you for your time and for the lunch. My only regret is that I did not get to see the letters that you received from Boris Pasternak with his comments on the meaning of art.

I am very excited that you are willing to write a trio for Mr. Stern, Manny [Emanuel Ax], and me; I can't tell you what a thrill it is. Although you must hear this from so many people, I would just like to add that those of us who have the privilege of coming in contact with you do feel truly blessed.

Warmest wishes,

Yo-Yo Ma

Dear Maestro, Dear Lennie!

“Non per me, ma per altri”, “che voi dire, per altri”?
⁵⁹
It's my son: he has become a fan of yours. (This is an understatement.) He is working at Unitel in Munich, translating your Salzau
Romeo und Julia
tapes–commentaries into German. He “schwärms” about you on the phone and I hear about Romeo sitting in the garden, the triangle that shouldn't sound like a doorbell – in short (he is 24) you seem to have revived his interest in music (something I haven't managed to do) and he is pestering me for the following:

Here is a CD of
West Side Story
. Do you by any means think it
possible
for you to sign the first CD of the set (on the label-side with an indelible thingamajig) with a “dedication” to
Marko
(with a K)
Kleiber
? and leave it (have it left) at the Met or the Carlyle?
⁶⁰

This would make him the happiest person in the world, renew his respect for me (cause I know you personally) and generally improve the morale all round.

Kindest greetings and best wishes from your old

Carlos

Dear Lenny,

I was playing over my “Anniversary”
⁶¹
and noticed an error, which you might want to correct in future (let's hope) editions: namely: in the third bar of the fifth system, the soprano note on the second beat should be a G, not an A. And why did you change the final cadence from a G major chord to an E major chord? Is there a runic significance I missed?
⁶²

Love,

Steve

Hi Lenny,

Must write to you because these San Francisco Symphony days you are
with
me: 2nd half of program: “Masque”
⁶³
and [
On the
]
Waterfront
. 4 evenings in a row at Davies Hall. It's great. 1st half is [Copland's]
Billy the Kid
and
Time Cycle
.
⁶⁴
Practicising “Masque” again is always a revelation; every note so right, so inventive (what I used to love in Stravinsky). Have to practice a lot to get my fingers to do it and my brain to memorize it all, but it worked. 2 evenings behind me, 2 more to go.

Doing
Waterfront
without cuts (there is a cut suggested in print[ed score] from 32 to 33 which I really thinks makes for a lot less drama). Enough! Don't want to bore you.

Hope you are doing what I
should
be doing – composing.

Love,

Lukas

Dear Lenny,

What a terrific letter – thank you! You'll be interested to know that the rhyme you particularly liked (“He goes …, etc.”)
⁶⁵
was the rhyme that Cole Porter liked when Jule [Styne] and I played a few songs for him. I always detected his influence on your work.

And thanks for the advance birthday present. It's indeed tempting to set – maybe for your 75th. I'm still a slow writer.

If you have the time and inclination when you get back from tanning yourself, give me a call and let's have our semi-annual evening alone.*

Love,

Steve

*I'll even play you the new score
⁶⁶
SS

Dearest Maestro,

I wanted to telephone you, but didn't want to disturb your rest.

Thank you for introducing me to Japan – and vice versa!

The greatest enticement (if it can be called that) to come on this trip was the opportunity to work with you once again.
⁶⁷

And, once again, it was an inspiration. You haven't ever let me down since I first wanted to become a conductor when I was 11 and saw one of your NY Phil concerts! But more than that, you've been a constant source of energy and integrity and leadership and innovation to our world.

I hope only that I can make a small contribution and always make you proud of me.

I love you – and thank you for helping
all
of us.

Marin

Dearest Son,

I have confidence in you, that you are on the right track. I know you are watching out for yourself. No one can do it for you, but you and you alone.

I feel a lot better now because I am looking towards your quick recovery. As you know dear, if you stay well, I will stay well.
⁶⁸
You are surrounded by a beautiful family, your children and grandchildren. That in itself should be good medicine for you.

Looking forward to a Happy (Jewish) New Year for you, and your dear family.

I want to wish you happy composing and so much love.

Your one and only

Mother xxx

My dear Lenny,

I was more than sorry to learn of the announcement you have made yesterday and I would just like to send these few lines, to let you have my warmest thoughts and support, both now and in the future.

It is wonderful that you will continue to write and teach; do keep in touch and let me know if we can meet when I am in New York next, in April.
⁶⁹

As ever,

Georg

1
John McClure, personal communication, 20 February 2013.

2
Craig Urquhart was Bernstein's assistant from January 1986 until 1990. He is a vice-president of the Leonard Bernstein Office, and founded the Bernstein newsletter
Prelude, Fugue & Riffs
.

3
The program on 22 July consisted of Haydn's
Thereisenmesse
and Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony.

4
This important (and acclaimed) revival of
West Side Story
opened at Broadway's Minskoff Theatre in February 1980 and ran for 333 performances. It was directed by Robbins – his first work on Broadway for sixteen years – with the close involvement of several people involved in the original 1957 production, including sets by Oliver Smith, costumes by Irene Sharaff, and lighting by Jean Rosenthal. The Musical Director was John DeMain, who went on to conduct the world premiere of Bernstein's
A Quiet Place
at Houston in 1983.

5
Bernstein conducted Mahler's Ninth Symphony at Tanglewood a week later, on 29 July.

6
Bernstein delivered this speech at the second annual Kennedy Center Honors gala on 2 December 1979. Copland, Henry Fonda, Martha Graham, Tennessee Williams, and Ella Fitzgerald were the five artists honored with lifetime achievement awards. The
Washington Post
(9 December) described Bernstein's tribute to Copland as “a piece of magic.”

7
Rosalynn Carter, wife of President Carter and First Lady.

8
Francis Ford Coppola (b. 1939), film director whose screen credits include
The Godfather
and
Apocalypse Now
.

9
Coppola's
Tucker: The Man and his Dream
was eventually released in 1988, but as a biographical film rather than the “musical–opera–film” outlined to Bernstein in this letter. The genesis and tribulations of this project are described in detail by Gene D. Phillips in
Godfather: The Intimate Francis Ford Coppola
(Lexington: Kentucky University Press), pp. 261–78.

10
“Es” (E flat) is normal German spelling for “S,” while “La” is solfège for A and can be used to spell “L”; by a neat coincidence these musical spellings for Stephen and Leonard form a tritone (augmented fourth) – an interval that is of particular significance in
West Side Story
. Sondheim was born on 22 March 1930 and started working with Bernstein on
West Side Story
in October 1955.

11
A reference to the piano pieces that Bernstein often sent Sondheim as birthday gifts (Stephen Sondheim, personal communication).

12
An inscription written inside a birthday card.

13
The
Divertimento for Orchestra
first performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa on 25 September 1980. Bernstein has written a note at the top of this letter outlining ideas (perhaps the result of a discussion with Robbins) for a ballet treatment:

14
Doriot Anthony Dwyer (b. 1922) was principal flute of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1952 until 1990. She gave the American premiere of
Halil
with the Boston Symphony conducted by Bernstein in a Fourth of July concert of Bernstein's music given at Tanglewood. Bernstein inscribed her copy: “For my beautiful colleague Doriot, with all the old affection and a brand new admiration, Lenny – 4 July '81”.

15
Bernstein received word on 13 August that Karl Böhm was gravely ill, and immediately wrote to him. It is unlikely Böhm ever saw this letter as he died in Salzburg the next day, 14 August.

16
Richard Horowitz (b. 1924), American percussionist and baton maker. He joined the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in 1946 and played with it for 66 years, retiring as principal timpanist in 2012. He made his first baton in 1964 for Karl Böhm and subsequently made batons for many of the world's leading conductors, including Riccardo Chailly, Carlos Kleiber, James Levine, Charles Mackerras, and Klaus Tennstedt, among others. In 2008 he was interviewed in
The New York Times
: “I made Bernstein's batons. He's buried with one of my batons. I think he gave them away more than anything else, gave them to his students. […] Bernstein's, I made out of corks from Champagne bottles.”

17
Built in 1935 for the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, the Deutschlandhalle has a seating capacity for concerts of about 10,000.

18
Bernstein's arithmetic is shaky here: he first met Helen Coates in October 1932, almost fifty-one years before writing this letter. If he was counting back to his New York Philharmonic debut, that had taken place almost forty years earlier, in November 1943. Miss Coates began working as Bernstein's secretary in 1944.

19
Kristin Braly (b. 1948), was a violist in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra until 2005. She wrote this letter two days after playing in the performance of Mahler's
Resurrection
Symphony given in aid of Musicians Against Nuclear Arms that Bernstein conducted in the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, with an orchestra drawn from members of the National Symphony and the Baltimore Symphony.

20
The first Washington performance of
A Quiet Place
was given at the Kennedy Center Opera House on 22 July 1984.

21
The stage version of
Gigi
, directed by John Dexter, opened at the Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London, on 17 September 1985.

22
Possibly Robert Whitehead, one of the producers of
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
.

23
Liz Robertson married Alan Jay Lerner in 1981.

24
The “Jets Quatrain” refers to the passage beginning “Oh, when the Jets fall in at the cornball dance” in the “Jet Song,” included on Bernstein's recording of
West Side Story
made in September 1984. This passage is not in the first piano-vocal score, nor on the original cast recording. It is printed in the 1994 full score (pp. 43–4) and the revised 2000 piano-vocal score, marked in both editions with an optional cut.

25
Sunday in the Park with George
won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Sondheim and James Lapine.

26
The performance of Mahler's Ninth Symphony given in Tel Aviv on 25 August 1985 (Bernstein's 67th birthday) has been released on CD by Helicon Classics (HEL029656).

27
On 5, 6, and 10 December 1985, Bernstein conducted an unusual program comprising the Third Symphonies of Roy Harris, William Schuman, and Aaron Copland.

28
Yevgeny Yevtushenko (b. 1933), Russian poet. This was a project that clearly excited Bernstein (see Letter 619), but nothing came of it. Among Yevtushenko's earlier poems, the most famous – and the one that caused controversy with the Soviet authorities – was
Babi Yar
which provided the inspiration for Shostakovich's Symphony No. 13.

29
In Autumn 1986, Bernstein conducted a series of concerts with the Israel Philharmonic to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary. The first performance of
Jubilee Games
was given in Avery Fisher Hall, New York, on 13 September, and Bernstein then went to Israel to conduct the work in the opening concerts of the 1986–7 season. Sid Ramin (who had helped with the orchestration of
Jubilee Games
) and his wife Gloria went with Bernstein on this trip – their first visit to Israel.

30
These are Bernstein's letters to Ramin printed in Chapter I.

31
Harry Kraut (1933–2007) was Bernstein's business manager from 1971, and became a valued confidant.

32
Aaron Stern was a close friend of Bernstein's in the 1980s. He believed that the arts could be used as a way to greater self-knowledge and cultural transformation. With Bernstein's support he established an institution, the Academy for the Love of Learning.

33
Probably Patrick K. Porter, who founded Positive Changes in 1987 to help people bring about lifestyle changes through hypnosis and counseling.

34
Maureen Lipman (b. 1946), English actress and writer.

35
The London revival of
Wonderful Town
opened at the Queen's Theatre in August 1986 and ran until April 1987, with Maureen Lipman as Ruth and Emily Morgan as Eileen. She recalled the occasion of her meeting with Bernstein: “The memory lingers of our meeting: him in tan leather trousers and a bright turquoise macramé pullover, hugging me and telling me I was a wonderful Ruth and my brain saying ‘take a mental picture of this moment! It'll never come again!’” (Maureen Lipman, personal communication).

36
Leonard Marcus, a Harvard music graduate, was appointed editor-in-chief of
High Fidelity and Musical America
in 1968, a post he held until 1980. Before then he had worked in Minneapolis, had studied conducting with Bernstein and composition with Copland, and was assistant manager of the classical department of London Records from 1959 to 1961. He subsequently worked at Columbia Records and as editor of the Carnegie Hall programs. He became conductor of the Stockbridge Chamber Orchestra (later the Stockbridge Sinfonia) in 1975 and later became the orchestra's conductor emeritus.

37
Claudio Arrau (1903–91), Chilean pianist.

38
Written for a published tribute to Arrau on his 85th birthday on 6 February 1988.

39
For the forthcoming
Jerome Robbins' Broadway
.

40
Like Robbins' letter of 19 April, this concerns the preparations for
Jerome Robbins' Broadway
which opened in February 1989. The show included sequences from
On the Town
and
West Side Story
, and early versions of the extracts from
On the Town
were filmed at piano rehearsals in April and May 1988. This, or something very similar, must be the tape that Robbins describes (copies of these rehearsal tapes are in the New York Public Library of the Performing Arts).

41
Miles Davis (1926–91), jazz musician.

42
The Léonie Sonning Music Prize is Denmark's highest musical honour. The first recipient, in 1959, was Stravinsky, and the second was Bernstein (1965). Other winners included Lutosławski (1967), Britten (1968), Shostakovich (1973), Messiaen (1977), Stern (1982), Boulez (1985), and Miles Davis himself (1984).

43
Frances Elizabeth Taylor married Miles Davis in 1958; they divorced in 1968. In the original production of
West Side Story
she played Francisca (credited as Elizabeth Taylor).

44
Gerald Levinson (b. 1951), American composer, a pupil of George Crumb, George Rochberg, and Olivier Messiaen. Levinson met Bernstein on a few occasions, notably at Tanglewood in 1987 when Levinson's first symphony,
Anāhata
, was performed. Levinson recalls: “In '87 when Oliver Knussen conducted a spectacular orchestra concert which concluded with my
Anāhata
(and included Peter Serkin playing Stravinsky's
Movements
), Lenny and Seiji Ozawa followed my piece with the score, and both – but Lenny in particular – were very enthusiastic. Backstage afterward he said it brought him to tears (‘That bad, eh?’ I stupidly responded). I asked if he'd like to keep the score (my publisher, standing beside me, nodded vigorously); he said, ‘I don't think I'd ever conduct it, but I'd love to possess it’” (Gerald Levinson, personal communication, 23 March 2013).

45
The lower stave is written using Messiaen's
langage communicable
, an alphabetical code for musical spelling (the decoded message is “Mazel Tov and Gesundheit on your Seventieth”). The upper stave includes a Bernstein-ish version of “Happy Birthday,” followed by references to several Bernstein tunes, described by Levinson as follows: “Once Happy Birthday is done it keeps on going through a medley of bits of Bernstein tunes: ‘Maria,’ ‘New York New York,’ and ‘Trouble in Tahiti.’ And the durations of the rests, carefully counted out in numbers in parentheses, add up to 70” (Gerald Levinson, personal communication, 23 March 2013).

46
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004), fortieth President of the United States. Reagan was not known for his interest in music, and his conservative political outlook was diametrically opposed to Bernstein's. One of Bernstein's kinder assessments of Reagan's presidency is to be found in his November 1989 interview with Jonathan Cott: “The last time I went to the White House was during the last days of Jimmy Carter's administration. […] I love the White House more than any other house in the world – after all, I'm a musician and a citizen of my country – but since 1980 I haven't gone back there because it's had such sloppy housekeepers and caretakers. […] We had eight lovely, passive, on-our-backs, status quo, don't-make-waves years with Ronald Reagan. The
fights
I had with my mother! ‘Don't you dare say a word against our president!’ she'd say to me.” (Cott 2013, pp. 81, 82, and 83).

47
The real source of Bernstein's rage was almost certainly Diamond's contribution to Joan Peyser's book, in which, among other things, he was quoted as saying that Bernstein “often hurt him very much.” Diamond replied to Bernstein's furious letter on 26 August 1988 with a long, 12-page diatribe in which he challenged Bernstein's claims, made some harsh comments about the effect of fame on his old friend, defended his own cooperation with Peyser, and ended with a plea: “Lenny – don't make our friendship a poisoned one. Make it instead as rich as it once was. Take me out of this horrible depression your letter has caused me. No matter what I will be at your concerts this fall.” After returning from concerts in Europe, Bernstein replied on 24 October (see Letter 637). But it was too late: after almost fifty years, their friendship was over.