Read The Leonard Bernstein Letters Online
Authors: Leonard Bernstein
64
The Town Hall Music Forum in New York devoted to Copland took place on 17 February 1943. Bernstein played Copland's Piano Sonata, and Daniel Saidenberg conducted
Music for the Theatre
and the first performance of
Music for the Movies
.
65
WNYC is a public radio station in New York City, on air since 1924.
66
Bernstein originally conceived a group of six pieces, but by the time of publication by Witmark in 1944, he had added “Dedication to Aaron Copland” to make
Seven Anniversaries
.
67
The North Star
was based on a story by Lillian Hellman, with a screenplay by her. It was made by Samuel Goldwyn at the request of President Franklin D. Roosevelt to help boost support for America's alliance with the Soviet Union against Germany. The “North Star” of the title is a farming collective in Ukraine, a community whose life is shattered by a brutal Nazi occupation.
68
P.M.
was a short-lived left-leaning newspaper published in New York between 1940 and 1948.
69
The NBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski gave a broadcast performance of Stravinsky's
Symphony in C
on 21 February 1943. Bernstein's reply ended with a plea for Copland to put in a word for him, and his reaction to Stravinsky's symphony: “Can anything be done about me? Do they need Sonata-players in Hollywood? I heard Igor's symphony too. What a fine first mov't! A little long, but so good. Main criticism: sounds too much like Harold Shapero. I just live for the moment when you pin that medal on me. I love you. L.”
70
The card depicts three “Skyscrapers of New York City” (the Empire State Building, the Rockefeller Center – where the Advanced Music Corporation had its address – and the Chrysler Building).
71
A recording of the radio broadcast given by Oppenheim and Bernstein on 21 February.
72
Bernard Rogers (1893–1968) was a composition pupil of Nadia Boulanger and Ernest Bloch. He taught at the Eastman School during Oppenheim's time as a student there.
73
Artur Rodzinski (1892–1958), Polish conductor who was appointed Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, 1943–7. Bernstein became the orchestra's Assistant Conductor in September 1943 (see Letter 152).
74
Shadow of a Doubt
was directed by Alfred Hitchcock with a screenplay co-written by Thornton Wilder. It was released in January 1943.
75
Serenade
by James M. Cain. A few years later, Bernstein contemplated a musical setting of this novel. See Letters 262–265.
76
Collectively these pieces – the
Six Anniversaries
and “Dedication to Aaron Copland” – became the
Seven Anniversaries
, published in 1944.
77
This short piece was subsequently orchestrated as “Variation 2 (Waltz)” in
Fancy Free
(1944); the ballet is dedicated to Adolph Green. I am grateful to Sophie Redfern for helping to clarify this, and for showing me the relevant pages in the sketches for
Fancy Free
. These include sketch pages for clarinet and piano headed “Extension by Leonard Bernstein” (in Green's hand) “of a theme by Adolph Green” (in Bernstein's hand).
78
The cellist Jesse Ehrlich was one of Bernstein's friends from Harvard (he played the cello in the orchestra for
The Birds
), and he was a roommate at Tanglewood in 1940.
79
Copland wrote about Harris in
Our New Music
(1941).
80
According to Paul Bowles’ review published on 15 March 1943 in the
New York Herald Tribune
, the League of Composers Concert at New York Public Library on 14 March included the
Pastoral
for viola and piano by Elliott Carter, a String Quartet by Vincent Persichetti, songs by Beatrice Laufer, Lukas Foss’ Duo for cello and piano, a group of songs by Van Vactor, Wilde, Bacon, Bricker, and John Cage, and Bernstein's Clarinet Sonata.
81
Paul Hindemith (1895–1963), German composer and violist. He emigrated to the United Status in 1940, returning to Europe in 1953.
82
Lady in the Dark
ran on Broadway in 1941–2, and returned there in February 1943 with Gertrude Lawrence reprising her starring role as Liza Elliott.
83
Copland's
Lincoln Portrait
.
84
I Hate Music! A Cycle of 5 Kid Songs
.
85
Probably a reference to Caspar Hauser (1812–33), the mysterious German youth of reputedly noble origin who inspired a poem by Verlaine and is mentioned by Herman Melville in
Billy Budd
and by Hans Christian Andersen in
Beauty of Form and Beauty of Mind
, as well as being the subject of Jakob Wassermann's 1908 novel
Caspar Hauser oder Die Trägheit des Herzens
.
86
Paul Bowles wrote in his review that the Clarinet Sonata “had something which is at a premium in contemporary music: meaty, logical harmony. It was also alive, tough, and integrated. The idiom was a happy combination of elements from both east and west of the Rhine, but only indirectly from that far away. There were stronger hints of what goes on north and south of the Rio Grande, these perhaps more directly via Copland. Through most of this (the andante seemed less real) ran a quite personal element: a tender, sharp, singing quality which would appear to be Mr. Bernstein's most effective means of making himself articulate. The work was expertly performed by David Oppenheim, with the composer at the piano.”
87
André Kostelanetz (1901–80), the Russian-born American conductor who had commissioned Copland's
Lincoln Portrait
and had exclusive performance rights at the time.
88
George Antheil (1900–59), American composer whose career began in Europe as an experimental composer of works inspired by technology (
Airplane Sonata
,
Ballet méchanique
). In Paris he met the likes of Erik Satie, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, Virgil Thomson, and Ernest Hemingway. He went to Hollywood in 1936 and subsequently worked regularly as a film composer while continuing to write concert works.
89
Bernstein's New York conducting debut took place the day after he wrote this letter. On 30 March 1943 he conducted the premiere of Paul Bowles’ one-act zarzuela
The Wind Remains
(after Lorca) at the Museum of Modern Art. The choreography was by Merce Cunningham, and the sets were designed by Oliver Smith. At the same event he conducted
Homenaje a Federico García Lorca
(1936) by Silvestre Revueltas.
90
Frederick Fennell (1914–2004), American conductor who studied with Koussevitzky at Tanglewood in 1942 when he was a classmate of Bernstein, Lukas Foss, and Walter Hendl. Fennell later made numerous recordings for Mercury with the Eastman Wind Ensemble.
91
The “Third Serenade” was presented by the Museum of Modern Art; it was one of five “Serenades of rare music ancient and modern on alternate Tuesday evenings beginning March 2, 1943,” so-called because they were modeled on the concerts given by
La Sérénade
in Paris before the outbreak of the Second World War, which had been organized by the Marquise Yvonne de Casa Fuerte, co-organizer of the Museum of Modern Art “Serenades” with Virgil Thomson.
92
Herbert Stothart (1885–1949), American composer and arranger who spent the last 20 years of his life working for MGM. His credits included
A Night at the Opera
for the Marx Brothers,
The Wizard of Oz
for which his background score won an Oscar, and
Mrs. Miniver
, which Bowles himself described in an article for
Modern Music
(November–December 1942) as “the regular, overstuffed, plush tonality of Hollywood.”
93
This is less surprising given that Virgil Thomson was one of the organizers of the concert. But he did single out Bernstein for praise, describing his conducting as “superb and musicianly.”
94
Constance Askew (1895–1984) was a generous patron of artists, writers, and musicians, including Virgil Thomson. She was married to the art dealer Kirk Askew. John Houseman described her as “a New England woman of means, of broad cultural experience and striking beauty.” The arresting portrait of her by Pavel Tchelitchew (1938) now hangs in the Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford, CT.
95
George Chavchavadze (1904–62), Russian pianist.
96
Rhoda Saletan.
97
The songs were published by Witmark.
98
This is the address on the headed paper, but by the time he wrote this letter Bernstein was living at 15 West 52nd Street.
99
Will Geer (1902–78), American actor and activist. Following his university studies in Botany, Geer began his acting career in the late 1920s. In 1934, he joined the Communist Party and toured government work camps with Woody Guthrie and Burl Ives as well as working as a classical actor. He appeared regularly as a member of The Group Theatre at its summer home in Pine Brook Country Club, Nichols, CT. Blacklisted in the 1950s for his refusal to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee, he renewed his interest in botany, setting up the Theatrum Botanicum, an outdoor theater for blacklisted actors with a garden in which every plant mentioned by Shakespeare was grown. Geer later achieved fame as Grandpa Zebulon Walton in
The Waltons
. At his deathbed, Geer's family sang Woody Guthrie's
This Land is Your Land
and recited poetry by Robert Frost. His ashes were buried in his own Shakespeare Garden.
100
Koussevitzky performed Copland's
Lincoln Portrait
several times in March and April 1943 in Boston and New York. At Carnegie Hall on 3 April it appeared on the same program as Schuman's
A Free Song
and Barber's
Essay for Orchestra No. 1
(“Billy & Barber”), with Beethoven's Fifth Symphony in the second half.
101
Edys Merrill.
102
The Wind Remains
.
103
The pianist Jesús María Sanromá (1902–84).
104
See note 87 to Letter 134.
105
Probably the two-volume edition of Havelock Ellis’
Studies in the Psychology of Sex
published by Random House in 1940.
106
Bernstein often spelt it “Rohrschach”; Oppenheim's “Rorschach” is correct.
107
Name blacked out.
108
On 18 May 1943, Bernstein took part in an evening presented by The Little Red Schoolhouse (a fund-raiser to buy scientific equipment for the progressive school in Greenwich Village) at Town Hall, with Virgil Thomson as master of ceremonies and Bernstein as commentator and pianist, to “illustrate the influence of folk music and jazz on the contemporary composer.” Bernstein illustrated his points by playing his piano transcription of Copland's
El Salón México
. The event was reviewed by Paul Bowles in the
New York Herald Tribune
on 19 May 1943.
109
Copland's nickname for his car.
110
In Letter 140, Copland called it a “two volume affair”.
111
The Blue Angel was a nightclub founded by Herbert Jacoby. An article in
Time
magazine from 26 April 1943 – just a couple of weeks before Bernstein wrote this letter to Renée Longy – evokes Claude Alphand's singing at the club:
The De Gaullist movement has found its loveliest voice. She sang last week at a new Manhattan cabaret, the Blue Angel, opened by balding, long-nosed, toothy Herbert Jacoby, ex-secretary to France's imprisoned ex-Premier Leon Blum. Chic as a Paris bandbox, its jet-black walls garnished with white lilies and orchids, the Blue Angel gave off more than a suggestion of the smarter mortuaries. But it ceased to be funereal when a swarm of De Gaullist refugees and friends produced an opening-night crush of such confusion that New York Daily News Columnist Danton Walker, for one of the few times in his professional life, was presented with his own check.
Many of the throng went especially to hear Claude Alphand sing. She is a beautiful, blonde, rather waxwork-like Frenchwoman who accompanies her balladry on the guitar. Rated by many as the best French chanteuse since Yvette Guilbert and Lucienne Boyer, she sings with a feline throatiness and great stylistic elegance. Her favorite song is: Prenez le temps d'aimer […] – Alphand's delivery of such sentiments makes her worth $750 a week to the Blue Angel's Jacoby.
Mme. Alphand has only recently turned professional. Before the war she was prominent in Paris society; she is the wife of Hervé Alphand, former Treasury attaché of the Vichy Government in Washington. Her father, Robert Raynaud, founded La Dépêche Marocaine, the first French daily newspaper in Morocco. When the Alphands arrived in the US three years ago, Hervé Alphand said: “In France now there are only two things to do: to work and to be silent. I have come here to work and to be silent.” But he did not stay silent long. Less than a year after his arrival, he announced his disagreement with Vichy policy, resigned, went to England where he joined the De Gaullist fighting forces.
Mme. Alphand had to find a way to earn her living. Her friends had long admired her repertory of some 200 salty popular songs. Helped by a group of them (Lady Mendl, Henry Bernstein, Elsa Maxwell), she began appearing at a French hangout called Le Petit Palais. Among Manhattan's Francophile intelligentsia, her nostalgic music was sensational. Manhattan's Liberty Music Shop issued an album of Alphand recordings, quickly sold 1,000 copies.
Today, though Manhattan's swankest pub-crawlers flock to hear her, Mme. Alphand is already tired of professional life. Says she, with a Gallic shrug: “If I am not to sing, then I must sew, I must make hats or something.” But she admits that she is not doing badly in the new world, says: “Heaven was very charming to me.”
112
Three popular French
chansons
.
113
A French folk song.
114
Bernstein's original French text is included out of interest. The following is an English translation: