The Leonard Bernstein Letters (48 page)

49
Bernstein's optimism is heartening, but the situation in Czechoslovakia was volatile, and deteriorated sharply over the next two years. On 26 May 1946, two weeks after Bernstein wrote this letter, the first Czech post-war general election had a voter turnout of 93.9%. The result was a victory for the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Edvard Beneš continued as president, and Jan Masaryk, son of the founding father of Czechoslovakia, continued as foreign minister. The Communist Klement Gottwald became prime minister. The Communists controlled only a minority of ministries, but these included some of the most important, notably Information, Finance, and the Interior (including control of the police). Through their position of power in these ministries, the Communists were able to establish a solid base from which to launch the Soviet-backed coup in February 1948, beginning four decades of Communist rule that ended with the Velvet Revolution of 1989.

50
The famous actress Helen Hayes (1900–93), who was married to Charles MacArthur. Something of a legend in the American theater, she is one of a select group to have won an Emmy, an Oscar, a Grammy, and a Tony. She had two Broadway theaters named after her. In 1955 the former Fulton Theatre was renamed the Helen Hayes Theatre; after that was demolished in 1982, the nearby Little Theatre was renamed in her honor.

51
Laszlo Halasz (1905–2001) was the first Music Director of New York City Opera, from 1943 to 1951. He then became Recording Director for Remington Records, as well as a conducting teacher at the Peabody Conservatory and Eastman School of Music.

52
i.e.
Madama Butterfly
.

53
The recording session on 1 July 1946 was for Ravel's G major Piano Concerto, in Bernstein's dual capacity as soloist and conductor, made with the Philharmonia Orchestra.

54
Felicia was appearing at the Bass Rocks Summer Theatre in Gloucester, MA.

55
Britten's
Rape of Lucretia
was first performed at Glyndebourne on 12 July 1946.

56
Presumably Bernstein means Dennis Brain, principal horn of the Philharmonia Orchestra.

57
The ink has become progressively fainter on the page and here Bernstein refills his pen.

58
The song “Barney Google (with the Goo-Goo-Googly Eyes)” by Billy Rose and Con Conrad.

59
Bernstein first met Felicia Montealegre Cohn (1922–78) in February 1946, at a party given by Claudio Arrau after he had played the Brahms D minor Piano Concerto with Bernstein conducting the New York City Symphony. Felicia was not only a beautiful and gifted actress, but had been a piano pupil of Arrau's. During the autumn of 1946 she and Bernstein saw each other regularly and grew increasingly close. Bernstein took Felicia with him to Hollywood in December, and it was there that their engagement was celebrated by a party. Leonard Lyons reported in his “Times Square Tattle” (
The New York Times
, 8 January 1947): “This is how Leonard Bernstein's engagement to Felicia Montealegre, the Chilean actress, was announced: Lester Cowan, producer of
The Beckoning Fair One
in which Bernstein will costar, conduct and compose the musical score, gave a hoe-down for them at his ranch. Sinatra sang, Gene Kelly danced and John Garfield donned boxing gloves. Then came a song written by Ann Ronell, author of ‘Willow Weep for Me’, ‘Big Bad Wolf’, etc. The tune was a blending of Haydn's ‘Surprise’ Symphony, Mendelssohn's Wedding March and Bernstein's
Fancy Free
,
On the Town
and
Jeremiah
. The lyrics ended with the announcement: ‘This party has been staged, Because they got engaged. Len & Felicia, Are now officia–lly Two.’ ” In the summer of 1947, Felicia spent time with the Bernstein clan at Tanglewood, and Humphrey Burton wrote of the tensions: “Felicia came to Tanglewood for two long spells that summer […] Life was not easy for her despite her official status as Leonard's fiancée. There was rivalry with Shirley, ostensibly about such mundane matters as who should sit next to Leonard at meals. Helen Coates was also fighting to maintain her old position. Felicia said later that her self-confidence was undermined as Leonard constantly found fault with her” (Burton 1994, p. 166). By September 1947, the couple had decided to call off the engagement and the
Journal-American
on 11 September reported that “Leonard Bernstein's matrimonial plans have been cancelled.” Four years later, on 12 August 1951, the Associated Press announced the couple's second engagement, made by Mrs. Serge Koussevitzky at a supper for the faculty of the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood, where Bernstein had been teaching and conducting during the summer. This time, the engagement was followed by their marriage a month later, on 9 September 1951.

60
During the summer of 1946, Felicia performed in the Broadway production of
Swan Song
by Charles MacArthur and Ben Hecht at the Booth Theatre.

61
A reference to Bernstein's unhappiness during his visit to London in June 1946.

62
The new Bernstein-Robbins ballet
Facsimile
was first performed on 24 October 1946 at the Broadway Theatre, New York, by Ballet Theatre, with Bernstein conducting.

63
Philip and Barbara Marcuse's children, Ann and Philip.

64
Solomon Braslavsky (1887–1975) was born in Ukraine and studied in Vienna, where he was subsequently appointed professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary and conducted Jewish choirs and orchestras before moving to Boston to become Director of Music at Temple Mishkan Tefila in 1928 (see Sarna 2009, p. 39, for details of Braslavsky's early career). Bernstein was overwhelmed by the music he heard at Temple Mishkan Tefila, and wrote to Braslavsky in 1973 that he would “never forget the tremendous influence you and your music made on me when I was a youngster.”

65
The text of this letter is taken from the version published in the
Jewish Advocate
on 17 October 1946, p. 6.

66
Braslavsky wasted no time doing so: the letter appeared in the
Jewish Advocate
on 17 October 1946, just a week after Bernstein wrote to Braslavsky.

67
The Preface for this publication was written by Hugo Leichentritt, who pointed out the similarities between Hebrew sacred music and Gregorian chant, and writes that “Mr. Braslavsky's arrangement is distinguished by a close acquaintance with the peculiar style of this old religious music, and by the skill and beauty of its harmonic treatment.” A review by Jules Wolfers appeared in the
Jewish Advocate
(25 September 1947): “Four extremely interesting Hebrew chants arranged for four part mixed voices and organ […] have recently been published by McLaughlin and Reilly, Boston. That a Catholic publishing house is the medium through which these chants are issued is in itself indicative of the all-over worth of this music. The day is past when Jewish music was of interest only to Jews. […] For Jewish choirs and choral groups their chants are obviously a must. In addition, any person interested in Jewish music will probably wish to acquire this set. Publication of four traditional Jewish chants by a firm named McLaughlin and Reilly must make some sort of publishing history. This is a commendable and heart-warming gesture.”

68
Paul Wittgenstein (1887–1961), Austrian-born pianist who commissioned a number of important new works for piano left hand after he lost his right arm during the First World War. The composers he commissioned included Britten, Hindemith, Korngold, Prokofiev, Franz Schmidt, Richard Strauss, and Alexandre Tansman. The most famous Wittgenstein commission was Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, the subject of this letter.

69
Wittgenstein performed the Ravel concerto with Bernstein conducting the New York City Symphony on 14 and 15 October, in a program that also included Ravel's
Le Tombeau de Couperin
and Beethoven's
Eroica
Symphony. Olin Downes, reviewing the Monday performance in
The New York Times
(15 October) praised Wittgenstein's playing: “in a most authoritative way, he interpreted the music … He has a singing tone as well as five fingers with well-nigh the virtuosity of ten, and he is a colorist who understands not only the piano part but every detail of the orchestration. Mr. Bernstein, conducting, supplied a spirited accompaniment and both men acknowledged the long applause.”

70
Though this letter is undated, it must have been written on 25 October 1946, the day after the “ballet premiere” that Bernstein mentions (the first performance of
Facsimile
). The concert to which the letter refers was given by the New York City Symphony on a visit to Boston on 13 November 1946. Though Bernstein had included the
Enigma Variations
in his New York programme on 11 November, the
Christian Science Monitor
announced the change to Dvořák's Second [Seventh] Symphony in a short article published on 12 November.

71
It's difficult to see what Koussevitzky's problem was with Bernstein bringing his own New York City Symphony to Boston, but clearly the whole episode distressed Bernstein. Relations between the two continued to deteriorate in the last weeks of 1946.

72
Lukas Foss (1922–2009), German-born American composer, conductor, and pianist. Foss' friendship with Bernstein lasted fifty years, from the time of their first meeting at Tanglewood in 1940 until Bernstein's death in 1990. He consistently supported Bernstein's compositions and often appeared as the piano soloist in
The Age of Anxiety
. He conducted the first performance of the
Symphonic Dances from West Side Story
.

73
It certainly was.
If The Shoe Fits
(with a score by David Raksin) opened on Broadway on 5 December 1946 and closed after just twenty-one performances.

74
This refers to a project that was never realized. Bernstein is referring to the proposed film
The Beckoning Fair One
in which he was to co-star and for which he was to compose and conduct the score (see Letters 228 and 238).

75
Program annotator for the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

76
The Associated Press broke the news of the engagement in Hollywood on 31 December 1946 and it was quickly reported by the East Coast press.

77
Thor Johnson (1913–75) was appointed Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in 1947, announced as the youngest native-born American conductor to lead a major American orchestra. He remained in Cincinnati for eleven years. During his tenure of the orchestra he conducted the premieres of 120 American and European works, many of which he had commissioned.

78
Farley Granger (1925–2011), American actor best known for his roles in two Alfred Hitchcock films:
Rope
and
Strangers on a Train
. His first Hollywood appearance had been as Damian Simonov in
The North Star
(he met Aaron Copland during the filming). According to Granger's memoirs (
Include Me Out
), he subsequently had a two-night fling with Bernstein in the late 1940s.

79
Ethel Schwartz and Saul Chaplin were married at the time. They divorced in 1949.

80
Leonore Goldstein (1875–1971) was on the Board of Directors of the St. Louis Symphony for over sixty-five years. Bernstein often called her “Leonore III” after Beethoven's overture. She was the wife of Dr. Max Goldstein, founder of the Central Institute of the Deaf in St. Louis.

81
Stanley Donen (b. 1924), American director of some of the most famous Hollywood musicals. His credits include
On the Town
,
Singin' in the Rain
, and
It's Always Fair Weather
.

82
This letter is undated, but must date from early 1947. Bernstein had a four-week guest engagement with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in February 1947, and Bette Davis was pregnant at the time: her daughter Barbara was born on 1 May 1947.

83
Place and date added by Helen Coates.

84
The score for
Spellbound
was composed by Miklós Rózsa.

85
Progressive Citizens of America. In Bernstein's FBI file, an Office Memorandum dated 2 March 1949, to the Director from D. A. Ladd, indicates (p. 10) that “Buffalo informant [redacted] advised that on March 25, 1947, Bernstein had been the principal speaker at a meeting of the Progressive Citizens of America in Buffalo, New York.”

86
Alice Berezowsky was a friend of Koussevitzky, wife of the composer Nicolai Berezowsky, and author of the book
Duet With Nicky
(1943).

87
Adolph Green was 32 at the time of writing this letter (b. 2 December 1914).

88
Evidently, this was a working title for
Easter Parade
, released in 1948. Comden and Green were not involved.

89
Easter Parade
, with a score by Irving Berlin, starred Judy Garland and Fred Astaire. Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Kathryn Grayson were not in the film.

90
Allyn Ann McLerie (b. 1926), Canadian-born actress. Her Broadway debut was in Kurt Weill's
One Touch of Venus
(1943), and she performed in the ensemble of
On the Town
before replacing Sono Osato as Ivy Smith.

91
Adolph Green married Allyn Ann McLerie on 21 March 1947. They divorced in 1953 and she married the actor George Gaynes the same year.

92
Lewis Funke: “News and Gossip Gathered on the Rialto,”
The New York Times
, 16 February 1947. Concerning
Allegro
, Funke wrote that although Rodgers and Hammerstein were “standing guard over it like a couple of Fort Knox sentries, Mr. Rodgers admitted the other afternoon that it would be a departure from the conventional. In a mood of convivial candor he even breathed, ‘experimental’, and said it would combine dance, drama and music as an integrated unit – something the avant garde has been talking about for a long time.”

93
Roger Edens (1905–70) was a composer and producer in Hollywood, an important member of Arthur Freed's team at MGM. Edens is perhaps best known for nurturing the talent of the young Judy Garland (they became lifelong friends). He was Associate Producer on a string of successful MGM musicals. Comden and Green's greatest Hollywood success was
Singin' In The Rain
(1952), for which they wrote both the story and the screenplay. Most of the songs were by Freed and Nacio Herb Brown, but the new song for which Comden and Green wrote lyrics was “Moses Supposes,” with music by Roger Edens.