The Leonard Bernstein Letters (33 page)

115
Koussevitzky's letter to
The New York Times
published on 16 May 1943 was headed “Justice to Composers,” and was a plea to support creative musicians: “What is being done for the composer of our day? […] It is time to wake up to our responsibility toward the composer and to repay the debt long standing that we owe him. […] We musicians must be first to stand by the composer because we owe him most. We have ripened to this consciousness. Therefore I say the time is ripe to act.” He goes on to propose the setting up of a fund to support the work of composers, initially by a donation of $1 from each professional performing musician in the country. This would, he argues, “go a long way toward establishing a composers’ fund. A far-reaching and wise plan must be worked out for a proper distribution of the fund […] For that purpose an organizing committee must be formed without delay. Whatever action we take now will lay the groundwork for the impelling and just cause of the composer. Embracing that cause, we shall ascend to new heights, we shall gain in confidence, in self-esteem and in fortitude.”

116
Billy the Kid.

117
Hindemith's.

118
This became
Appalachian Spring
.

119
Stokowski conducted the America premiere of Copland's notoriously difficult
Short Symphony
with the NBC Symphony Orchestra on 9 January 1944 (though according to Copland himself it was an “extremely inadequate reading”).

120
James Petrillo (1892–1984), the powerful leader of the American Federation of Musicians. In July 1942, Petrillo imposed a ban on American musicians making commercial recordings for major American companies because of a dispute over royalty payments. The union settled with Decca and Capitol in October 1943, and with RCA and Columbia in November 1944. During the strike, Petrillo had to authorize the release of new recordings.

121
An autograph sketch and a fair copy of
The Nicest Time of Year
(both with a slightly different title, “The Nicest Time of Day”) are in the Leonard Bernstein Collection. The tune was used for “Lucky To Be Me” (“What a day, Fortune smiled and came my way,” etc.) in
On the Town
. But, as indicated in this letter, it was composed as a single song a year before Bernstein started working on the show. My thanks to Sophie Redfern for drawing my attention to this manuscript.

122
The envelope is addressed to “Pvt. David Oppenheim, A.S.N. 12208749, 1633rd S.V., Brk. 130, Co. A, Camp Grant, Illinois.”

123
Gail Kubik (1914–84), American composer who studied at Harvard with Walter Piston and with Nadia Boulanger. During the Second World War he was Music Director of the Motion Picture Bureau of the Office of War Information.

124
Fritz Reiner (1888–1963), Hungarian-born conductor, and Bernstein's teacher at the Curtis Institute. One of the most inspiring (and feared) conductors working in America, Reiner was Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (1938–48), conducted regularly at the Metropolitan Opera, and became Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1953.

125
Bernstein's appointment as Assistant Conductor of the New York Philharmonic.

126
Duffy's Tavern
was a popular radio comedy show that ran from 1941 to 1951 and often featured guest stars.

127
Ernst Lubitsch.

128
Possibly a name invented by Adolph Green for this list.

129
William Perlberg.

130
William LeBaron, the producer who went on to make
Greenwich Village
.

131
The eventual star of
Greenwich Village
was Carmen Miranda. Adolph Green, Betty Comden, Judy Holliday, and Alvin Hammer all appeared in the film.

132
The
Top of the Mark
cocktail lounge at the Mark Hopkins Hotel.

133
The North Star
.

134
Brennan plays the part of the pig-farmer Karp in the film.

135
Elizabeth Reitell, Adolph Green's first wife.

136
See note 77 to Letter 132.

137
Randall Thompson (1899–1984), American composer. He taught Bernstein orchestration at the Curtis Institute. Thompson's Second Symphony was one of the works Bernstein conducted during his first year at Tanglewood (1940), and he remained extremely fond of the piece, playing it in 1959 and 1968 in New York Philharmonic concerts, and recording it for Columbia Records in 1968. An undated note in Bernstein's hand (a draft reply to the Thompson scholar Byron McGilvray) reads as follows: “Randall was a real friend, right from the beginning. At Curtis we shared the joys of both orchestration (which I studied with him) and the London
Times
crossword puzzle, of which we were both secret fans. Beyond this, we shared a common conviction that Curtis should be reconceived, & turned from a conservatory-factory into a real place of learning. (We were both academically orientated, as Harvard men should be.) Randall did not exactly succeed in this, and we both left together (as we had entered together), he as dismissed director, and I with my diploma.”

138
“
Baby
Steinway” is the piano Renée Longy Miquelle had loaned Bernstein on which he composed the
Jeremiah
Symphony. See note 45 to Letter 115.

139
Alexei Haieff (1914–94), American composer.

140
Charles Mills (1914–82), American composer who played in jazz bands from the age of 17. He was commissioned by Mitropoulos to compose a work for the New York Philharmonic in 1951. His output includes six symphonies, and some of his compositions involve jazz groups.

141
Bernstein did get the commission, and the result was
Fancy Free
.

142
During the “Petrillo Ban” of 1942–4, even a small company such as Hargail Records had to obtain a release from James Petrillo of the Associated Federation of Musicians before a recording could be issued.

143
The identity of the “Frau” was shrouded in mystery until the emergence of this letter in 2013. For Marketa Morris’ letters to Bernstein, see Letters 197, 256, 260, and 261.

144
i.e. the Clarinet Sonata.

145
Jerome Robbins (1918–98), American dancer, choreographer, and director. A temperamental and intensely demanding genius, he was without doubt the person who forged the most productive creative relationship with Bernstein: their first collaboration was the ballet
Fancy Free
, followed by
On the Town
,
Facsimile
,
West Side Story
, and
Dybbuk
.

146
Bernstein is discussing the earliest stages of his work on
Fancy Free
. Progress on the score is documented in several further letters. See Letters 165, 166, 169, 170, 171, and 172.

147
I am most grateful to Sophie Redfern for establishing the chronology of the undated letters from Bernstein to Robbins about
Fancy Free
. She has kindly provided the following information: the contract for the ballet (mentioned in Letter 165) is dated 17 November 1943; the “song” described in Letter 165 was the precursor to the “radio” mentioned in Letter 166, as can be seen in Bernstein's sketches for the ballet.

148
Shirley Gabis Perle wrote about this letter on 26 January 2013 (by email): “I remember writing that letter (what nerve), but who knew, as his father famously said, that he would become Leonard Bernstein. His response came on a post card that I didn't save – he was very annoyed by my criticism. […] I don't suppose I could have written it if it were not for the depth of the connection between us – a connection that remained throughout our lives. I subsequently played the Philadelphia premiere of the Sonata with Stanley Drucker – to make restitution? The piece, after all, does have Lenny's vitality and charm – I was obviously a stickler for profundity in my youth.”

149
Copland was a visiting lecturer at Harvard University in 1944.

150
A week before Copland sent this letter,
Fancy Free
had its triumphant first performance on 18 April 1944, by Ballet Theatre at the Metropolitan Opera House, conducted by Bernstein. The Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo season at City Center in April 1944 included Copland's
Rodeo
. As for the two ballets being “hopelessly married,” they were often mentioned together in press reports.

151
Copland's “new one” was his “Ballet for Martha,” the work that became
Appalachian Spring
. The sketches are dated “June 1943–June 1944, Hollywood, New York, Cambridge.” It was first performed on 30 October 1944.

152
This concert took place on 25 April 1944. The program included works by Walter Piston (Violin Sonata and Piano Trio) and Copland (Piano Sonata played by the composer, Violin Sonata, and
Danzón cubano
played by Copland and Irving Fine).

153
Joseph Szigeti (1892–1973), Hungarian violinist, pioneer of twentieth-century repertoire, and a friend of Bela Bartók: Szigeti is dedicatee of the First Rhapsody and the
Contrasts
(with Benny Goodman).

154
4 July 1944, Bernstein's Ravinia debut. Reviewing the concert in the
Chicago Daily Tribune
(5 July 1944), Claudia Cassidy commented that Szigeti “had an off night, almost as if gremlins rode malevolently on his usually silken bow,” but that “the eye and ear inevitably gravitated to the slight young figure on the podium […] A fascinating fellow, this Bernstein, dynamic, emotional, yet under complete control.”

155
8 July 1944. Szigeti was evidently back on good form. Though Claudia Cassidy in the
Chicago Daily Tribune
(9 July 1944) noted that the Bartók suffered from “obvious skimpiness of rehearsal,” she praised Szigeti's Mozart: “played with his usual patrician serenity and with a special grace and verve for the Rondo, and the orchestra had a touch of the Mozart fire that warms rather than consumes. Mr. Bernstein conducted quietly and carefully, getting his effects more simply than before, but with no less ardor. He has what it takes to learn as he goes along.”

156
Probably Reuben's restaurant and deli at 6 East 58th Street in New York.

157
Written on a royalty statement for sales from January to May 1944 of the Hargail Records discs (set MW-501) of Bernstein's Clarinet Sonata. A total of 457 copies sold in that period, with a royalty of 4¢ per set, making a total of $18.28. An annotation by Helen Coates at the top of the page reads: “Thanks for statement. Send royalty to D[avid] Opp[enheim], P.F.C. 12208749, 413th Infantry, Camp Carson, Colo[rado], U.S. Army.” Sales of this recording seem to have been livelier than those of the sheet music: a royalty statement from M. Witmark for the three months ending 25 November 1944 lists sales of a mere nine copies of the Clarinet Sonata.

158
Koussevitzky's own Concerto for Double Bass, Op. 3.

159
Lukas Foss appeared with Bernstein at the New York Philharmonic's Lewisohn Stadium concerts on 14 July 1944, conducting Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major, with Bernstein as the soloist – probably the first of their many appearances together in New York.

160
Herschel and Janice Levit (and their daughter Lois) became friends of Bernstein while he was studying at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia – they were introduced in 1940 by Renée Longy Miquelle. The Levits lived near Bernstein's student rooms and he became a regular visitor (often calling round to take a bath). It was in the Levits’ apartment on South 22nd Street that Bernstein finished his piano arrangement of
El Salón México
. Humphrey Burton reports that Bernstein said their upright piano was “just right,” “like a Mexican bar room piano” (Burton 1994, p. 84).

161
A reference to the Lenni Lenape tribe of American Indians who lived along the banks of the Delaware River in Pennsylvania.

162
The address (noted in pencil by Bernstein on the first page of this letter) was 628 Stetson Rd, Elkins Park, PA, and it is indeed “modern” – in fact it's a magnificent house designed in 1940 by Louis Kahn for his friend Jesse Oser.

163
The sketch enclosed with this letter is inscribed “A happy birthday and many more glorious years for Serge Alexandrovich: with love, Lenushka, N.Y.C, July 26, 1944.” It is an early version of what became, with very small modifications, the start of the
Age of Anxiety
Symphony. The tempo marking is
Andante contemplativo
(changed to
Lento moderato
in the Symphony), otherwise the music is largely the same apart from minor changes; no instrumentation is given – in the Symphony it is played by two clarinets. It is interesting to find this idea so fully formed in Bernstein's mind as early as 1944: W. H. Auden's poem
The Age of Anxiety
– the inspiration for the work as a whole – was not published until July 1947, three years after this sketch. The eventual work was not only first performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Koussevitzky (on 8 April 1949), but dedicated “To Serge Koussevitzky, in tribute”.