Read The Leonard Bernstein Letters Online
Authors: Leonard Bernstein
The Leonard Bernstein Letters (34 page)
164
In the end, the concert, given on 24 and 25 November 1944, consisted of just two works: Brahms’ First Piano Concerto with Jesús María Sanromá as the soloist, and Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony.
165
See Letter 178.
166
Ramin served as a Corporal (20120408) in the 84th Infantry Division. From the end of August 1944, the 84th started to arrive at Camp Kilmer in New Jersey, in preparation for departure to Europe. The Division sailed on 20 September 1944 and arrived in England for training on 1 October, landing on Omaha Beach in Normandy a month later, before taking part in the Ardennes Offensive (the Battle of the Bulge). Sidney N. Ramin of Roxbury, Mass., is listed in the
Roster of Officers and Enlisted Men, 84th Infantry Division, European Theatre of Operations – World War II
(Viking Press, 1946). During his time in the Army (in which Ramin was in Special Services), he also found time to arrange the music and conduct the orchestra in a revue called
It's All Yours
, performed at the Stadt Theater in Heidelberg and in Paris (personal communication from Sid Ramin).
167
Two of the
Seven Anniversaries
.
168
When Bernstein wrote this letter he was hard at work with
On the Town
, but the need to do something about the “Aaron Copland side” of his life and career was ever-present.
169
An indication of the growing importance of Helen Coates in managing Bernstein's domestic affairs, as well as the difficulties of finding an apartment in New York City.
170
The first performance of
Appalachian Spring
took place in the Coolidge Auditorium at the Library of Congress on Monday, 30 October 1944.
171
On the Town
opened at Broadway's Adelphi Theatre on 28 December 1944.
172
This was one of the earliest contacts between Bernstein and his Detroit friends Philip and Barbara Marcuse. In the 1950s, the Marcuses provided a kind of model of stability for the newly married Bernsteins, and offered them warmth, advice, and support.
173
Probably a broadcast of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony, which Bernstein conducted in Detroit during the 1944–5 season.
174
On the Town
.
175
This recalls a much earlier Bernstein letter to Oppenheim (see Letter 122).
176
Oppenheim and Judy Holliday were married in 1948.
177
Artur Rodzinski.
3
Conquering Europe and Israel
1945–9
The post-war years saw Bernstein's conducting career flourish, not only in the United States but also as the first American-born conductor to develop an extremely successful career in Europe. His letters home from London, Prague, Paris, and elsewhere are fascinating evocations of great cities recovering from war. These were also the years during which Bernstein composed some of his most serious orchestral scores:
Facsimile
– a ballet with Jerome Robbins – and
The Age of Anxiety
Symphony, composed for Serge Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony. Despite the encouragement of George Abbott and Betty Comden, Bernstein did not immediately follow up the Broadway success of
On the Town
. Koussevitzky, an inspiration as well as a mentor, gave Bernstein regular opportunities to work with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, but their master–pupil relationship was not without its difficulties, as the tense exchange of letters in December 1946 reveals: Koussevitzky objected strongly to Bernstein's proposal to program his own music in concerts with the orchestra, and Bernstein's only option was capitulation, in order to restore amicable relations. The Koussevitzky connection was not only important personally but also professionally.
The Age of Anxiety
was commissioned by Koussevitzky, who conducted its first performance on 8 April 1949. But it was Bernstein who gave the first American performance of Britten's
Peter Grimes
on 6 August 1946, and on 2 December 1949 the world premiere of Messiaen's
Turangalîla-Symphonie
(a work to which he never returned after the first three performances) – both of which were commissioned by the Koussevitzky Music Foundation in memory of Natalie Koussevitzky. Bernstein also conducted the first European performance of Copland's Third Symphony, another Koussevitzky Foundation commission, in Prague on 25 May 1947. In other words, Bernstein's reputation for playing large-scale works that were recently composed was nurtured to a significant extent on repertoire that Koussevitzky had commissioned.
In February 1946, at a party given by the Chilean pianist Claudio Arrau, Bernstein met Felicia Montealegre. In the course of the year they grew ever closer – a relationship Bernstein chronicled in his letters to Helen Coates – and at the end of December the couple were engaged in Hollywood. Though the engagement was broken off in September the following year, they were eventually
married four years later, in September 1951 – a union that both parties entered into in the full knowledge of its potential difficulties, the most significant being Bernstein's sexuality. Something of his turmoil about this is revealed in letters from Marketa Morris (the “Frau”), whom he consulted from the early 1940s onwards, and Renée Nell, another psychoanalyst Bernstein consulted in the later 1940s.
Bernstein's visits to Israel were to become a central part of his career, and they did much to define his Jewish identity. His letters from 1948 to his mother and sister, to Koussevitzky, and to Copland reveal something of the profound impact the country and its people had on Bernstein, the warmth and passion of his commitment to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and the joy he drew from the experience of working with these musicians. For Bernstein, conducting always had to be “fun” – in other words a genuinely rewarding experience – if it was to be worth doing at all, especially when he could never find enough time for composition. In the Israel Philharmonic he found an orchestra with which he was usually at his happiest, even when – as on his 1948 visit – he was confronted with an astonishingly punishing schedule, and concerts that were often interrupted by bombing raids; he was there, after all, during the Arab–Israeli war. On 14 May 1948, David Ben-Gurion had declared the establishment of a Jewish state to be called the State of Israel. War broke out the next day, and was at its height when Bernstein arrived to work with an orchestra that was not only a cultural symbol, but a potent national one as well.
186. Leonard Bernstein to Renée Longy Miquelle
40 West 55th Street, New York, NY
3 January 1945
Dear Renée,
How sweet of you to remember, and send me the Michelangelo. I adore it. I hope it was you, because it contained no card, no greeting of any sort, and I am at a loss as to what occasion it represents. New Years? Christmas? Some obscure but meaningful anniversary? The opening of the show? Paul Bowles' birthday?
Well, the show [
On the Town
] has opened and is a phenomenal hit, in spite of all. The reviews are fantastic raves, especially the
Times
and
PM
, and the
Hollywood Reporter
, which called it the greatest musical ever produced! It's thrilling, and I would be a rich man, except that whatever money I get goes back to Uncle Samovitch for taxes. But it's nice to feel that you've earned a stupendous sum, even if you hold it only for a week.
Now I am bleary with a throat infection, and a general let-down collapse, and struggling to get back into my beard (long-hair) and study Brahms' First for Pittsburgh next week. It will be fun to be back there, and this time with a whole program including
Fancy Free
, the Ravel Concerto,
Euryanthe
and Brahms' First.
I stretch long and loud, yawn, smile, toss my mangy curls, and close with love, to get back to the
Partitur
.
1
Let me hear how everything goes with you. When do you come around again?
Love, and thanks again.
Lenny
Spookietchka
187. George Abbott
2
to Leonard Bernstein
The Town House, Los Angeles, CA
20 February 1945
Dear Lennie,
According to the calendar you must now be back in New York where I shall not arrive for another five weeks, by which time you will probably be waving your baton in some distant city.
I hope soon, however, that we shall all find ourselves together again discussing
life
and
integration
.
I'll postpone that for the moment and take up the subject of opera. I have constituted myself an authority on the subject because I don't like opera; also I have seen very few operas. I find myself moved by the sheer beauty of the sound that assails me, and occasionally by the visual effect, but never by the story. I cannot get from it the feeling of being carried away (to quote from a recent musical comedy hit). Plays, movies, symphonies, novels seem to me to be artistic wholes. Operas seem magnificent anachronisms. So, when I talk of opera, in re [my] interest, I am talking about a new form which does not now exist: I am talking about something which I expect you to create. It will have integration all right, but it will be unhampered by tradition, it will use picture techniques, top dancing or any other feature that adds up to excitement – and it will ruthlessly eliminate the
ridiculous
.
As far as
On The Town
is concerned, please don't let yourself be distressed by minor criticism from some of your pals. It is a wonderful score – a bit too profligate perhaps, too many fresh melodies thrown in where developments of existing ones would have done. That, however, was not your fault – except
as you share the responsibility for an original structure that wasn't very practical – but the result of changes done in a hurry. The final result may not have accorded with the ideal upon which it was based, but it is good. And, what is more, you should feel proud that you have proved yourself so adaptable. Had you been the inflexible type, you could have gummed the whole works. In my opinion you should congratulate yourself that you have had the experience and learned so much of practical theatre matters without going through a disaster to pay for it.
I read
Self-Analysis
3
on the train. I gave myself the works. But I'm afraid my subconscious is an almost empty cellar. The book more reposes in the hands of one whose subconscious is boiling away. […] We were on the train coming out and there's a fellow who not only needs it, but who knows he needs it. We deduced that he hated his mother – we also staged
King Lear
– it was quite a pleasant trip.
Kiss & Tell
4
is going to be a good picture. Everything is going substantially as I would have it.
The only flaw in my California life is that I have strained a muscle in my side and have to give up tennis for a few days. Since tennis is practically the rock upon which my local life is founded, I am very sulky about the matter.
Give my best to Betty [Comden] and Adolph [Green] when you see them. I wish I were there. But I soon will be.
Yours, as always,
George
188. Leonard Bernstein to Helen Coates
The Windsor [Hotel], Montreal, Canada
28 February 1945
Dear Helen,
Could you reserve two tickets for Arthur Rubinstein (for
On the Town
, natch) for Friday eve., March 9th. And
prepaid
, please. He's a swell guy. The concerts are great.
Love,
L
189. Betty Comden to Leonard Bernstein
29 April 1945
Dear Lenny,
This must be the first letter I have written you since those apologetic little notes of Revuer days, airily explaining why no check was enclosed – yet. No – a quiet nine piece orchestration is not what is on my mind right now. I'm spoiled forever by the sound of thirty pieces anyway.
We've been meeting with Paul [Feigay], we've been meeting with Oliver [Smith] – we've been meeting with George [Abbott] – and the last has been, needless to say, the most fun of all. And the history of these meetings is briefly this, some of which you know already: We had originally intended to get an idea and do a show with George, leaving one for P[aul] and O[liver] Inc. for some other time. But in the mean time through Bill we were approached with the idea of
The Greeks Had a Word for It
– made into a musical about the twenties, and involving Gypsy R. Lee. After the reading of the play, which is good, we realized that it is not typical of the twenties at all – it was just done at that time – so why bother with it? Better to make up out of whole cloth and our fevered brains – a story of our own, using the twenties as a background. Much as we wanted to ignore the whole thing and concentrate on something for G.A. we couldn't help being intrigued by the period, its color and significance – and against our will got some ideas. These were enthusiastically received by everyone, and they seemed eager to plunge at once. Extremely un-anxious to face as much terrifying vagueness as we had been subjected to before, and dying to do something – anything – with George, we said we would do the thing only if he were involved. We told George all about it, and he got really excited about what we've worked out so far – has met with the Fitelson Gang, and it looks as though something will work out – a co-producing venture plus, of course, George's directorship. Being a very smart man, and not liking the idea of a “star” type deal (possibly involving 10% of the show – and I mean Gypsy of course), and not liking the idea of having to write a show “around” anyone – George doesn't think Miss Lee is essential to the show, but thinks we should get to work and write it, and if there's a part for her, fine, and if not – fine again.
Things are hardly in what you would call a definite state just yet, but we have, naturally, been talking about someone who might be equipped to knock out a coupla tunes to go along with all this – and your name just happened to come up. Not having talked to you, Lenny, since our “opera” meeting, I have no real idea what you are planning. But word filtered down to us from Bill and Shirley, that you like the idea, but (this from the latter) that you didn't feel too keen about working with Feigay and Smith again. As you can see from the above we had a qualm or two ourselves. But now George is in the picture, very much
so. And we are sort of stimulated by the prospect. Having him makes all the difference in the world.
I am not going to send you a card saying “I will/will not do the show” – and expect you to underline and return. But we would so love to hear from you, since talking to you is impossible for another week. Musically of course the show has terrific possibilities – and the period and theme are surprisingly significant plus allowing for lots of beauty and general appeal, as well.
5
It would be wonderful to do this show with you, Lenny – of that we are sure. Please write.
Much love,
Betty