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BOOKS
Essays by nine writers look at various aspects of Bernstein's life and career, placing him in the mid-twentieth-century artistic, social and political contexts he helped to define. Lively personal reminiscences (in addition to a moving eulogy) by Burton Bernstein, a long-time staff writer at The New Yorker, bring into close focus each of the diverse perspectives. In more than one hundred rare photographs (including family candids, scores and newspaper clippings), Bernstein's personal intensity and relaxed glamour (he is rarely without a baton or a cigarette) pop from each shot.
Music critic Alan Rich introduces New York's cultural scene between 1943 and 1976, including the creation of Lincoln Center (the "arts supermarket"), while a composer's view is offered by John Adams, who first heard of Bernstein when his parents argued about the "local Massachusetts boy with a pompadour" leading the orchestra at Tanglewood.
As several writers note, the FBI started a Bernstein file (which eventually ran to nearly 700 pages) in 1943, the same year the conductor made his surprise debut with the New York Philharmonic, an event at which we share Burton's ringside seat. Paul Boyer traces Bernstein's development as a humanitarian and social activist, including his notorious brush with "radical chic" after hosting a Black Panther fundraiser.
Music historian Joseph Horowitz does a fine job with his brief history of the New York Philharmonic and its directors, noting the importance of Bernstein's overhaul of the repertoire and his commitment to engaging American soloists, while an essay by James M. Keller places the conductor's special embrace of Mahler into historical context. Burton even recalls some of the brothers' joke programming Bach Piston Beethoven, or Fine and d'Indy.
Jonathan Rosenberg details three important overseas trips Bernstein led with the New York Philharmonic, including a tour of Latin America in 1958, the year vice-president Nixon and his wife Pat were spat on while visiting the same countries and a time when a U.S. government-appointed Music Advisory Panel had to approve repertoire.
Carol Oja takes a musicologist's look at Bernstein's theater compositions as "reflections of their time" and divides his output into two groups, with the most successful in the early phase. These shows, characterized by "their celebration of youth, their commitment to cultural fluidity, their focus on urban life, and their persistent attention to political issues of the moment," include On the Town (1944), with the winning team of writers Betty Comden and Adolph Green and choreographer Jerome Robbins, and continue through Trouble in Tahiti (1952), Wonderful Town (1953), Candide (1956) and West Side Story (1957). In Oja's second group are the 1971 Mass (with a reminder that this was originally a theater piece) and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (1976). Oja takes the reader through the genesis and development of each show, commenting on storylines, themes, historical importance and critical receptions, while pointing out influences from and upon other contemporary musicals. A Quiet Place (1983), which Burton calls his brother's "somewhat less disastrous quasi-opera," is not discussed, as it falls outside the book's time frame.
Music writer and critic Tim Page notes how Bernstein's extraordinary telegenic gifts and commitment to education were perfectly served by the 1950s' new medium, dryly noting that "thanks to his many appearances on television I can say that I studied with Leonard Bernstein, and so did most of my contemporaries." Page reminds us how sophisticated Omnibus was, assuming as it did a level of attention from children that no television show today would even grant adults.
Bernstein was one of most fascinating and talked about celebrities of our time, always politically engaged and forever idealistic about world peace and human connections. While this book is a celebration and a fitting tribute, it is also a sad reminder that nowhere on the scene today is a figure of such towering genius, energy and humanity.
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© Copyright 2008, Opera News
