Leonard Bernstein: Some conductors I have loved
OrchestrasA Kennedy Center interview with LB dropped irresistibly into our inbox today.
Seriously good stuff, some of it self-aggrandising.
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Fascinating interview. So many really interesting anecdotes, especially the one about his piano teacher the “tyrannical” Isabella Vengerova stressing to him the importace of listening.
Self-aggrandizing? Lenny? Say it ain’t so!
Yes: I was reminded, when I read that, of Victoria Coren Mitchell responding to Hal Cruttenden on a TV panel show when Hal said he thought Nigel Farage has said something stupid. She just smiled at him and said, “Surely not?”
how many cigarettes does he get through
in 50 minutes ?
And a good many scotches. But when he was on the box he was absolutely superb most of the time. I miss him to this day.
Notice how the cigarettes rarely touch his lips , and he manages for quite awhile without lighting up .
Fascinating interview .
Depends on the metronome marking on the score he is conducting.
Loved in what sense? I saw Maestro and don’t need to see it again.
Maestro was a totally dreadful film that will have done more to make Bernstein lost to American culture than ignoring him could have done.
In case you did not notice (!) that was not a scene from Maestro. It was an interview made towards the end of his career. Maestro did not discuss his friendships with more than a handful of conductors. This interview goes into amazing detail with many of the greats.Sure, some may have been over the usual Bernstein top, but his anecdotes are still fascinating, especially wth conductors I had not realised he had met. His Furwangler and Boehm revelations alone are worth the video, two conductors who worked regularly during the Nazi regime and yet who watched and praised a young Jewish conductor soon after the end of the war.
and the attempted assassination by a jilted / jealous student. Disaster averted by prof Randall Thompson
Is this the one where he claims Karl Böhm told him backstage that LB’s Tristan was better than his own? And Böhm was inconveniently no longer alive to corroborate…
Artistic licence clearly taken with several piches of salt! But worth it for the way it is told.
He led Renee Longy’s memorial service at Juilliard. He studied with her at Curtis.
Leonard Bernstein’s fame is way beyond that of many other conductors, some of whom were more accomplished on the podium than he was. William Steinberg, for example, was far better with Mahler, but who remembers him?
Your comment distracted me to the extent where I’m now watching Steinberg rehearse Mahler 7.
Some great psychological insight from the conductor .
Steinberg was far better with Mahler? Is that a joke?
What a musical education! It should be no surprise that Bernstein was the polyglot that he was. He so many of the great conductors – most in the twilight of their careers. Many of those conductors knew the actual composer of the pieces he would conduct. I wonder if younger conductors today have such a wealth of provenance, experience and performance history behind them?
I just love Lenny
It’s “Sell” not “Zell”.
He was clearly a great conductor, but it depended on the repertoire.
I spent a week in a small chorus, which worked with him on Stravinsky and Bach. He wasn’t always in control of the Stravinsky and he tried to make Bach sound like a cross between Beethoven and Brahms.
One of the most gruesome things ever was his filmed performance of Nimrod. Absolutely horrendous.
The week with him was taxing, but inspiring. He was in many ways a monster, but he was also a genius. Just don’t listen to his Bach – and I can’t imagine what his Mozart would be like. If any recordings of his Mozart exist, I’ll steer well clear of them.
Try his Haydn then. It’s superb.
His Mozart is fantastic! Try his Beethoven quartets with VPO strings – it’s pretty sweet.
I have always been impressed with the musical awareness of Bernstein’s Vienna recording of the Jupiter. Furthermore, he takes both structural repeats in the finale, effectively doubling its duration compared to his NYPhil recording. And the almost Wagnerian intensity he gets out of the development is unusual, especially the final chromatic drive back to C-major (mm.326-334). Hearing this powerful passage twice makes clear why the concluding C-major-stabilizing Coda is necessary. Bernstein-as-teacher yet again! I might add that I find Bernstein’s work in Mozart piano concertos a cut above most pianist-conducted recordings of this repertory.
Thanks so much for posting. A number of stories I hadn’t heard before. I really, really do miss Bernstein
The interviewer was exceptionally good. Who was he ?
Music critic Paul Hume.
Obviously a critic from a time when music critics knew of what they were writing and talking.
Enjoyed every minute. Very pleased that this was posted here. Self-aggrandizing some of it may be, but I did a little internet sleuthing and both he and Furtwangler were indeed performing at the Holland Festival in 1950. I can confirm that Bernstein led the Mahler 2 in Scheveningen on July 5. And Furtwangler did conduct the Brahms 1 in Amsterdam on July 13. Cannot find when the Mahler was in Amsterdam, though it does make sense that such a major piece would have traveled to Amsterdam for the Festival. So, the story is possible, though I might doubt the order, Furtwangler may have seen him first, that makes more sense, give the dates and that Furtwangler’s program was taken to Scheveningen on July 14.
Just a little anecdote to round off the discussion. I was chatting to the lovely Christa Ludwig after a beautiful recital at quite lovely Pavilion in the Lou Yim Loc Garden at the Macau Festival. I told her I was so pleased she had changed the programme to include Bernstein songs as the maestro had passed away only a week or so before. She informed me that a fortnight before his passing, he had written her a note to say that as long as he could still write, he wanted to tell her what an immense joy it had given him to be able to collaborate with her so many times over so many years. He informed her his prognosis was not good and realised they would never work again. He wished his dearest friend much love and every good wish for her career.
For all I know he sent similar notes to others, but I found it very touching. He and Ms. Ludwig did have a special artistic relationship.