Leonard Bernstein

[Savio]

I had a video long time ago about Bernstein but it got lost. VHS, DVD, CD, Vinyl, are now considered as belonging to the stone age... But today i found it on youtube. The new age...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yrG-izvtBY
Listen all because he is a great pedagogue, but very interesting when he teach the trombone section from about 3:29
So happy I found it again!

Leif

[2bobone]

I cannot resist the temptation to comment on your post about Leonard Bernstein, partly because of my great admiration of the man and the remarkable influence he had on the trajectory of American music, and beyond that my personal interactions with the man. I recall seeing the television offerings of this great pedagogue, but at the same time thinking to myself, " How can anyone understand what he is conducting" ! Much to my great surprise, when I had the experience of being conducted BY him, that what he wanted from the orchestra was SO clearly apparent that I was embarrassed to have expressed such misgivings in the first place. He WAS a whirlwind --- there was no doubt, but his displays were not the trivialities that were commonplace in the conducting world at the time. Everything he expressed from the podium had a real meaning and there was no doubt that it was serious ---- and that seriousness was not just an American thing. I had friends in The Vienna Philharmonic who lovingly referred to him as "Lennie" and produced a series of great recordings with that most august of orchestral ensembles. He was a phenomenally successful interpreter of a wide repertoire of not only classical music but of jazz and modern music. His own father once commented on his success, " How did I know he'd turn out to be Leonard Bernstein" !! Despite the renown that he achieved, at heart, he was a "mensch". He was as much a performer as a conductor, pedagogue and all around "man of music". I vividly recall sitting alone at the stage door entrance to the Kennedy Center Concert Hall when this whirlwind of a man entered, wearing a dark cape, and saw me sitting there in total surprise. I greeted him as "Maestro" and tried to answer whatever questions he had on his mind, but within moments he centered on an upcoming concert series he would be doing with our orchestra. He said, " You and your trombone colleagues should look over one of my pieces that is on an upcoming concert. There's a passage that is quite difficult". At first I thought it perfectly natural to be alerted to what could be a real "surprise" at rehearsal time, but then I realized how extraordinary his request was. Firstly, I wondered how in Hell he knew I was a trombonist in the orchestra, my being about as far away from the podium as was physically possible, and secondly, how was he so attuned to the program that he was to do with us that he would put "Two & Two Together" and offer a warning about a difficult trombone passage ! But ---- THAT was "Lenny" ! On another occasion, I knocked on the door to the conductor's room to ask if he would be so kind to autograph a superb photo taken by one of the violists in the orchestra. After hearing "Come in", I entered to find him playing the grand piano in the conductor's suite with his lovely wife sitting demurely on a nearby sofa. The atmosphere in the room was positive magic. As he played a piece of Mozart he commented on how relaxing it was to him before every concert to play Mozart ---- and then ---- he "clammed" a note and reacted with a loud "SHIT" !! As laughable as it was, it simply underlined to me the earthiness of the man and only reconfirmed my opinion of him as a "mensch" ! As to the "difficult passage" and it's relative success ---- THAT is another story !