The Pin-Up Boy of the Symphony: St. louis and the Rise of ...

34 | The Confluence | Fall/Winter 2018/2019

ThePin-UpBoyoftheSymphony

St. Louis and theRise of Leonard Bernstein

B Y K E N N E T H H . W I N N

Fall/Winter 2018/2019 | The Confluence | 35

In May 1944 25-year-oldLeonard Bernstein, riding atidal wave of national publicity,was invited to serve as a guestconductor of the St. LouisSymphony Orchestra for its1944–1945 season. The orchestraand Bernstein later revealed thatthey had also struck a deal withRCA’s Victor Records to make hisfirst classical record, a symphonyof his own composition, entitledJeremiah. Little more than a yearearlier, the New York Philharmonicmusic director Artur Rodzińskihad hired Bernstein on his 24thbirthday as an assistant conductor,a position of honor, but one knownmostly for its menial work. HisSt. Louis invitation and the recordagreement came in the wake of hisbrilliant service on May 13, 1943,as a last-minute stand in for the internationally knownconductor Bruno Walter, who was scheduled to substitutefor the vacationing Rodziński. When Walter suddenlyfell ill, Bernstein, the orchestra’s water boy, became thePhilharmonic’s maestro. His electric performance inspiredthe New York Times to run two stories, one of them on thefront page, and then a highly flattering editorial on thefollowing day. His triumph was even sweeter for havingbeen carried on national radio in that pre-television era.1

His spectacular rise had just begun. During the twoweeks after his conducting debut he was interviewed bymagazines such as Life, Time, Newsweek, Look, Harper’sBazaar, The New Yorker, and virtually every New Yorknewspaper, including the Times, Herald-Tribune, Post, andDaily News. Time compared him to another “boy genius,”Orson Welles, who had recently released his masterpiece,Citizen Kane. The miracle year continued into 1944 whenthe ballet he scored with choreographer Jerome Robbins,Fancy Free, received warm reviews. (Robbins would laterserve as his collaborator on the musical West Side Story).Fancy Free soon spun off a successful Broadway musical,On the Town. Achievements led to celebrity. He appearedon the radio as a panelist on the quiz show InformationPlease, and newspapers chronicled his comings and goingson their society pages.2 Topping Bernstein’s rise were hisromantic good looks, star-power charm, and flamboyantconducting style. He quietly liked his association withWelles, but balked at his bandied comparison to thelanguid crooner, Frank Sinatra. This demur aside, a widely

publicized story from a NewYork high school newspaper, hadbobbysoxers sighing over him asthe “pin-up boy of the symphony.”They, however, advised him to geta crew cut.3

For some of Bernstein’selders, it was too much, toofast. Many music critics wereskeptical, put off by the torrentof praise. “Glamourpuss,” theycalled him, the “Wunderkindof the Western World.”4 Theysuspected Bernstein’s performancewas simply a flash-in-the-pan.The young conductor was ridinga wave of luck rather than a waveof talent. For years his age would,in effect, serve as his last name,as in “Leonard Bernstein, 25, will. . .” One of the most suspiciousof his talent was St. Louis Post-

Dispatch music columnist Thomas B. Sherman who,upon learning of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’sinvitation to Bernstein, dwelt on Bernstein’s “luck” andgood “fortune,” noting that events had proven “favorable.”He acknowledged that Bernstein seemed to have the skillto “take up where his luck left off.” He also concededBernstein was a “gifted” and a “good-looking youngman,” if “thoroughly pleased with himself.” Bernstein’sunexpected rise, the columnist concluded, had come in “thebest traditions of romantic fiction,” but if the young manseemed to have taken “both the public and the critics bystorm,” it was still to be seen if it really was a storm or justa drizzle.5

Now, in the hundredth anniversary of Bernstein’s birth,things are much clearer. Bernstein went on to becomethe most important American conductor of the twentiethcentury. Within 15 years of his accidental Philharmonicdebut he had become, at age 40, the youngest permanentconductor in the New York Philharmonic’s history. Now,more than a quarter of a century after his death, most ofhis musical interpretations still retain their power. Heloved music and the adulation of his audiences, and hisvoluminous recordings far outnumber those made by hispeers. His prancing, his dancing, and his showmanshipon the podium are still enjoyable to watch, as if everysymphonic note moved him to ecstasy.6

But Bernstein was more than a conductor. Hisremarkable work with choreographer Jerome Robbins, fromFancy Free to West Side Story, made him the composerof enduring musicals. His more formal classical works,particularly those he wrote from Jeremiah in 1943 to hisChichester Psalms in 1965, are remarkable compositions.His best classical work has been absorbed into the canonof regularly performed American pieces. He was also anexceptional educator, demonstrated by his television seriesof Young People’s Concerts (1958–1972). His educationalwork also included college lectures. He wrote severalwell-received books on music that remain in print. He

ThePin-UpBoyoftheSymphony

St. Louis and theRise of Leonard Bernstein

B Y K E N N E T H H . W I N NJeremiah was the first of Leonard Bernstein’ssymphonies recorded by the St. Louis SymphonyOrchestra in the spring of 1944. (Image: Washing-ton University Libraries, Gaylord Music Library)

(Left) Bernstein rehearsing before the February 11 performance ofJeremiah at Kiel Auditorium. One review the next day noted Ber-nstein’s “conquests of Broadway and Carnegie Hall.” (Image: St.Louis Mercantile Library Association at the University of Missouri-St.Louis)


was a pianist of unusualtalent. He might have made amemorable career simply asa performer. He often playedpiano solos while conductingthe orchestra from the pianobench, just as he did in hisSt. Louis 1945 concerts. Forall of these skills and hisachievements, his admirershave frequently touted himas the Renaissance Man ofAmerican music.7

His significance as aconductor also lay in itssymbolic value. UntilBernstein’s rise, manyAmericans felt insecureabout the country’s ability toproduce high-caliber classicalmusic conductors of thequality of Arturo Toscanini,Leopold Stokowski, SergeKoussevitzky, or evenVladimir Golschmann, theFrenchman who conductedthe St. Louis Symphony fromthe 1930s to the 1950s. Largecities like St. Louis, NewYork, and Boston importedtalented conductors fromEurope by the hundreds.8

They still do. LeonardBernstein gave culturallyinsecure Americanssomething to crow about.He proved not only asgood as the Europeanimports, but better, andas his fame rose, hewas routinely invited toconduct concerts withorchestras from around theworld, developing in theprocess special relationshipswith highly esteemedorchestras such as theVienna Philharmonic.

For all of the praiseheaped upon him, however,Bernstein irritated, ordisappointed, many people.His failure to settle down toone task frustrated erstwhile

admirers. Some people thought he should conductless and compose classical music more, and someof his highbrow mentors, like Boston’s musicdirector Serge Koussevitzky, were not shy aboutexpressing their displeasure. Feeling the heat,Bernstein said during his 1945 stay in St. Louis,“I am probably through with musical comedy. Ihave done that now. I like to do everything once,just to see what it feels like.”9 Others said he couldhave been the savior of the popular musical in anage in which it was in decline. Instead of beinga Renaissance Man, his critics claimed he spreadhimself out so thin he could never realize hisfull musical potential. Bernstein wearied of thiscriticism, which dogged his entire career. Writing inthe New York Times he said: “I don’t want to spendmy life, as Toscanini did, studying and restudyingthe same 50 pieces of music. . . . It would . . . boreme to death. I want to conduct. I want to play thepiano. I want to write for Hollywood. I want towrite symphonic music. I want to keep on tryingto be, in the full sense of that wonderful word, amusician. I also want to teach. I want to write booksand poetry. And I think I can still do justice to themall.’’ What some saw as showmanship, others saw asshowboatmanship, and thought him vain and self-absorbed.10

There were also people with no interest in musicwho hated Bernstein for his politics. Bernstein hada strong cultural self-consciousness as the Jewish,gay outsider. He imbibed a heady whiff of the leftistpolitics of the Depression years. While never aradical, he skirted the edges of radicalism and was

5 Z3 Published Evertj Da in the ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATC- H

PART FOUR ST. LOUIS, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1945 PAGES 1 4D

Lenny Bernstein AS onN. MAC AGSTHUi'S LIBERATED' MANILASuccess Has NotTurned His HeadBy Arthur W. Hepner

T 26, Leonard Bernstein has a wide collectionA of friends who can say, with justification"I knew him when." They include fellowswith whom he traveled in Harvard Yard; music

Students at CurtisInstitute of Musicwhere he studiedconducting or thaBerkshire Music-Festival- ;

and themusical coteries of

v'Mi-- '

both Fifty-sevent- h

street and Tin PanAlley.

After his phe-nomenal successlast year, some ofthem . turned sour

Sr-- y?' and said unkind '. . ' --ratf" up'-v- i rr-f-" 0 r ;, feo )

A group of Japanese prisoners and Filipino collaborationists, caught by the swiftthrust of the Yanks into Manila, being marched through the streets to a stockade,under guard of American soldiers.

Geh. DouglaSmilArthur's liberatinq forces that drove into the Philippine capital Saturday night and now are mopping up remnants ot thaJapanese garrison. I his photo and others ot the series are the tirsr to De receivea irom ins nueraieu uiy.

LEONARD BERNSTEIN things about him.The blame, however, must be placed on theirown heads, for the young conductor and com-poser is concerned, rather than arrogant, overhis rapid accomplishments.

My own recollections go back almost 10 yearsto a series of violent arguments and experiencesinvolving him; then a Harvard undergraduate.There was one warm evening when we added tothe temperature with a passionate debate onour own esthetic doxies his being heterodox,my being orthodox, as I saw it while walkingthe distance from Symphony Hall in Boston toHarvard Square. He made good sense and knewwhat he was talking about.

THEN 1 REMEMBER a spring afternoonwhen a group of enthusiastic young men andwomen leaned on an old upright, out-of-tu- ne

piano in an apartment overlooking HarvardYard with Bernstein at the keyboard whippinginto shape a performance of Marc Blitzstein'3play-oper- a, "The Cradle Will Rock." Blitzstein,who later sat next to me at the performance,was overcome with emotion at the remarkabletaging of his work by a youth. An-

other youth in his twenties, Orson Welles, hadstaged it on Broadway.I recall, also, the music which Bernstein wrote

s an undergraduate for a student performancef Aristophanes' "The Birds." It was simple,fresh, agreeable music and most of us wonderedwhether this lad would get anywhere.The news of his successive triumphs In thelast year must have doubtless evoked the samequestion in the minds of all his friends: wouldhe lose his uninhibited, earnest, energetic, crea-tive personality?

FOR ALL HIS harvests, Leonard Bernstein isno different from the person he was around Har-vard Yard. Primarily, he is a sincere and seri-ous musician whose fortune on Broadway withhis musical "On the Town" has been only a sidejaunt and one which he does not intend to repeat.

He finds it difficult to convince others thathe does not care to write another musical show,but he means it. He Is not sure whether he willbe principally a conductor err a composer; in anycase, his future will be in the field of seriousmusical endeavor.

But he is not a snob about jazz. Because realjazz is living and creative when it is based 'onimprovisation. What he abhors, as most seriousmusicians do, are the commercial tunes hackedout for the benefit of composers and publishers'pocketbooks.

HE IS REMARKABLY catholic in his tastes.The other day after he arrived in St. Louis and

Carrying hastily gathered belongings, Manila families race from their homes to points of safety as Japanese "suicide squads"set off demolition charges nearby, in the path of United States troops moving into the city from tho north and east.

M-- jL .v'vffEltvMrs. Sergio Osmena (center), wife of the President of the Philippines, stands withthree of their children at an undisclosed place in the islands after they escaped fromthe Japanese by walking 30 miles across mountainous terrain. Details were withheldat the request ot the War Department. Associated presr Wlrephotoi from U. S. Army Signal Corps.

was host at an unusual press conference, we heardhim rumble through passages of a Haydn sym

'r4. ifphony, some Debussy and then turn to playing, ' r iffboogie-woogie and the blues with the same con II

viction. We spent the evening listening to someof the jazz homemade in St. Louis and he enjoyed

4. Wit as thoroughly as if he were conducting or composing a new symphony.

r M 41& IWhat makes him most appealing as a person,and apparently as an interpretative and creativemusician, is exuberance, vitality and youth. Heperhaps summed it up most trenchantly when hesaid: "What's the good of making music, if itisn't fun?"

Give him a piano and he will play generously f ft . Juntil fatigue sets in anything from Bach preludes and fugues to excerpts from his "On the (77mIS1Town" or "Fancy Free" scores or spontaneousimprovisations. He is, as the St. Louis SymphonyOrchestra players discovered at his first re-hearsal with them, a musician's musician.

SOME PERSONS have taken Bernstein to taskbecause of his sharp critical tongue with respect

SCOUT BIRTHDAYto his contemporaries and elders. But what he Celebrating the thirty-fift- h anniversaryof the Boy Scouts at the St. Louis Coun.::i,,...v.; vr::.has to say about them is valid and carefullyreasoned. He has made a habit of doing things

cautiously, step by step, and each of his achieve

BIG STORE BURNEDA prewar view of Heacock's, Manila's largestdepartment store, destroyed by fire set bytha Japanese. The photo is from the EdwinF. Guth Co., 2615 Washington boulevard,which furnished lighting fixtures for the storefive years ago.

FRONT-BOUN- D YANKS MEET CAPTIVESYanks of the Third Army's Fourth Division (left), advancing to join their comrades inthe front lines, pause in the snow at the side of a road to witness the searching of

ments has been the outgrowth of years of hard,cil offices in the Chemical Building yesterday, Robert Rutishauser of WebsterGroves Troop 305 takes a big bite of the birthday cake, gift of St. Louis GirlScouts. Others, from left, are Col. H. D. McBride, St. Louis Council commis-sioner; Mrs. John W. Calhoun of the city and county Girl Scout Council andSharon Taylor of University City Troop 69. nj p0it-Ditc- surf Photorpti.

plugging work.He is the first to admit that he has had luck

at his doorstep. It was luck that brought him Nazi prisoners on the way to the rear.Associated Tms Wtn-phol-to play the piano at a party for Dimitri Mitro-poul-os

some years ago in Boston. Mitropouloswas the first to sense his dynamism and send aMyM w J m" w j mil r rni ' if"" iwmiwihim on to a conducting career. Honors for St. LouisansIt was luck that eot him the lob, at 25. ofassistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic--

Symphony Orchestra. It was luck thatBruno Walter became ill just on the eve of aPhilharmonic-Symphon- y broadcast and cata-pulted young Bernstein to national eminence.

THIS LUCK bothers him. Because it propelledhim into the spotlight before he had time toponder the emotional responsibilities he mustface. Could he be a conductor and at the sametime remain "Lenny Bernstein?" He confessesthat all conductors, including himself, are ego-maniacs. He doesn't like it and doesn't want tobe an egomaniac, even in a mild sense. Probablyhis greatest emotional problem is to solve thisriddle: how to continue conducting and remaina well-rounde- d personality.

While here to conduct the next two pair ofconcerts by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra,he will spend most of his time practicing thepiano and studying. With the St. Louis Sym-phony Orchestra next week, he will record, inci-dentally, his own "Jeremiah" Symphony andRavel's Piano Concerto.

What he seeks most is rest; time to sit andthink, and to plan ahead. He believes themusician is not an isolated phenomenon fromsociety: he has strong political convictions andstumped for President Roosevelt's lastfall. He wants now to absorb and correlate hisexperience and events about him with a view tohis personal and musical development. Mean-while, alertly aware of the many problems hefaces, he is fighting resolutely, and successfully,so far, to remain himself Lenny Bernstein.

The Bronze Star is awarded Pvt. John C McUonald, ' bUoAMaple avenue, by .MaJ. Gen. Withers A. Burress, commandingthe Seventh Armys 00th Division on the Western Front. Mc-Donald, son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph J. McDonald, was honoredfor evacuating wounded.

AssocUted Fresi riioto flora U. 9. Army.

Sgt. John J. Schaefer (right) of 1836 South Eighth street beingcongratulated by Ma. Gen. Ira T. Wyche, Seventy-nint- h Divisioncommander, after being awarded the Bronze Star medal at cere-monies on the southern flank of the Western Front in France.Sqt. Schaefer is the son of Mr. and Mrs. George C. Schaefer.

Associated Tress ftioto (torn U. 8. Army Siicl Carpi.

Maj., Arthur R. Schmidt, 24 years old, of 647 North Taylor avenue,Kirkwood, serving with an antiaircraft battalion, receiving the BronzeStar from Lt. Gen. Mark W. Clark, Fifteenth Army Group commander,in ceremonies on the Fifth Army front in Italy. The award was foroutstanding service during the drive on Rome. He is the son of Mr.and Mrs. Arthur Schmidt. Associated Tress CMko from t". S. Army Signal Corps.

-! i

(Left) The St. Louis Post-Dispatch Everyday Magazine noted inearly 1945 that success had not changed Bernstein much, “for theyoung conductor and composer is concerned, rather than arrogant,over his rapid accomplishments.” (Right) Bernstein (left) workedwith Jerome Robbins (1918-1998) on the ballet Fancy Free, inwhich Bernstein wrote the musical score for Robbins’ ballet. (Im-ages: Washington University Libraries, Gaylord Music Library;Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library)


comfortable being among those who embraced it.By 1943 the FBI had begun a file on him that wouldtotal 800 pages. The bureau was, in fact, receivinga report on him at the very time he was in St. Louis.At the height of the Cold War, the State Departmentrefused to allow him to conduct concerts overseas.In a groveling affidavit, Bernstein slavishly admittedto some past political naiveté, but emphasized hispatriotism. The department relented. Later thatsame decade, he would play music for PresidentDwight Eisenhower, and he soon developed strongties to the Kennedy family. Still, his long-termcommitment to social justice for African Americans,already clear when he was a 1930s Harvard student,brought him trouble and eventual embarrassment. Hebegan giving active assistance to African Americancauses in the 1940s and had strongly supported theCivil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.The embarrassment came in January 1970 whenhe and his politically active wife gave a party as anACLU fundraiser on behalf of jailed members ofthe radical Black Panthers. The Panthers preachedself-defensive violence against white oppression andstockpiled weapons. While Bernstein later repudiatedthe Panthers, the party he and his wife gave on theirbehalf—complete with Puerto Rican maids servingcanapes to New York’s “Beautiful People”—made adelicious target. Unbeknownst to the Bernsteins, theflamboyant writer Tom Wolfe had crashed the partyand famously satirized the assembled socialites asindulging in “Radical Chic,” words that stuck toBernstein.11

But all of this is the epilogue to Bernstein’sSt. Louis story. It explains why he matters. Tounderstand what happened in St. Louis in 1945 andthe impression he made on the city and the city onhim, a brief prologue is needed.

Leonard Bernstein was born in Lawrence,Massachusetts, on August 25, 1918. His parentsobtained private piano lessons for him at age ten. Histeachers included Helen Coates, who later servedfor decades as Bernstein’s secretary. Bernsteinattended Boston’s elite Latin School and then wentto Harvard, where his brilliance and enormouspersonal magnetism were quickly recognized. Oneof Bernstein’s greatest skills as a young man wasrecruiting the assistance of older men who could helphim. But, if he was an opportunist, he was a sincereone, staying friends with these patrons long afterhe needed their help. In 1937 Aaron Copland wasalready a well-established composer, just reachingthe peak of his compositional power (AppalachianSpring, Fanfare for the Common Man). He was 18years Bernstein’s senior, but after meeting Bernstein,still an undergraduate, at a party in New York City,the two became lifelong friends. Bernstein later

repaid Copland by becoming perhaps the mostimportant champion of his work.12 At Harvard,Bernstein studied with the eminent composer WalterPiston and studied conducting with Fritz Reiner atthe Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. Later Reiner, asthe conductor of the Pittsburgh Orchestra, gave theyoung Bernstein an early platform for his music.In 1940 Bernstein worked with conductor Serge

Koussevitzky at the Boston Symphony Orchestra’ssummer institute “Tanglewood” (then called theBerkshire Music Festival). Bernstein would wear thecufflinks Koussevitzky gave him at every concert heever conducted. Another early patron was DimitriMitropolous, whom he met in 1937, and whom hewould later succeed as the music director of the NewYork Philharmonic. Throughout his career he worea medal with Mitropolous’s image under his clothes.After one performance Bernstein fell off the podium

“Radical chic” was coined by Tom Wolfe in his article,“That Party at Lenny’s,” about celebrities and others withhigh profiles in society embracing radical causes. (Image:MacMillan)


and jabbed the medal into his chest, severely bruisingit. In the audience the young conductor LeonardSlatkin, the future music director of the St. LouisSymphony, had waited—now in vain—to meet hishero after the show.13

Thus, if unknown to the larger world, by early1943 the 24-year-old Bernstein was well-knownand well-liked by a surprisingly large number ofinfluential conductors and composers. The capstoneto his ability to woo older men—and what wouldeventually bring him to St. Louis—came in the formof Artur Rodziński. Rodziński was in his first year asthe conductor of the New York Philharmonic whenhe hired Bernstein as his assistant. Rodziński was amercurial figure, prone to paranoia, who sometimescarried a gun in his back pocket while conducting.His relationship with Bernstein soon became fraughtwhen he became jealous of his assistant conductor’sheadline-snatching fame that began to overshadowhis own. At one point he even grabbed Bernstein bythe throat in a hallway.

This jealousy was provoked by the freakcircumstance that pushed Bernstein into prominencein 1943. Rodziński had left on vacation and thePhilharmonic had invited the eminent internationalconductor Bruno Walter to lead the orchestra. Notlong before the concert Walter fell ill with the flu. Onshort notice, Bernstein was told that he would haveto conduct the orchestra. Ever the diligent student,Bernstein had learned the evening’s concert programwell. His performance blasted him from obscurityinto fame.14

Bernstein quickly capitalized on his newprominence, revealing he had written a symphony:Symphony No.1, Jeremiah. After his fabledperformance with the philharmonic, many orchestraswere interested in debuting it. Bernstein was a“hot item,” and his old teacher Fritz Reiner, nowthe conductor of the Pittsburgh Orchestra, half-coaxed and half-bullied him into taking his baton.The Pittsburgh Symphony debuted Jeremiah onJanuary 28, 1944. The symphony is loosely basedon the experience of the biblical Jeremiah. It iscomposed of three movements: “Prophecy,” in whichJeremiah warns Jerusalem of its ruin if the peopledo not turn away from idolatry and wickedness;“Profanation,” which describes the destruction ofthe temple and the chaos inflicted on the city byBabylon when it fails to heed the prophet’s warning;and “Lamentation,” Jeremiah’s mourning of hisbeautiful city’s desolation, with a mezzo-soprano solosinging excerpts from the “Book of Lamentation”in Hebrew.15 If the work did not receive quitethe rapturous acclaim of his initial conductingperformance, it received positive reviews. Bernstein

soon performed the work again with the BostonSymphony Orchestra and then with the New YorkPhilharmonic. In May 1944 Jeremiah received theNew York Music Critics Circle’s annual award forbest new American symphony. When the successes ofFancy Free and On the Town followed, Bernstein wasa young man very much in demand.

Aaron Copland predicted to Bernstein that hewould be the most invited guest conductor of 1945.And so he was. The nation’s orchestras dutifully lined

up, hoping to bring the boy wonder to their city. Thatyear Bernstein would lead 14 different orchestras,including the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra twice,once at the year’s start and then at its close. The firsttwo-week residency was set for February. The visitwas announced four months after Jeremiah’s premierand the day after the announcement of the New YorkMusic Critics Circle’s award.16

The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO),founded in 1880, is the nation’s second-oldest

Bruno Walter (1876—1962) was a noted conductor whofled Nazi Germany and ended up in the United States in1939. He declined to be music director of the New YorkPhilharmonic in 1942 due to his age, but he still substitutedfor them, which created an opportunity for Bernstein whenWalter fell ill. (Image: Library of Congress)


symphonic orchestra after the New YorkPhilharmonic.17 Over the years it had evolved intoa strong second-tier orchestra. RCA Victor Recordshad begun recording its performances in the 1920s.The Paris-born Vladimir Golschmann had become itsmusic director in 1931. He and his gregarious wifehad found a welcoming place in St. Louis society.If Bernstein was considered a human explosion onstage, Golschmann, with his unusually long batonin hand, was regarded as the essence of conductingelegance. Over the years Golschmann had moved theSLSO forward, winning the orchestra greater nationalrecognition. Musicians of international renownappeared with the orchestra. Guest performersincluded Sergei Rachmaninoff, Jascha Heifetz,Sergei Prokofiev, Vladimir Horowitz, Isaac Stern,

and Arthur Rubenstein, among others. World WarII inadvertently created the openings for St. LouisSymphony guest conductors when the symphonyagreed to “loan” Golschmann, part of the year, to theCleveland Orchestra while its own conductor servedin the military.18

Notice of Bernstein’s coming to St. Louis inFebruary 1945 caused great excitement. There hadbeen nothing like it in the city’s classical music life.Skeptics like Thomas Sherman aside, St. Louisanseven vaguely interested in classical music wereanxious to see Bernstein for themselves. An orchestrapress release and the attendant publicity hypedhis dramatic 1943 appearance with the New YorkPhilharmonic and 1944 New York Music CriticsCircle’s award for Jeremiah.19 St. Louisans wouldreceive large doses of Bernstein even before hisarrival. His musical, On the Town, which had openedin New York on December 28, 1944, received afavorable full-page syndicated review in the St. LouisStar-Times, noting: “Leonard Bernstein’s score isunhackneyed without being high-brow. . . .”20 TheSt. Louis Ballet Theatre, supported by the St. LouisSymphony Orchestra, presented his and Robbins’ballet, Fancy Free, in January 1945, only weeksbefore Bernstein’s arrival. The Star-Times gave ita spacious and friendly review, noting approvinglythat its “juke box score tears jazzily along, with anoccasional dip into circus music.” The review mademuch of the fact that the ballet’s musical composerwould soon be in the city.21 Predictably, however,Sherman hated the ballet: “Bernstein’s score wasrhythmically eccentric and strongly percussive. Themelodic material was very slight and rather cheap. Itwas descriptive only on the surface of things.”22

Bernstein’s first public appearance with thesymphony was scheduled for February 10. Part ofbeing a conductor, at least an American conductor, isan endless round of socializing and promotion, oftenwith people and at events not of one’s own choosing,constantly smiling and being pleasant. Bernsteinsometimes complained of obligatory dinners and dullconversation in St. Louis, as he did elsewhere, buthe was a born socializer and could turn on the charmwhen he needed to. The Women’s Association of theSt. Louis Symphony Society invited its membersto have tea with Bernstein and Jennie Tourel, themezzo-soprano who accompanied him.23

All of that was duty. More important to Bernsteinwas the cultivation of the local press—somethingat which he excelled. While this was careeristcalculation, it was also a genuine pleasure. Bernsteintruly enjoyed hanging out with reporters, even ashe skillfully turned them into his friends. Positive

In early 1945, Bernstein as guest conductor alsoperformed as a piano soloist for the first time in St. Louis.(Image: Missouri Historical Society)


newspaper stories inevitably followed, carrying theflattery he craved. He pointedly wanted to be takenas a serious musician. No more On the Towns. It wasstrictly serious stuff from now on. But he also did notwant to seem like a stiff. He resisted the conventionalconception of a conductor as an aloof demi-god whoinhabited a celestial sphere inaccessible to meremortals. Bernstein knew he had been lucky to havesuccess so early, so he worked to demonstrate hishumility. He knew some reporters suspected hewould prove an arrogant prig. How many of themwere ready to write nice words about a tiresomeposeur half their age?

The SLSO facilitated Bernstein’s seduction of thepress by putting him up in a luxury suite with a pianoat the New Jefferson Hotel, which was originally builtfor the well-to-do guests attending the 1904 World’sFair. To woo over potential critics, Bernstein eschewedthe traditional pre-concert press conference and invitedreporters to join him in his rooms. In place of thetraditional question-answer session, Bernstein createda “clubby” atmosphere in which “the young maestro letdown his long hair.” With the barest feint of reluctancehe was persuaded to sit down at the piano, play a bit ofthe Haydn on an upcoming program and some Debussy,and then move into the “fun” stuff. According to a Star-

Times reporter, Bernstein “started having asgood a time aseveryone else,”playing “excitingrenditions of suchgut-bucket ariasas ‘Joe Turney’sBlues,’ ‘WeepingWillow’s Blues’and ‘Chip’sBoogie Woogie.’And these werenot polite, pseudo-symphonicversions,” thereporter gushed, but“done in authenticbackroom style.”After a whileBernstein declaredthe raucous playingneeded to stop orhe would ruin hisreputation with the

orchestra as a serious conductor. “But everyone,”continued the reporter, “assured him he was amongfriends.” Max Steindel, the symphony’s first cellist andconcertmaster, who was present, told Bernstein if hehad “his fiddle” he would play right along with him.

Bernstein’s time with the press was well spent. Thepre-concert articles could not have been warmer. TheSt. Louis Globe-Democrat proved even more exuberantthat the Post, describing “Lenny Bernstein [as] thehep-long hair who composes like Mozart, conducts likeToscanini, plays piano like Ammons and Johnson andlooks a bit like Frank Sinatra.” Bernstein, the article

The Symphony’s Women’s Society hosted a tea just twodays before the performance of Jeremiah, in which mem-bers could meet two of the rising stars in classical music,Jennie Tourel and Bernstein. (Images: Missouri HistoricalSociety)


said, had given an “uproarious press conference . . .that sent the enchanted press from here to there.”24

The story that appeared in the St. Louis Star-Timeswas equally enthusiastic, and accompanied by a largephotograph of Bernstein pounding out the “WeepingWillow Blues.”25 Though unsigned, the story wasprobably written by William Inge, soon a Pulitzer-prize-winning playwright. Bernstein and Inge rapidlystruck up a friendship and socialized when the youngconductor was in town. Though Inge’s articles werenot out of sync with those of other reporters, he wouldsubsequently write the kind of reviews of whichperformers dream.26 In the end, Bernstein largelyproved successful in being understood on his ownterms. In a fawning profile the Globe-Democrat’s HarryBurke wrote that the fair-haired boy of the symphonyturned out to be just a “bewildered brunette,” aspuzzled by his mysterious luck as anyone else.27

After the press conference ended, Bernstein hitthe jazz clubs with friends and probably some of thereporters as well. He was very happy. If St. Louisanswere excited to see Bernstein, Bernstein was veryexcited to see them, and he liked the orchestra. Writingon February 8 to his personal assistant, Helen Coates,he began talking about the New Jefferson Hotel: “Sucha gay suite, and a fascinating city! The orchestra isresponding ff [fortissimo], and I am having a goodtime—perhaps too good. Much jazz, so you can seefrom the papers. This is a very jazz-conscious town.But the ‘Blues Picture’ is good, isn’t it.” He later ends,“Keep your fingers crossed for the concerts.”28

That first concert was on Saturday evening,February 10, 1945, with a repeat performance Sundaymatinee. As the huge crowd of concertgoers waitedfor the show to begin, they could flip through theirprograms and discover a handsome and dreamyphotograph of Bernstein floating above a Baldwinpiano, “a magnificently sensitive” instrument thathe found “completely satisfying to me, both as apianist and conductor.” The program’s brief Bernsteinbiography cited his now familiar list of early triumphs,and added yet another wistful studio profile ofBernstein staring so soulfully into very high clouds—or probably a less distant ceiling—that he probablystrained his neck posing.29

Right before the concert began Bernstein, nervousyet exuberant, wrote Coates a hasty letter, concluding,“I’m just off to the first concert. It’s very exciting.” Thefirst half of the first concert would reassure any musictraditionalist. Bernstein conducted a fairly conventionalmix of baroque and romantic works: a C. P. E. Bachconcerto, Haydn’s Thirteenth Symphony, and JennieTourel singing some short pieces. But if the first half ofthe concert was fairly conservative, it was the secondhalf, in which Bernstein conducted his Jeremiah thatmost people had come to see. The concert ended

with a rousing suite from Igor Stravinsky’s TheFirebird.30 As the last notes of The Firebird wentdown, the audience’s roar went up. The concertreceived thunderous approval. After the concert anadrenalized Bernstein penned yet another letter toCoates. This one merely said, in large exuberantscript, “Doesn’t this beat them all?”31

Bernstein’s conducting was not only a popularsuccess but a critical one as well. Virtuallyeverything met with approval. Harry Burke, thecolumnist for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat,confessed that, given the mindless excitement overBernstein’s golden-boy reputation, he had initiallytoyed with headlines like “‘fakery fails,’” but if hehad come to scorn he left to praise. Jeremiah, hesaid, may have been expressed hebraically, but itshumanity touched his Irish-American soul. Andyes, the touted showmanship was there: Bernstein“dances the music. That is true. But he doesn’t doa dance for the hearers of that music. There isn’ta gesture but evokes its authentic response froman orchestral choir—and from the hearer. . . . Hepossibly forgets himself. But he never forgets, andyou will not forget the music he conjures from hisorchestra.”32 Inge wrote in the Star-Times: “TheOpera House at Kiel Auditorium has witnessedfew concerts as profoundly stimulating as thoseconducted by 26-year-old Leonard Bernstein.” Hegave very high praise to Jeremiah. He especiallysingled out Jennie Tourel for praise for her emotivesinging in the symphony’s third movement. Afterthat, “nothing but superlatives can be used for therest of the program.” Stravinsky’s Firebird suite,he said, “was the most dramatic and exoticallycolored performance the reviewer ever hasheard.”33 High praise indeed. Probably the greatestsurprise came from the Post’s Thomas Sherman.Writing under the headline, “Bernstein BrilliantConducting His Work,” Sherman said, “The focalpoint of the evening’s concert, in which Bernsteinand the orchestra had the notable assistance ofJennie Tourel, the Russo-French contralto, was theconductor’s own Jeremiah symphony. Even if thishad been the only number on the program it wouldhave established Bernstein’s qualifications, bothas a creative and an interpretive artist, beyond anyshadow of a doubt. His direction of the rest of theprogram made his gifts as a conductor all the moreapparent, though his judgment was sometimes opento question.” While he also praised Bernstein’sinterpretations of Bach and Haydn, if the conductorhad any notable flaw in his conducting, it washis mad love of emotional intensity. (This wassomething Bernstein would be accused of fordecades.) Sherman concluded, however, it wasthis obsession with power that made Stravinsky’sFirebird such a good match for him, noting that his


“dynamic and subtly colored performance broughtan enthusiastic ovation from the audience.”34

Before Bernstein came to St. Louis, ThomasSherman suspected that the young conductor wasa product of mere luck, whose popularity was atransitory fad. After the first concerts he wrote ameditative column, called “Second Thoughts onBernstein.” The St. Louis community had seen alot of guest conductors in the absence of VladimirGolschmann. Conductors use orchestras as theirinstrument in creating and molding music. “Thesuccessful performances conducted here byLeonard Bernstein were . . . not accidents . . . Theywere the results of knowledge and temperamentexpertly applied. . . .” Promotion is not usuallydistinguished for its accuracy, but it is possible,in this case, that the expression may have beenused advisedly. For Bernstein quite obviously hasmagnetism for both orchestra and audience.” WhileSherman said Bernstein needed to learn to keep his“natural brio” in check, he appeared to have themakings of a great career.35

Like most young artists, Bernstein was verysensitive about his reviews, and he read each oneupon publication. Two days after the concert heagain wrote Helen Coates. He was walking onair: “Here are the reviews and they are gorgeous.Everything seems to have been a huge successwith everybody. And I had the biggest audienceof the season,” as, indeed, he did. “I’m having awonderful time: dinners and parties every night . . . The orchestra is in love with me, and I thinkthe Ravel will be terrific.”36

“The Ravel” to which Bernstein referredwas Ravel’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra,which Bernstein intended as the signature piecefor the next set of concerts the following weekend.The piano concerto is strongly jazz-infused, andBernstein planned to conduct the orchestra whilesimultaneously serving as the piano soloist. Withthe exception of Beethoven’s Egmont, the concertwas mostly modern music. In addition to theRavel would be Roy Harris’ Third Symphony andShostakovich’s rousing Fifth Symphony, whichcomposed the entire second half.37 Again, theprogram was a hit with the critics, but this time theaudience simply exploded.

The Post’s Sherman found the concertexhilarating to the point of exhausting. Still, hegave the evening his ever-guarded approval. “Theprogram enabled the conductor to demonstrateonce again that he has tremendous driving force.”The Ravel was good, “the chief novelty of theevening,” though, while Bernstein did both well,

he wished Bernstein hadstuck with either conductingor piano-playing. Shermanmay have been exhausted,but not the audience, which“paid Bernstein the tributeof close attention throughoutthe evening and brought himback to the platform manytimes after each number.”38

Interestingly, William Inge,too, would have liked all ofthat stirring music mixedwith a quieter piece, buthe loved the jazzy Ravelconcerto as well. The hugeaudience’s reaction, however,fascinated him almost asmuch as the music itself. TheRavel concerto, he wrote,“was held together tightlyand tossed at the audiencewith a smack. The audienceliked it and insisted onthe third movement beingrepeated,” which Bernsteinobligingly did.39 The youngconductor was exhilaratedwith his whole St. Louisexperience. On February19, as he prepared to leave,he sent a postcard from St.Louis to his boyhood friendMildred Spiegel saying, inclipped, boastful, but accuratephrases—“Conductingwas wonderful, responsiveorchestra, audiences wild.”40

The two sets of concertsare what the public saw, butbetween them Bernstein andthe St. Louis SymphonyOrchestra recorded Jeremiah

r ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATC- H 'SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 194? ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATC- H PAGE 7ACOMMUNITY SCHOOLS RECITAL ST. CHARLES MAYOR-RESIGN- the npfed term of the iate

Mayor Charles Kansteiner. He

Queen Esther Ball March 18.The annual Queen Esther Vic-

tory Ball of the Sholom Aleichembranch of the Jewish National

BERNSTEINWorkers Alliance will be March18 at the Jewish Old Folks Home.Proceeds will go toward the pur-chase of land in Palestine.

TBRILLIANStudents of the Communitv was for' a four-vea- r

terra in April. 1943.Music Schools Foundation, a War (OCTChest agency, will present a pro-gram of violin. t)iano and cello CONDUCTING

Mayor Adolph Thro of St,Charles resigned his office yester-day because of ill health. He hadbeen ill for several months. Hebecame Mayor in October. 1939 to

HIS WORKA new mayoralty election willbe held next April. Until then

Floyd Main, Councilman- - from theThird Ward, will act as Mayor.music today at 3 o'clock 1n theill

EESUCCESSIS THE

assemnly hall or the organizationat 4703A McPherson avenue.Ranging from 8 to 17 years old,

pupils taught on a graded feebasis by professional musicians ofSt. Louis will perform standardworks from Bach to Shostakovich.There is no admission charge.

Jennie Tourel's Singing atSymphony Concert Also

, Evokes Praise.

DOUBLEEAGLE

STAMPSmEW IEADIOMC PROOF! .", (sixth AND FRANKLIN-- 0 -" hiImondayJ S!1' ' LI-'- "- I . f .i .. . .

r. j rui Limine to ouy marEDEABMNG Pin or Earrings that you haveDon't Spend Your LifeTWO FEET FROM HAPPINESSAIHD GOOD USED TRUCK TIRES & RECAPS

mlm

mmmm

TIbv SawyerRECAPPINGREPAIRING VULCANIZING KArelt-Fiffin- g

Smart ShoePROMPT SERVICESPECIAL DEALER SERVICE

Either tor heavy truck or paisonaiir carttritt the Merchant tyttem of recappina It the bent and longest wearingheavy tread recap that money can buy.New aynthetio rubber. No rationingpaperi needed.

By THOMAS B. SHERMAN- - .Two new personalities and a

new American symphony were in-troduced to the St Louis public atlast night's concert by the St.Louis Symphony Orchestra in KielAuditorium.

The first of these was LeonardBernstein who at the age of 26has become a three-pla- y celebritywith all the profit and prestigethat goes with such a state ofeminence. The story of Mr. Bern-stein's conquests of Broadway andCarnegie Hall has already beenthoroughly publicized here andelsewhere so what concerns usnow are the immediate evidencesof his talent as conductor andcomposer which were demon-strated last night.The focal point of the evening'sconcert, in which Bernstein andthe orchestra had the nntnhle

wanted at a great savings.

OUR COMPLETE STOCK OF

COSTUME JEWELRY

INCLUDES:

Pins, Earrings, Bracelets in white

and gold metal, sterling or gold

on sterling.

jj romplett- - with rodionie tubes.. crystal microphone, Neutral

ftf Color Earphone and Cord, bat- -teries. One model -- no "de

Sti cne Price onesj quality Zenith's finest. BETTY512

27 YEARS' EXPERIENCERecently expanded facilities to take eare ofyour tire needs. Prompt service to

customers. Capacity over 2000 tiresweekly.

2710 Washington Blvd. (3) JE. 0m

11 EASY tAY PLAX inSt. LouP '

Tit 11

Fine Black Gabardine67 Wool, 33 Cotton

Sizes to 10 AAAA to D;'jp;w;jM;;iipiitiit'BMWiiB;ww;a;iiiaiM.B.u!u!au!B!M:a!u!atii!aTutin itH, sistance of Jennie Tourel. the

'FRANKLIN FURNITURE CO.! Fine Itlnck GabardineWool 67. Cotton 33Size to 10AA to C

25o Off RegularMarked Prices

Ftdaraf Tox Not Includtd

Russo-Krenc- h contralto, was theconductor's own "Jeremiah" sym-phony. Even If this had beenthe only number on the programit would have established Bern-stein's qualifications, both as aereative and an interpretive artist,beyond any shadow of a doubt.His direction of the rest of theprogram made his gifts as a con-ductor all the more apparent,though his Judgment was some-times open to question.The "Jeremiah" symphony, atfirst hearing, made an overwhelm-ingly strong impression both hv

C. E. Williams Says:Enjoy "The- Shoe

With the Beautiful Fit"Softer, Smoother Materials

Luxury Cushion HeelsArch-Suppo- rt ConstructionMoulded-to-the-Fo- ot Look

Kind-to-the-Fo- ot FeelNo Slip, No Gap, No PinchScientific Fitting, IncludingSizes 3 to 11, AAAAtoEEE

(But Not in Every Style)

Also Other StylesFOR WOMEN

$3.00 TO $6.00Remarkable Shoe ValuesBring Ration Book No. 3

Store Hours: 9 to 5 707 LOCUST ST.reason of its poetic content and itsskillful, propulsive and vitalizeduse of the orchestra. The bold col-oring and clangorous assertivenessof the first two movements de " " 'p

: mm!V2

pended a little more on mere fa-cility than the final "Lamenta-tion" which seemed more deeplyfelt. Certainly it had a closer cor-relation between its musicalthought and its expression, but inno part of the symphony was therea parading of effects for their ownsake. ,

The material of the symphony,though taken in some instancesfrom the Hebrew liturgy, wasoriginal with the composer. Someof the themes were strikingly lyri-cal but they were all used con-sistently as generative motifs, piv--

3 . . VA

"ing life to the whole complex of

Afo. . . not all the eggs w receive go into aTom-Bo- y carton. Tom-Boy- 's candling and gradingplant is one of the most modern, immaculate and.cientihc egg rooms in. this area. Eggs are purchasedfrom approved sources in this area.. They are edthe second time in this candling roomfor size, weight, appearance and FRESHNESS . . .and only those eggs meeting the rigid standards oflom-Bp- y quality are then approved to be placed inIJr;BV "I10" RESULT Strictly pure, strictlyrKLMt ecus far vrviir rattl All

B4M ?A Marvelous Buy in This

EARLY AMERICAN 8 ivCk;

rnymm, narmony ana instru-mental color, and making it allone entity.

Bernstein's control and ener-getic direction, Mme. Tourel'sbeautifully modeled and finelyphrased singing and the resilientresponsiveness of the orchestraespecially gratifying in view ofthe complicated and irregularmeters, all contributed to an ex-citing performance.In C. P. E. Bach's Concerto forOrchestra as arranged by Max-mili- an

Steinbere. Bernstein mario

r - uni iu Klvc VOUadded assurance that .Tom-Bo- y xggs are tlvt finestfor your table.iT!rmym7' " ' 'WW -s--- ""' -j- j--- .10-P- c. Maple Living -- Room Outfita clean and exhilarating start.

Early American maple goes modern in this attractiveliving-roo- m ensemble. The 10 pieces include a largedavenport and chair to match, upholstered in a beau-tiful, durable fabric; Windsor chair, bridge lamp,desk, coffee table, smoker, end table, magazine rack,and floor lamp. All pieces maple finish over hard- -

ine second movement was par-ticularly affecting by reason ofits tender and exDressive shadingHaydn's G. Major Symphony (No.

TOdfl-BO- V EGGSwuuui. low priceu. uniy ',

TRADE IN YOUR OLD SUITE LIBERAL ALLOWANCES

8) was, however, too personal,too intense, and, in the first andlast movements, too breathless;but even here it was a questionof the conductor's judgment forin general it was beautifullv and Grade "A" Large ...Smaller Aic Cells and Greater dozfta 5often brilliantly played. The sec Vond movement, ior instance, wasa little over-ric- h, but still im-mensely effective in the d vims- - JOYFUL GRADE . . . LARGE ... DOZ. 48c:..,...: falls at the ends of the phrases.

Stravinsky's "Firebird Suitp "which closed the concert, foundIffI ' ' ' . v Bernstein once again in his ele-ment. A dvnamic and subtlv col' " ..s.VJV mis' j , i " jored performance brought an en-thusiastic ovation from the audience.

Unfortunately not much can hesaid here of Mme. Tourel's sensi-tive and consistently affectinrr ner- -

INFANT'S CRIBLarge size, with dropside.

$95MAYROSE" PICKLE AND PIMENTO LOAF

PLAIN BAKED-MAC-CHEE- SE LOAFOLD-FASHION- LOAF

RING OR LONG LIVER SAUSAGE6-P- c. Poster formance of three songs by Rtra-dell- a,

Dupsrc and Tschaikowsky.One can only make amends forsuch offhand treatment bv navincthat she proved herself a superbI TWIN BED OUTFIT artist wnii a voice or rounded.compelling quality, except for afew lniirflf nniat? en1 uri V.H 1" " - 1ULV0S O.HU Willi JX tUUi- -

3Ul3 (O)grasp of all the music

Iprehensive will be repeated this MAYROSE COTTAGE CHEESE JS. 2Q.I

SOVIET PAPER URGES GERMANYROILAWAY BEDSWith Felt Mlitresses

$250There's real sleeping comfort in this twin bed out-

fit in choice of maple or mahogany. Includes twobeds that are really good looking, two enameled coilsprings and two comfortable mattresses. A buy.

lULI! I

tefifl Wmhmqoii Roman Beasrty

APPLES 2-- 25'

ICEBERG LETTUCE J2cFANCY SLICING TOMATOES. &2?cNEW CROP CABBAGE.. M 5cIII

WASHBURN WHOLEtTT fl iTTi rsTTTT i"Pl iTTt Tl tl il iTi si Ti fTTTTrTfTl

9x12 FRINGED

SEAMLESS

BE STRIPPED OF BALTIC LANDSMOSCOW, Feb. 10 (AP). The

authoritative Soviet writer I. Yer-mashe- v.

writing in Red Fleet, or-gan of the Soviet .navy, said todaythe Germans must be shorn oftheir hold on the coast of theBaltic, the outlet of which he de-clared had belonged to the Rus-sian people since ancient times.

He wrote:"The German invaders have no

right on the Baltic Sea. The Ger-mans on the southern and west-ern shores of the Baltic have onlya short history. Pomerania, Meck-lenburg and Holstein entered thePrussian kingdom and the Ger-man empire only in modern times.

"Baltin Liberation Begun.""The knot on the Baltic will beuntied by Soviet arms. The liber-ation of the enslaved Balticpeoples has begun. The libera-tion of Norway soon will com-mence. Estonia, Latvia and Lith-uania have been liberated andhave tied their fat with h Pu.

GREEM PEAS.. bag 13eWASHBURN GREEN or YELLOW

SPLIT PEAS .. &15e

SU195TOM-BO- T

Salad Dressing ft' 19HOLSUM

Peanut Crunch '.VlBONUS CHOCOLATE

SYKUP.. "laV" 28emi iiinini"""'"IRONING SET

9 SUNBRIT1IORDENMISER -- 5eUnusually good

looking andwell wearingrugs. Comeearly as quant-ity is limited.

$095

RALSTON CEREAL ... '21ePOST T0ASTIES '130POST BRAN FLAKES 10GRAPENUTS 13cGRAPENUTS FLAKES... i? 10cKELLOGG PEP yncTOM-BO- Y COFFEE... . t 2BeF0LGER COFFEE R 33c

Includes Iron-ing board andpad,, clothes-pins and 50feet of

'

--JBORAXO n3eBORAXJWIETHIART fC

sian people. The land belongingto the Polish people land by thesea is being returned to Poland.Denmark soon will be freed."FILIPINOrHERECElEBRATE

THE LIBERATION OF MANILAAbout 25 members of the Fili-

pino COlonv of St. Ixinis nnd nn

HEM0 ab;59cCAMPBELL TOMATO

soup 3""25ePEVELY -

MILK 4r,35eSUNSHINE KRI$Py

CRACKERS p'kl8eNO INTEREST OR CARRYING CHARGESOpen Every Night 'Til 9 Delivery Up to 200 Miles equal number of guests celebrated L

BMUttmtUILUii...l "'"""'111!!' Illt'lllll- - ' -- -" '"I mi i'l. i""r'""""'"''l tSIM FRanUm 3700:fume.w Mr A Tirand dance last night at Hotel De-Sot- o.

Mayor Aloys P. Kaufmannwas a speaker on the program, inhonor of Filipinos in service.

Other guests who spoke includedCol. Richard E. Anderson, com-manding officer of Jefferson Bar-racks; Col. Neal Creighton, com-manding officer of Scott Field;Col. F. F. Christine, executive of-ficer of Scott Field, and PresidingJudge Edward M. Ruddy of theCircuit Court.

FURNITURE COMPANYELEVENTH and FRANKLIN 1

f

The St. Louis Post-DispatchEveryday Magazine noted inearly 1945 that success had notchanged Bernstein much, “for theyoung conductor and composeris concerned, rather than ar-rogant, over his rapid accom-plishments.” (Image: WashingtonUniversity Libraries, GaylordMusic Library)


for RCA’sVictor Records.LeonardBernstein hadbegun thesymphony thatwas to becomeJeremiah in1939, duringa period inwhich AaronCopland wastutoring him incomposition.The music layfallow, andhe completedit only afterextensiverewriting, andadding whatbecame the firstmovement in late1942. Copland’s influence is obvious, especially inthe second movement.41

Bernstein initially had doubts about recordingJeremiah with the SLSO. Just before the first St.Louis concert performance, he wrote Coates thatSLSO was “not the ideal orchestra for the Jeremiahrecords, but it will do, I guess,” but, he addedhopefully, “They certainly play with vigor.”42 Dayslater the orchestra recorded his Jeremiah over athree-day session and Bernstein quickly lost allqualms. Bernstein was right in believing that hehad won over the orchestra, though things beganon a peculiar note. Vladimir Golschmann, likemost European conductors, employed a minimaliststyle. At his initial orchestral rehearsal Bernsteinbegan with a dramatic downbeat that left thestartled musicians simply staring at him in muteincomprehension.43 As a young guest conductorBernstein had already been subjected to hazing byorchestra members. Players challenged visitingconductors by talking loudly while others played,deliberately hitting wrong notes, “accidently”missing entrances. Still, the Post reporter Sherman,who attended the recording sessions, laudedBernstein as great teacher with a total mastery overthe scores he conducted. Nowhere was this clearer,he said, than in teaching the orchestra his Jeremiah,a tricky piece of music that none of the orchestramembers had ever heard: “That the rehearsalscame off without loss of temper on either side was

an eloquenttestimonial”to Bernstein’scontrol. “It wasalso evidencethat a rapporthad beenestablishedwhich was tohave its effectat the publicperformance.”44

When therecording ofJeremiah wascomplete,the orchestramembers allstood andbeat theirinstruments intribute to his

conducting. Bernstein was so touched, he said, “Ijust stood on the podium and cried.”45

There was only one fly in the recordingointment. When it came time to make the album,RCA replaced Jennie Tourel as soloist with thebetter-known mezzo-soprano Nan Merriman. Butwhile Merriman was a highly talented singer,she was not Tourel’s equal, as both the Post-Dispatch and the Star-Times were soon to pointout.46 Despite this change, the whole session hadgone well and left everyone pleased. RCA VictorRed Seal released Jeremiah in early December

French-born conductor Vladimir Golschmann (1893—1972) servedas music director for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra from 1931until 1958. Bernstein got second-billing in this notice of forthcomingperformances. (Images: Library of Congress; Missouri Historical Society)


1945 as three 78 rpm albums ($3.68)47 and promotedit extensively with full page ads in nationalpublications, such as Life magazine.48

Despite the demurs about the loss of Tourel, thealbum received largely positive reviews. The St.Louis music critics took a natural interest and weregenerally enthusiastic for the recording, but theythought it lacking compared to the live performancethey had heard only months before. This waspartly excused because a mass-produced recordsimply could not have the sound quality of a liveperformance. At least that was what Thomas Shermanthought.49 An unsigned review in the Star-Times,after some similar minor fault-finding, concluded,“the recording is, in every way, excellent.”50 The NewYork Times was equally flattering: “The JeremiahSymphony is . . . a surprisingly substantial work. It isconcise, direct, dramatic and eloquent.”51

Today the 1945 recording seems like a periodpiece: good, but an old-fashioned monaural disc. Itsold reasonably well. Victor Records later reissued itunder its Camden label in 1956.52 In 1993 St. LouisSymphony music director Leonard Slatkin choseto reissue the 1945 recording again with a group oflater Bernstein compositions collective known asSongfest.53 The 1945 recording, as well as Slatkin’s,received kind words from national publicationsupon its reissuance.54 During 2017 and 2018, 74performances of Jeremiah have been played or arescheduled to be played across the world.55

In early September 1945, before Jeremiah’srelease, Bernstein paid a second visit to St. Louis,again staying at a suite in the New Jefferson Hotel.The purpose of the trip was not performing, butbusiness. This time he disliked his stay and wasoften lonely and bored. A dedicated social animal,he disparaged to Aaron Copland his companyand the want of late-night revelry: “Too manypeople & dinners & dullards here. Nice—butwhat happens after midnight.”56 A few days laterhe begged Copland to come pay him a visit. Hedid show a spark of enthusiasm, happily notingthat “The St. Louis Jazz Society is taking me on atour of old Southern jazz haunts tonight!”57 Whatall of the business entailed is not clear from hiscorrespondence, but shortly after he left, it wasannounced that would return again as SLSO’s guestconductor in late November and early December.58

Bernstein was enthusiastically welcomed backto St. Louis, and the audiences were large, but themania occasioned by his first visit was gone. Therewere no long newspaper profiles or queries aboutbobbysoxers. The ads, of course, still heralded himas the young genius of modern classical music, and

celebrated his earlier St. Louis appearances. Overthe past year the newspapers and the orchestra’spromoters had updated his resume with newaccolades and achievements: the Junior Chamber ofCommerce, for example, named him one of the tenoutstanding young men of 1944, along with NelsonRockefeller, the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, and Time-Life war correspondentJohn Hersey, who would soon pen the classic work,Hiroshima (1946). Bernstein had also followedLeopold Stokowski as the conductor of the New YorkCity Symphony Orchestra (not to be confused withthe Philharmonic).59

Upon his return to St. Louis, Bernstein wasrestless. A few days before the first concert, he againcomplained of loneliness and the poignancy of thescene. He wrote to his friend David Oppenheim: “Letme hear from you in this bleak, foggy place, where,of all things, a charming southern thunderstorm isnow raging. The streets are very dark and full oflonely faces. The hotel is very bright and full oflonely faces.”60 By the concert dates he had cheeredup. In the first pair of concerts, on November 30 andDecember 1, he conducted music by Beethoven,Carlos Chavez, Copland, and a Schumann symphony.For his second pair, December 8–9, he conductedClaude Debussy’s La Mer, over which he nervouslyfretted; music by Brahms; and he played as pianosoloist on Bach’s Fifth Brandenburg Concerto.61

In reviewing the first pair of concerts, ThomasSherman seemingly took pleasure that the audiencesize was down from the previous February, and theprogram more difficult. Perhaps without the carnivalatmosphere he could enjoy the music. After dutifullynoting his qualms, he concluded “that the concertwas a success by every standard and in a way thatproved once again Mr. Bernstein’s exceptionalquality.”62 Bernstein’s friend William Inge provedeven more effusive: “The word ‘brilliant’ gets a lot oftossing around in describing musical performances,but it appears so apt to Leonard Bernstein’sconducting of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestrayesterday afternoon that it can’t be avoided.”63

For the second pair of concerts, Globe-Democratcolumnist Harry Burke, who had written a flatteringprofile of Bernstein earlier in the year, could nothelp but gently fault the conductor for “put[ting]too much energy in Debussy’s dreamy La Mer,”but called it valid–“youth must have its ‘assertivefling.’” He thought Bernstein’s work as the soloist onBach’s Fifth Brandenburg Concerto was magnificent.(Bernstein “modestly” called it “immaculate.”)64

This essay began with Thomas Sherman’sskepticism, quite Harry Burke’s opposite. Let us


end with his approval. Sherman never lost his headover Bernstein, but by December 1945, he hadbecome a firm convert. After offering his usualcommentary on each piece, he praised Bernstein’scomplex methodology. He appreciated the youngconductor’s approach to Brahms, and he noted howBernstein showed the Brandenburg Concerto couldbe expressive without being dry. But he reservedhis highest praise for Bernstein’s interpretation ofDebussy’s La Mer: “Every detail was observed inthe performance. Every graduation of dynamics wascaptured, the color combinations were right, therhythmic as well as the dynamic accents were all inplace, the whole thing was on a grand scale . . . It

was, in fact, a thoroughly satisfying and effectiveconcert and one in which the concentration bestowedupon the young conductor by the audience wasalmost as great as that of the musicians.”65

Let us give Bernstein, himself, the final word.A sweet and generous correspondent to others,Bernstein had an unusual talent for complimentinghimself without seeming offensive. After receivingone of these letters about his St. Louis experience,Aaron Copland said that “St. Louis seems to haveaccorded the familiar L.B. triumph.” Two weeks laterBernstein was still basking in his golden time in thecity, writing David Oppenheim, “St. Louis was a joy.What a La Mer!”66


1 See Olin Downes, “Bernstein Shows Mastery ofScore; Youthful Conductor Carries Out an ExactingProgram in Sudden Emergency,” and the unsignedarticle, “Young Aide Leads Philharmonic, Steps inWhen Bruno Walter is Ill,” both New York Times,November 15, 1943; Editorial, “A Story Old andEver New,” New York Times, November 16, 1943.Bernstein’s rise from obscurity is probably the mostchronicled aspect of his career. The biographicalnarrative that follows is a distillation of the manysecondary works and primary sources about hissudden fame. If something is unique to a source,I have so noted it. The volume of writing aboutBernstein is prodigious and generally of high caliber.Bernstein never wrote his autobiography, but heinadvertently came close. He was a remarkablelife-long letter saver, as were many of his friends.This makes his collected letters very biographicallyilluminating. See Nigel Simeone, ed., The LeonardBernstein Letters (New Haven, Conn.: Yale UniversityPress, 2013). Bernstein gave the whole of his archivesto the Library of Congress, which has placed muchof it online: https://www.loc.gov/collections/leonard-bernstein/about-this-collection/. Initially restricted,the collection is now open to all researchers. Therestriction was meant to benefit Humphrey Burton,a long-time associate of Bernstein’s who wrote adetailed and responsibly objective biography, LeonardBernstein (New York: Doubleday, 1994). Culturalhistory biographer Meryle Secrest, who was deniedaccess, nonetheless produced a biography that is wellwritten, has its own unique sources, and is worthreading: Leonard Bernstein: A Life (New York: A. A.Knopf, 1994). A shorter, more manageable biography,which sometimes relies heavily on other publishedbiographies, is Allen Shawn, Leonard Bernstein:An American Musician (New Haven, Conn.: YaleUniversity Press, 2014). Joan Peyser, an earlybiographer who had Bernstein’s support, never shiedaway from some unflattering judgments in Bernstein:A Biography (New York: William Morrow, 1987).Bernstein’s younger brother, Burton, a staff writerfor the New Yorker, put together an appreciativeanthology of original essays by well-known historians,musicians, and composers. See Burton Bernsteinand Barbara B. Haws, eds, Leonard Bernstein:American Original. How a Modern Renaissance ManTransformed Music and the World during His NewYork Philharmonic Years, 1943–1976 (New York:Collins, 2008). Jonathan Cott’s slim volume has itsflaky moments, but it contains interesting material:Dinner with Lenny: The Last Long Interview withLeonard Bernstein (New York: Oxford UniversityPress, 2013). The elaborate official Bernstein websitealso contains useful biographical information: https://leonardbernstein.com/at100. Readers who want aquick guide to the music he conducted or wrote might

begin with Peter Gutmann’s “Leonard Bernstein: ATotal Embrace of Music,” http://www.classicalnotes.net/features/bernstein.html. Diligent researcherswill find much more biographical work elsewhere,including in the notes that follow.

2 Magazines like Life, Look, and Time had a nationalreadership. Even if St. Louisans missed some of theNew York press, it was hard to miss Bernstein, even insmall ways. The readers of the St. Louis Post-Dispatchwere reminded that the conductor/composer LeonardBernstein would be the guest expert on KSD’ssyndicated show, Information Please, the followingnight at 8:30. St. Louis Post-Dispatch. May 28, 1944.By the time he arrived in St. Louis, the newspaper andpromotional efforts had reached a saturation point.

3 Unsigned article, “Bernstein to Be Guest Conductorwith Symphony,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, May 21,1944. Unsigned article, “Symphony Conductor GetHep, Beats Out Blues and Boogie-Woogie,” St. LouisGlobe-Democrat, February 6, 1945; Unsigned article,“‘Pin-Up Boy of Symphony’ Has a Passion of JazzMusic,” St. Louis Star-Times, February 6, 1945.

4 Donal Henahan, “Leonard Bernstein, 72. Music’sMonarch, Dies,” New York Times, October 15, 1990.https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0825.html Ratherthan a standard obituary, this is a remarkable piece oflong-form journalism, offering both a useful summaryand a reflective evaluation of the conductor’s career.

5 Thomas B. Sherman, “Guest Conductors,” St. LouisPost-Dispatch, November 12, 1944.

6 It was not only Sherman who had been skeptical.Bernstein’s father, Sam, had fought his son’sbecoming a musician at every step: “How could Iknow my son was going to grow up to be LeonardBernstein?” he said later. As quoted in Burton,Leonard Bernstein, 122. Much of his exuberantconducting was captured on film, leaving him with apermanent visual legacy, much of it available on theinternet.

7 Henahan, “Leonard Bernstein, 72.” See also Bernsteinand Haws, eds., Leonard Bernstein.

8 St. Louis did not have an American-born conductoruntil Leonard Slatkin became the music director in1979. The second was David Robertson, 2005–2018.In between were Dutchman Hans Vonk, and Robertsonis to be followed by the Frenchman Stéphane Denève,who officially takes up the directorship in 2019.https://www.slso.org/en/musicians/conductors/past-music-directors/; http://www.stephanedeneve.com/about-stephane/

9 Quoted in Burton, Leonard Bernstein, 138–39; HarryR. Burke, “More About Bernstein, the ‘White-HairedBoy of Symphonists,’ the Bewildered Brunette,” St.Louis Globe-Democrat, February 15, 1945.

10 They similarly questioned his relations with hisorchestra members. Even as the music director

E N D N O T E S

97804 Magazine.indd 46 12/12/18 2:39 PM


of the New York Philharmonic in the 1960s, hedemocratically put up with disagreements and backtalk from musicians that amazed Seiji Ozawa, whoserved as his assistant conductor. Haruki Murakami,Absolutely on Music: Conversations with Seiji Ozawa(Vintage, 2017), 29–30. Later in life he was criticizedfor publically dressing down performers when hedisliked their playing. Some musicians grumbledabout his unorthodox musical interpretations, claimingthat when they were supposed playing Beethoventhey were really playing Bernstein. Although he couldstill charm when he wanted to, by the last decadeof his life he had become the imperious maestro, atoo long over-scheduled man who had lost patiencewith ordinary courtesies and inevitable obstacles,often acting imperious and entitled. Henahan,“Leonard Bernstein, 72”; Charlie Harmon, On theRoad and Off with Leonard Bernstein. My Yearswith the Exasperating Genius (Watertown, Mass.:Charlesbridge Publishing, Inc., 2018).

11 Barry Seldes is illuminating about Bernstein’s politicalactivities. See Leonard Bernstein: The Political Sideof an American Musician (Berkley: University ofCalifornia Press, 2009). See especially 21, 32–33,114–16. Bernstein confessed to some political naiveté,but he noted he had never voted for a politicalcandidate who was not a Democrat or a Republican.The lengthy affidavit is reprinted in its entirety inSimone, Bernstein Letters, 299–309. Tom Wolfe,Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers (NewYork: Picador, 2009, rpt.). For Bernstein’s commentson the party and Wolfe’s book, see Cott, Dinner withLenny, 85–86. Wolfe reflected on the party for Secrest,Bernstein, 321–23. Wolfe said that he personally hadno particular interest in the Black Panthers, but ratheran interest in the Beautiful People’s interest in theBlack Panthers.

12 Howard Pollack, Aaron Copland: The Life and Workof an Uncommon Man (New York: Henry Holt andCompany, 1999), 193–94.

13 Leonard Slatkin, Conducting Business: Unveiling theMystery Behind the Maestro (Milwaukee: AmadeusPress, 2012), 141–42.

14 Burton Bernstein provides an interesting perspectiveinside the family point of view of these events inFamily Matters: Sam, Jennie, and the Kids (Lincoln,Neb.: An Authors Guild Backinprint.com Edition,2000, 2nd ed. rev.; Originally, Summit Books, 1982),143–51.

15 An English translation was provided in program forconcertgoers. For more on the connection betweenthe music and the biblical text, see Secrest, Bernstein,105–7; A King James biblical translation of the textmaybe found at: https://perryjgreenbaum.blogspot.com/2017/11/leonard-bernsteins-symphony-no-1.html. One, of course, need not know Hebrew (or KingJames’s English) to appreciate the singing.

16 Burton, Leonard Bernstein, 139–40; St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 21, 1944, p. 56.

17 The New York Philharmonic was founded in 1842, theSt. Louis Symphony in 1880, the Boston Symphony in1881, the Chicago Symphony in 1891, the CincinnatiSymphony in 1895, and the Pittsburgh Symphony in1895 (though the last later disbanded for 16 years);the rest of the major urban symphony orchestras werefounded in the twentieth century.

18 Andre Kostelanetz followed Bernstein as guestconductor in 1945.The Golschmann years are coveredin Katherine Gladney Wells, Symphony and Song. TheSt. Louis Symphony Orchestra: The First HundredYears: 1880–1980 (Taftsville, Vt.: The CountrymenPress, 1980), 55–79; see also the 1927 Victrola ad,noting SLSO recordings and the discography up to1980, 217–21, and Richard Edward Mueller, “TheSt. Louis Symphony Orchestra, 1931 to 1958,” Ph.D.Diss., Saint Louis University, 1976.

19 The young and seemingly vigorous Bernstein,had received a “4F” deferment from the military,but he carefully noted in programs his pleasurein playing “boogie-woogie” music for the troops,citing a performance at Fort Dix. While chronicasthma plagued Bernstein, it is very rare to find anon-conducting photograph that does not show himsmoking. It would kill him in the end. Unsignedarticle, “Bernstein to Be Guest Conductor,” St. LouisGlobe-Democrat, May 21, 1944. Unsigned article,“Four Guest Conductors Signed for Next Season.” St.Louis Post-Dispatch, May 21, 1944.

20 “And his songs. are fun,” the reporter said. “‘ComeUp to My Place,’ ‘I Get Carried Away, and ‘You’veGot Me,’ with the help of very amusing lyrics, are allshow-stoppers; and there are pleasant romantic tuneslike ‘Lucky to Be Me.’” Louis Kronenberser, “AlongBroadway,” St. Louis Star-Times, December 30,1944; Unsigned article, “Ballet in Jazz and Jive,” St.Louis Post-Dispatch, December 10, 1944. The articleincludes a full page of rehearsal photographs.

21 Unsigned article, “Jive Music Accents ‘Fancy Free’Ballet,” St. Louis Star-Times, January 3, 1945.

22 Thomas B. Sherman, “Toumanova Exciting in BalletDances,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 6, 1945.

23 St. Louis Symphony Program, 65th Season, 1944–1945, 420; Saint Louis Symphony Society Records,1897–1983, Missouri Historical Society Archives,Box 17A.

24 Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson were AfricanAmerican musicians famed in the 1940s for theirBoogie-Woogie piano virtuosity.

25 Arthur W. Hepner, “Success Has Not Turned HisHead,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 9, 1945,part 4, p. 1; “Symphony Conductor Get Hep,” p. 3B;“‘Pin-Up Boy.’”

26 Many of Inge’s plays would become staples of the1950s and later movies: Bus Stop, Picnic, Splendor


in the Grass, and Come Back Little Sheba, writtenduring a stint as a Washington University professor.For a biographical sketch of William Inge and his lifein St. Louis, see Lorin Cuoco and William R. Gass,eds., Literary St. Louis: A Guide (St. Louis: MissouriHistorical Society Press, 2000), 203–7. Bernsteinloved drinking and carousing. During his stays in St.Louis he made a friend of Dr. Bertram Slaff, a young,and poorly paid, medical intern, who earned $32.50a month. Even before the meal, Slaff began frettingover the expense of a costly restaurant. His secretconsternation deepened when Bernstein unexpectedlyappeared with his friend Inge. Sensitively, Bernsteincorrectly intuited the pinch of such an extravagancefor Slaff and paid for all, telling him he had to spendhis On the Town royalties on something. Slaff toSecrest, July 11, 1991, in Secrest, Bernstein, 154.

27 Burke, “More About Bernstein.” Bernstein was a veryself-confident young-man-in-hurry, but his humilitywas not all fake. While he knew he was both charmedand charming, he was considerate to others. See alsoMurakami, Absolutely on Music, 29–30.

28 Leonard Bernstein to Helen Coates, February 8, 1945,Bernstein Papers, Library of Congress.

29 Baldwin ad, St. Louis Symphony Program, 65th

Season, p. 466; Bernstein biography, 410. Not nearlyas much fuss had been made over his supportingmezzo-soprano, Jennie Tourel. Her program biographymostly strung together positive quotes about hersinging and left it at that. Tourel was born into aJewish Belarus family in 1900. The family fled Russiafollowing the Revolution, eventually settling in Paris.There she won fame as an operatic singer, but justahead of the 1940 Nazi occupation, she immigratedto the United States. She rebuilt her career, singingwith Arturo Toscanini and Leopold Stokowski, amongothers. In 1943 she included some of his “KidsSongs,” I Hate Music, into her well-received NewYork City Town Hall debut. Bernstein subsequentlyinvited her to sing the mezzo-soprano role at thePittsburgh Symphony debut of Jeremiah, and shecontinued to do so at its live performances thereafter.Her professional relationship with Bernstein wouldlast decades. St. Louis Symphony Program, 65th

Season, p. 447; on Tourel’s background, see https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/5506600; Peyser,Bernstein,118–19.

30 St. Louis Symphony Program, 65th Season. p. 427.31 Bernstein to Coates, two letters dated February 10,

1945, Bernstein Papers.32 Harry R. Burke, “Bernstein Impressive as Conductor,”

St. Louis Globe-Democrat, February 11, 1945.Four days later Burke obtained a special interviewwith Bernstein and published a highly flatteringprofile of the young conductor. Burke, “More AboutBernstein.” The article notably begins by Bernstein’sdismissing his success with an “aw-shucks, it was justluck.” Bernstein then outlines an insanely ambitiouscatalogue of all the books, poetry, and serious music

he intended to write. But Bernstein said he couldnot plan to specify because the most important thingwas being fully in the present. Burke takes all ofBernstein’s monumental aspiration at face value.

33 William Inge, “Bernstein Brilliant in Two Concerts.”St. Louis Star-Times, February 12, 1945.

34 Thomas B. Sherman, “Bernstein Brilliant ConductingHis Work,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 11,1945.

35 Thomas B. Sherman, “Second Thoughts onBernstein,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 18,1945.

36 Bernstein to Coates, February 12, 1945, BernsteinPapers.

37 St. Louis Symphony Program, 65th Season, p. 467.38 Thomas B. Sherman, “20th Century Music at Bernstein

Concert: Symphony Program Proves to Be MoreExciting Than Exalting,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch,February 18, 1945.

39 William Inge, “Bernstein Applauded on ModernWorks,” St. Louis Star-Times, February 19, 1945.

40 Leonard Bernstein to Mildred Spiegel, February 19,1945, in Simeone, ed., Bernstein Letters, 583.

41 Curiously, Copland warned him of the perils of beingpigeon-holed as a Jewish composer, like ErnestBloch, and admonished for his addiction to musicalemotionalism. He was soon compared to Bloch,foreshadowing Bernstein’s later obsession with GustavMahler. On Copland’s tutoring and the writing ofJeremiah, see Secrest, Bernstein, 139; Pollack, AaronCopland, 194, 522.

42 Bernstein to Coates, February 8, 1945, BernsteinPapers.

43 Henahan, “Leonard Bernstein, 72.”44 Sherman, “Second Thoughts on Bernstein.”45 As quoted in Secrest, Bernstein, 137–38.46 Biographer Joan Peyser even wondered if Bernstein’s

jealous fiancé Felicia Montealegre torpedoed Tourel’sinclusion on the album. Peyser, Bernstein 440–41.This seems unlikely because Bernstein would continuehis professional relationship with Tourel for decadesuntil her death. A more likely explanation is that NanMerriman already had a Victor Records contract.Tourel might also have had a conflict, as she recordedan album for another label a couple of weeks later.On Nan Merriman, see https://sites.google.com/site/pittsburghmusichistory/pittsburgh-music-story/classic/nan-merriman; http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-passings-20120802-story.html.

47 See the ad in St. Louis Star-Times, December 13,1945.

48 Life Magazine, vol. 29, no. 19, May 13, 1946, p. 28.49 Thomas B. Sherman, “Off the Records,” St. Louis

Post-Dispatch, January 6, 1946.50 Unsigned review, “Record Album,” St. Louis Star-

Times, January 3, 1946, p. 16.51 Mark A. Schubart, “Records: Bernstein’s ‘Jeremiah,’”

New York Times, January 6, 1946.52 RCA’s Camden reissue of Bernstein and the St.

97804 Magazine.indd 48 12/12/18 2:39 PM


Louis Symphony’s Jeremiah is readily availableon the internet. The YouTube recording includesperiod pictures, some with people mentioned inthe essay. First movement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQJxlCaTt8Y; Second movement:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQvBc7jq55g;Third movement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQvBc7jq55g.

53 Bernstein recorded Jeremiah later in life with boththe New York Philharmonic and the Israel SymphonicOrchestra, but it was not the same as the originalrecording. Recording methods have obviouslyimproved over the years, but he never regarded hismusic, or anybody else’s, as sacrosanct. Jennie Tourelgot her opportunity to sing the mezzo-soprano partwith the NYPO. As he aged, Bernstein was both proudof his symphony and somewhat embarrassed by it asjuvenilia. Both views have merit. Other symphonicorchestras have recorded it since 1945.

54 See, for example, Joseph McLellan, “ClassicalRecordings,” Washington Post, June 27, 1993; PeterG. Davis, “West Side Glory,” New York, vol. 26, no.27, July 12, 1993, 56–57.

55 https://leonardbernstein.com/search?page=4&s=event&q=Jeremiah

56 Leonard Bernstein to Aaron Copland, dated Saturday[September 1, 1945], Simeone, ed., Bernstein Letters,179.

57 Leonard Bernstein to Aaron Copland, [undated,September 1945], Simeone, ed., Bernstein Letters,179–80.

58 Unsigned article, “Golschmann Sets First ElevenConcert Pairs,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September30, 1945.

59 Associated Press, “Nelson Rockefeller Named U.S.Young Man,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 17,1945; Unsigned article, “Leonard Bernstein GuestConductor with Symphony,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, November 25, 1945; Unsigned Article,“Bernstein on Podium Friday and Saturday,” St.Louis Post-Dispatch, November 25, 1945; St. LouisSymphony Program, 66th Season, 1945–1946, 223;Saint Louis Symphony Society Records, 1897–1983,Missouri Historical Society Archives, Box 17A.

60 Leonard Bernstein to David Oppenheim, postmarkNovember 27, 1945, Simeone, ed., Bernstein Letters,189–90.

61 St. Louis Symphony Program, 66th Season, pp.223, 267; Bernstein to Coates, December 1, 1945,Bernstein Papers.

62 Thomas B. Sherman, “Leonard Bernstein Concert aSuccess,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch. December 1, 1945.

63 William Inge, “Leonard Bernstein Brilliant asConductor of Symphony,” St. Louis Star-Times,December 1, 1945.

64 Harry R. Burke, “Bernstein Wins Ovation inAppearance with Symphony,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, December 9, 1945; Leonard Bernstein toDavid Oppenheim, postmarked December 18, 1945.Simeone, ed., Bernstein Letters, 192.

65 Thomas B. Sherman, “Bernstein Conducts in FinePerformance,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 9,1945.

66 Aaron Copland to Leonard Bernstein, Tuesday[December 4, 1945], Simeone, ed., Bernstein Letters,190; Leonard Bernstein to David Oppenheim,postmarked December 18, 1945, Simeone, ed.,Bernstein Letters, 192.

The Pin-Up Boy of the Symphony: St. louis and the Rise of ...

Documents

Transcript of The Pin-Up Boy of the Symphony: St. louis and the Rise of ...