The Leonard Bernstein Letters ed. by Nigel Simeone (review)

Leonard Bernstein spent his life preternaturally active as a conductor, composer, pianist, and musical commentator on television. His multifarious activities have drawn the interest of musicologists, theorists, and music education scholars who have approached Bernstein from a wide variety of perspectives. Indeed, a striking number of books, articles, dissertations, and theses concerning his work have appeared in the last decade alone.

A compilation of Bernstein’s correspondence has now been published; its editor is Nigel Simeone, formerly the author of Leonard Bernstein: West Side Story (Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2009). Many examples of Bernstein’s correspondence have long been available on the Library of Congress’s American Memory website, but this is the first edited collection of his letters. Simeone states that Bernstein’s extensive correspondence includes “many tens of thousands” (xi) of items; indeed, Bernstein was a habitual correspondent about matters personal and professional, and his secretary Helen Coates carefully organized his life starting in 1944. She tried to save every letter, program, and scrap of paper that came through the office, and Bernstein’s one-time assistant, Charlie Harmon, collected copies of more letters from some of Bernstein’s correspondents after his death. With all of that correspondence now in the Library of Congress, Simeone faced many difficult choices in deciding what to include in his volume of 650 letters.

Simeone explains in his “Introduction and Acknowledgments” that because his primary interest was to portray the man and musician, he tended to omit letters from family. He included many letters from Bernstein’s famous friends and colleagues, especially musicians, but it was not even possible to include all the letters from his fellow composers. The editor wished to shed light on his major collaborations, but this was only possible in some cases. There are, for example, fascinating epistles involving Fancy Free and West Side Story, but very little involving On the Town and Wonderful Town. Other themes that Simeone emphasizes in his opening essay include Bernstein’s constant struggle between conducting and composing, his frequent travels, his ambiguous sexuality, and his marriage. Simeone describes his editorial procedure, which combines fealty to sources with useful standardization. He allows most letters to speak for themselves, but adds footnotes when needed, often to identify correspondents or people referenced in the letters.

Simeone divides the collection into eight chapters and presents letters chronologically, arriving at possible dates for undated letters through internal evidence and offering footnotes to explain his reasoning. This is a provocative collection, varying from weighty considerations, such as Bernstein’s struggles with his homosexuality and the crises early in his marriage, to light communication between friends, allowing a multilayered and unfiltered picture of the man to emerge.

The first chapter, “The Early Years,” covers from 1932 through spring 1941, when Bernstein graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music. His enthusiasm for music appears in early correspondence with Sid Ramin, and his relationships with mentors Dimitri Mitropoulos and Aaron Copland are illuminated in numerous letters. Mitropoulos was struck by Bernstein’s talent and wrote him in an intimate tone (e.g., no. 19, February 5, 1938). Bernstein’s correspondence with Copland was also suggestive of deep feelings, but the older composer tended to give practical advice (e.g., no. 21, March 23, 1938). A revealing letter is no. 36 (July 13, 1939), wherein Bernstein tells Harvard friend Kenneth Ehrman that “The Big Boys” (surely Copland and Mitropoulos) had decided that he should become a conductor.

Chapter 2, “First Successes, 1941-44,” covers Bernstein’s career through the opening of On the Town, when the self-assured young musician strides onto the national stage while managing conflicts and crises in his personal life. Clarinetist David Oppenheim emerges as a best friend, Copland remains a valued friend and advisor, and Serge Koussevitzky becomes a conducting mentor. Personal matters include Bernstein’s references to a possible “cure” for his homosexuality through psychoanalysis (no. 110 to Copland, perhaps June 1942) and his...