Leonard Bernstein - 1943

from Letter from Leonard Bernstein to Aaron Copland, 3 April 1943, page 120:

Dear A Just a few words a propos of the Lincoln Portrait performance... I suppose everyone has written you all about it. How Will Geer completely disregarded your forward in the score, and drawled away in a pseuso-Lincolnesque performance that was truly embarrassing. (He made up to look a little like Abe, and sat on this chair like the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. I’m told the whole thing was Koussie’s idea, which is certainly plausible.) Kouss didn’t do as well by it as I had expected. The opening was too agitated because he divided his beats – there was no feeling of …   more >>
cite as

Leonard Bernstein, Letter from Leonard Bernstein to Aaron Copland, 3 April 1943. In Nigel Simeone (ed.), The Leonard Bernstein Letters (City of New Haven, 2013), p. 120. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1388234202885 accessed: 7 December, 2024

Listeners

Leonard Bernstein
Composer, Conducting
1918-1990

Listening to

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Lincoln Portrait
written by Aaron Copland
performed by Serge Koussevitzky

Experience Information

Date/Time 1943
Medium live
Listening Environment in the company of others, indoors, in public

Notes

Will Geer (1902-78) American actor and left-wing activist, blacklisted in the 1950s for refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee, achieved fame late in life as Grandpa Zebulon Walton in The Waltons. Serge Koussevitzky, conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1924-1949


Originally submitted by Ivan Hewett on Sat, 28 Dec 2013 12:36:43 +0000