Leonard Bernstein

328 Pages·1987·20.611 MB·English

by  Michael Freedland

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M I C H A E L y E R E E D L A N D
ichael Freedland’s Leonard Bernstein 5 eeTier e
is the first biography to be published
in this country of one of the great
figures in twentieth-century music. Born in
Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1918, Bernstein
studied at Harvard and at the Curtis Institute, |
Philadelphia. Even at this early stage in what
was to become a brilliant career, his
considerable talent led a friend to say ‘Lenny is
doomed to success’.
Bernstein made his debut in his early twenties
at New York’s Carnegie Hall and achieved
fame over-night. He is renowned as a pianist,
an orchestral conductor, and a composer of
musicals, among them On the Town, 1944,
Candide, 1956, and' West Side Story, 1957, as
well as symphonies: Jeremiah, 1942-44; The
Age of Anxiety, 1949, and Kaddish, 1963.
Michael Freedland has written a candid yet
sympathetic portrait of an extraordinarily
glamorous figure. He describes Bernstein’s
background, his religious faith, his long-lasting
marriage as well as his avowed bi-sexuality.
Based on interviews with at least fifty people
who know Bernstein intimately, Freedland’s
book reveals an affectionate, emotional man of
great generosity and warmth, but not without
flaws: a perfectionist, Bernstein raised the
roof when he first heard the soundtrack of
West Side Story and he once told Artie Shaw to
play his own clarinet concerto faster.
This biography brilliantly conveys the multi-
faceted personality of a composer whom
André Previn has described as “a genius’ as
well as ‘the greatest American conductor who
ever lived’.
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LEONARD
BERNSTEIN

LEONARD
BERNSTEIN
MICHAEL FREEDLAND
HARRAP
London
First published in Great Britain 1987
by HARRAP Ltd
19-23 Ludgate Hill, London EC4M 7PD
© Michael Freedland 1987
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced
in any form or by any means without the prior permission of Harrap Ltd
ISBN 0-245-54499-2
Designed by Rupert Kirby
Phototypeset by Falcon Graphic Art Ltd
Wallington, Surrey
Printed and bound in Great Britain
by Mackays of Chatham Limited
FOR MY SARALA
An orchestration of love
_~