The Leonard Bernstein Letters Read Online Free PDF

in New York the 24th. The concert is the 28th of May, and I leave the 8th of June. May I ask a small picture of you to be my companion on my Europe trip?
    With affection,
    D. Mitropoulos
    24. Dimitri Mitropoulos to Leonard Bernstein
    The Biltmore, at Grand Central Terminal, New York, NY
    7 June 1938
    Dearest friend,
    Thank you! I was so unhappy this last time! But now everything is again all right. I was so stupid to think that you didn't care so much about me. Wasn't I stupid?
    Your picture is so good, I like it, God bless you!
    You see, my dear boy, sometimes I am so sad, and I need so few, just a little to be happy, and this little sometimes nobody gives me, it seems to avoid me.
    Can you imagine for a moment, I thought I lost your love, and then, I was asked me, perhaps I am not right to ask anything, to expect anything, from anybody, that my destiny is to be alone with myself and my art.
    But you my dear friend, tell me, it is not so, I am something for you, yes … don't forget me.
    Goodbye dear,
    Dimitri
    25. Leonard Bernstein to Aaron Copland
    Eliot E-51, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
    [received 20 October 1938]
    Dear Aaron,
    It's going to be hard to keep this from being a fan letter. The concert was gorgeous – even the Dvořák. 26 I still don't sleep much from the pounding of:

    in my head. 27 In any event, it's a secure feeling to know we have a master in America. I mean that too (don't pooh-pooh). I sat aghast at the solid sureness of that construction of yours. Timed to perfection. Not an extra beat. Just long enough for its material. Orchestral handling plus. Invention superb. And yet, with all that technique, it was a perfect rollercoaster ride. And it's not the exhaustible kind of cleverness (like Françaix, or his ilk).
    I want seriously to have the chance to study with you soon. My heart's in it. Never have I come across anyone capable of such immediate absorption of musical material, possessing at the same time a fine critical sense with the ability to put that criticism into words successfully. This is not rot. The little demonstration you gave with those early things of mine proved it to me conclusively.
    Saw the Group Theatre bunch today and they all asked for and about you. [Clifford] Odets, 28 true to form, thinks the Salón México “light”, also Mozart exceptthe G minor Symphony. That angers me terrifically. I wish these people could see that a composer is just as serious when he writes a work, even if the piece is not defeatist (that Worker word again) and Weltschmerzy and misanthropic and long. Light piece, indeed. I tremble when I think of producing something like the Salón .
    Casting is a wretched business. 29 It's slow but sure. And so tiring. (What word from the Marc [Blitzstein]?) But I think we'll have a fine show.
    Let me hear soon. As Dame Fortune said to you backstage last Saturday night, “On to bigger & nobler things.”
    Always,
    Lenny
    P.S. I hope you're really haunted by:

    Maybe not convincing , but maybe haunting .
    26. Aaron Copland to Leonard Bernstein
    International Society for Contemporary Music, United States Section, New York, NY
    [October or November 1938]
    Dear Lenny,
    Of course you're crazy! I'm sorry if you felt a “strained feeling” that Saturday. The moral being – you mustn't be so sensitive. I remember Victor [Kraft] was acting strangely and I was embarrassed at not being able to invite you to the ballet 30 – but that's nothing to have “omens” about. Anyhow – remember this – I feel much too friendly and sympathetic to you for anything I can possibly imagine making our relations “strained”.
    As a peace offering, I'm sending you a copy of the Second Hurricane 31 which is just out.
    Affectionately,
    Aaron
    27. Leonard Bernstein to Aaron Copland
    Eliot E-51, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
    [received 19 November 1938]
    Dear Aaron,
    In the midst of ten million other things I'm writing a thesis for honors. I think it's interesting – certainly