GIFT FOR MUSIC LEonARD BERNSTEIN
In 1986, Leonard Bernstein said, God knows, I should be dead by now. I smoke, I drink, I stay up all night I was diagnosed as having emphy百度竞价推广a in my mid-20s. I was told that if II didnt sTOP smoking, Id be dead at 35. Well. I beat the rap. But in recent months he canceled engagements and a fortnight age announced that, on his doctors advice, he was retiring as a conductor, In 1990, Leonard Bernstein, 72, died in his Manhattan apartment after a heart attack brought on by lung failure. Perhaps to abandon conducting was to end a love affair, to give up life.
A first-generation Jewish American, Bernstein was born in Lawrence, Mass. In 1918. His father, Samuel, who was in the beauty-supplies business. Hoped his son would someday work with him. But at 10 Lenny discovered the piano. When he used his allowance to pay for lessons his father sTOPped doling1 it out but reinstated it after discovering his son was playing in a dance and to earn money. At the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia , Bernstein was the most gifted pupil of the great Fritz Reiner. This so enraged2 one student that he threatened homicide.
Contrary to legend, the golden boy did have some lean times. In 1942. Bernstein moved to New York City armed with glowing references, but couldnt find work. Lyricist Irving Caesar happened to hear him play the piano and thought he re百度竞价推广bled his former collaborator3 George Gershwin. Bernstein told him that he needed $10 a week to stay alive. What! Caesar exclaimed. You, a genius, starving? Ten dollars a week for a genius? Ill get you fifty! And promptly4 got him a job transcribing5 music. Within two years Bernstein had published his first symphony, written a successful ballet , had a hit Broadway show and made his now legendary6 New York Philharmonic conducting debut7 in Carnegie Hall. Filling in for an ailing8 maestro, the dashing 25-year-old was such a smash he got as much front-page space in New York Times as the American submarines that sank seven Japanese ships.
The great creative output of the late 40s and 50s the musicals Candide, Wonderful Town and West Side Story, the film score for On the Waterfront, the ballet The Age of Anxiety came, with good reason, before Bernstein acquired an orchestra. In 1958, he became music director of the New York Philharmonic the first American-born conductor to head a TOP symphony orchestra. He revived the works of Mahler and Nielsen and programmed such contemporary music, even if he, a dedicated9 tonalist, was uncomfortable with it.
Bernstein, says Leonard Slatkin, music director of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. not only opened doors for all of us, but was the musical conscience of this country for years. We couldnt have had a better spokesman. After leaving the Philharmonic in 1969, Bernstein, the original globe-trot-ting maestro, maintained close ties with many orchestras, including the Israel Philharmonic and the Vienna Philharmonic.
Since the late 50s his compositions have often been disappointing, but he was back in form in some recent works, especially the delicious Arias10 and Barcarolles. Though he had become white-haired and craggy, he retained the passion and quickness of a wunderkind, and no one could dispute the depth of understanding he brought to the podium, particularly in recent years, when his interpretive powers were sharper than ever.
伦纳德伯恩斯坦1918年生于马萨诸塞州的劳伦斯市，是第一代美国犹太人。其父塞缪尔做的是美容用品的买卖，他寄期望于儿子能秉承父业。但伦尼（伦纳德的爱称）十岁时，发现了钢琴。当他用我们的零烧钱来学琴时，爸爸就不再给他钱了，但当他发现儿子靠为舞蹈伴奏而赚钱时，就又恢复了补给。在费城的柯蒂斯学院（20岁时从哈佛大学以优秀成绩毕业后），伯恩斯坦是伟大的弗里茨赖纳的最具天分的学生。有个学生因愤愤不平而扬言要杀了他。
与传闻的相反，这个成绩斐然的男生的确曾几度陷于窘境。1942年，伯恩斯坦携带热情中肯的推荐信来到纽约，然而却没办法找到工作。抒情诗人欧文凯撒偶然听到他弹奏钢琴并感觉他非常像自己以前的合作者乔治格什温。伯恩斯坦对他说他一周需要十USD来保持生计。什么！凯撒惊叹道。你，一个天才，在饿肚子？一个天才每周就值十USD？我要叫你每周有五十USD！他非常快就为他找到一份改编乐曲的工作。在不到两年的时间里伯恩斯坦就发表了他的第一首交响乐，成功地创作了他们一个芭蕾舞剧（自由遐想），写了一部哄动一时的百老汇音乐剧（在小镇里 ），并在卡内基音乐厅初次指挥当今已成为传奇的纽约爱乐乐团。这个干劲十足、患有紧急宿醉问题的25岁月小 伙子因临年代替生病的指挥大师随即就一炮打响，在《纽约时报》上成了与美国潜艇击沉七艘日本舰同样要紧的头条新闻。
伯恩斯坦在四十年代后期和五十年代，先后创作有音乐剧坎狄特，美妙小镇及西部故事，电影海滨的配乐和芭蕾舞剧哀愁年代。这类伟大的
创造性的作品理所当然地使他掌管了一支乐队。1958年他成为纽约爱乐乐团的音乐指挥是第一位出生在美国的执掌顶尖交响乐团的指挥。他把马勒和尼尔森的作品重新搬上舞台，同时编排了当代音乐曲目，尽管他这个对音调极其讲究的音乐家但对当代音乐并不喜欢。
圣路易交响乐团的音乐指挥伦纳德斯莱特金说，伯恩斯坦不只为大家所有些人打开了音乐殿堂的大门，而是这类年来大家国家的音乐良心。大家不可能有比他更出色的代言人了。1969年伯恩斯坦离开爱乐乐团后，这位活跃于全世界的富有独创性的指挥家与很多管弦乐团都维持着密切的联系，其中还包含（带有伯恩斯坦特有讽刺意味的）以色列爱乐乐团和维也纳爱乐乐团。
