Customer Reviews

Leonard Bernstein (20th Century Composers)

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This brief biography of the life of Leonard Bernstein captivated me. I am very familiar with the music of Bernstein, but never got to know him the way my parent's generation did.

Bernstein was ever in the forefront of music both popular, and classical. His "Young People's Concerts" made him, and a great deal of classical music, a houshold name. I was too young to enjoy these, however they are now being re-broadcast on cable television for a whole new generation to enjoy.

Although I was captivated by the music of Bernstein long before I ever read this chronology, I understand the music of Bernstein much better now. It is interesting to look at this life from several perspectives- Bernstein as conductor, Bernstein as composer, Bernstein as father, Bernstein as husband. Most interesting is the fact that Bernstein spent his whole life in search of creating the "flagship" compostion that would secure his place in the books.

Meyers has done a fine job at relaying the "self-illustrated" life of Bernstein. It is an honest book, too, detailing Bernstein's affairs, and tantrums.

Meyers shows us an amazing composer, a respected conductor, and a very colorful reflection of 20th century America via the life of Leonard Bernstein.

This well-written bigraphy of Leonard Bernstein provides details about his life that I never knew as well as information about the compositions he wrote. If you like his work as a conductor, pianist and composer, you will enjoy this book.

The introduction to his book caught my attention: "A few days after Leonard Bernstein's death, I was in the office of a well-known middle-European conductor, a man seldom generous when assessing his colleagues. `Bernstein?', he shrugged dismissively. ` He was always such an exhibitionist: a playboy.".. His young American assistant stared at him in disbelief. `How can you say that? You're talking about one of the greatest musicians of our time. He brought classics to millions of people who'd never thought of listening to them.."

As a result of this captivating introduction, I was expecting a book that might bridge this gap and explain why Bernstein was such an interesting character that I was spending money and time on this book just as I had on another biography by Humphrey Burton published almost 20 years ago.

Unfortunately, the book tells us little even though the author claims to have met Bernstein "quite frequently" over an 18-year period.

I don't wish to be unkind but I have the feeling that he might have been physically present on certain occasions when Bernstein was around but I doubt whether Bernstein knew him from Adam.

The book is part of a series called The Composers and it reads like a commissioned effort to fit within a stiff lifeless pattern.

It is mainly biographical but does not bring Bernstein to life and consists of endless itineraries through Europe, Israel, the Far East and the United States and appearances in various concert halls.

There are some few more technical descriptions of his works but even they are uninformative, if not superficial. I certainly did not feel I was reading about a composer.

The creation of West Side Story is dismissed in a few pages although this is what Bernstein is still best remembered for.

The writer tries to defend Bernstein's classical works but they gather dust and he is now better known for his radical chic flirtation with the Black Panthers and his ridiculous "I dig absolutely" response to a rant by an anti-Semitic black civil rights supporter at a trendy cocktail party he hosted in his Park Avenue apartment.

A meeting with the Russian writer, Boris Pasternak, who was forced to turn down the Nobel Prize for Literature, is dismissed in a sentence.

Myers perhaps delves a little deeper into Bernstein's private life than Burton did but not much and the incidents are nothing more than petty gossip.

Overall, a disappointing read and waste of money. The blurb tells me that the author writes "thrillers set in the world of classical music". Believe me, this is no thriller.