Customer Reviews

Leonard Bernstein: American Original

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This incredibly handsome piece, in celebration of the Leonard Bernstein 90th year, concentrates on the conductor/composer's incredible relationship with the New York Philharmonic. Frankly, the price is a real bargain and well worth it for the photos alone, many of which are extremely rare. The forwards from Barbara Haws and Burton Bernstein are incredibly moving and informative and answer the question, "why do we need another book on Bernstein?" He was perhaps the great musician of 20th century America and this book offers us several new looks at the great man.

Although this book was originally scheduled for publication on 8-22, I received mine today, 8-19, a testament to Amazon.com's speedy delivery service. It's difficult to categorize this volume, falling somewhere between a coffee table picture book and a personal photo album. Bernstein's brother apparently came up with the idea, this in his brother's 90th year. There are articles and remembrances from mostly his years with the NYP, written by Alan Rich, Paul Boyer and others with Burton Bernstein commenting on each. There is a good amount of new black and white photos strewn among the 207 pages with lots of newspaper reproductions, sidebars and fancy graphics that I found a bit distracting and, again, make me want to put it on a coffee table rather than store more formally on a book shelf. But for those of us who cannot get enough of Bernstein and continue to re-read Humphrey Burton's masterful biography, this is a nice adjunct. It makes us miss him all over again.