Foreword Every time I revisit my father’s personal story I’m swept up again by its dramatic arc its iconic theme of artistic expression triumphing triumphing over parental disapproval and the sheer blind luck of it all As a little girl growing up in our happy noisy family I didn’t really understand why my father was such a big deal Sure he was a great musician and he was pretty handsome and most impressive of all he was on TV But seriously what was all the fuss about Only as an adult did I begin to comprehend the impact Leonard Bernstein had on his American contemporaries at that particular time in history On the afternoon of November 14 1943 as that skinny trembling bling 25-year-old hopped onto the podium in Carnegie Hall the United States was barely pulling out of the Great Depression and now found itself in the clutches of a ghastly World War It was a frightening time
Music Was IT in America people needed some good news American Jews needed good news even more desperately as reports trickled back over the ocean from Treblinka Warsaw Bergen-Belsen No wonder the newspapers newspapers leaped on Leonard Bernstein’s debut the next day exuberantly telling his story on their front pages It was in fact pretty big news that an American-born American-trained young Jewish man from Massachusetts Massachusetts had ascended that reserved-for-Europeans podium at all and then proceeded to knock the music right out of the park Overnight success Just like in the movies except it really happened happened It had not been a cinch for Leonard Bernstein to get there Maybe the toughest part for him was the constant disapproval and lack of support from his father Sam The more fiercely young Lenny felt the need to be a musician the more strongly Sam Bernstein discouraged discouraged him To be fair Sam was protectively worried that a musician in America would be little more than a beggar which was the condition of musicians back in the Russian villages of Sam’s childhood Some would say that a parent’s disapproval will actually focus a young artist’s drive and make it stronger Whether or not that’s true there’s no arguing that a parent withholding approval will make any child’s life a tougher colder place This sad environment may also have given my father the resolve to be as supportive as possible to his own children I don’t think my brother sister or I ever felt less than joyously joyously welcome in our father’s presence He was curious and appreciative appreciative about all our interests from the Flintstones to the Yankees to the Beatles OK maybe not so much Barbie x
Foreword On that November afternoon at Carnegie Hall there was no way for Leonard Bernstein to know what was in store for him the global conducting triumphs the Broadway scores the TV shows the wife the kids All he knew that day was that he’d gotten an incredibly lucky break when Maestro Bruno Walter fell ill and he knew he had to make the most of it It was a perfect coincidence of talent timing and opportunity Such coincidences are an eternal source of fascination to us On the other hand maybe as my father was fond of saying There are no coincidences Jamie Bernstein xi
