Phaidon | 1998 | Pdf | Eng | ISBN10 0714837016 | 240 pages | 23.5 MB

A few days after 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.' He smiled unkindly.

'I suppose it's rather sad - a little like when the great clown Greek died!' 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 the classics to millions of people who'd never thought of listening to them, and he inspired thousands of musicians and students: kids like me, maybe two or three generations of us. My God, it was because of Lenny that I became a conductor!'

Both reactions were typical of the contradictory emotions that Leonard Bernstein inspired. You either loved him or hated him; nothing much in between. His critics were almost as numerous as his admirers, and he seldom found favour with the conservative musical hierarchy; thai said, to the general public and to those aspiring musicians he encouraged, Bernstein personified the romance, the drama, the passion and, in his own words, the joy of music