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Speaker 1: Hey, it's Alec Baldwin here. Before we launch our next

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Speaker 1: season of Here's the Thing at iHeartRadio in January, I

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Speaker 1: thought I'd share a few of my favorite shows from

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Speaker 1: the archives. Few people could have convinced Hollywood Studios to

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Speaker 1: back a biopic about the life of the composer and

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Speaker 1: conductor Leonard Bernstein. But when its director and leading man

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Speaker 1: are Bradley Cooper, who could say no? His film Maestro

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Speaker 1: premieres tomorrow, December twentieth on Netflix. Here's my interview with

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Speaker 1: two of Bernstein's children, Jamie and Alex Bernstein.

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Speaker 2: Carnegie Hall in New York City, the home of the

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Speaker 2: world's greatest musical events.

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Speaker 1: In the nineteen fifties, television was a powerful new spotlight

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Speaker 1: in search of a talent that could shine back just as.

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Speaker 3: Bright and here is mister Bernstein.

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Speaker 1: When it landed on Leonard Bernstein, the young conductor more

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Speaker 1: than shined back. His primetime show, Leonard Bernstein Young People's

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Speaker 1: Concerts with the New York Philharmonic was a benchmark of

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Speaker 1: quality programming and seduced the entire country.

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Speaker 4: No matter how many times people tell you stories about

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Speaker 4: what music means, forget them. Stories aren't what music means

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Speaker 4: at all. Music is never about anything. Music just is

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Speaker 4: music is notes, beautiful notes, and songs put together in

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Speaker 4: such a way that we get pleasure out of listening

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Speaker 4: to them.

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Speaker 1: That's all there is to Bernstein was a masterful teacher,

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Speaker 1: explaining classical music with a passion and clarity that couldn't

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Speaker 1: help but influence an entire generation of musicians and artists.

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Speaker 1: In those days, there were far fewer celebrities, and Bernstein

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Speaker 1: was one of the biggest. He wore it well, taking

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Speaker 1: his seat at the piano at the center of the party.

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Speaker 5: He really enjoyed the public. Leonard Bernstein, he loved the key.

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Speaker 5: Leonard Bernstein loved and he loved being famous, and he

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Speaker 5: loved meeting everybody in the world and.

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Speaker 6: In fancy hotels and flying first class. And he'd take

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Speaker 6: us along and share it with us, like.

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Speaker 3: Isn't this cool.

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Speaker 1: Bernstein was a musician, a conductor, a teacher, and a

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Speaker 1: composer of classical music as well as Broadway musicals. He

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Speaker 1: was also a father.

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Speaker 3: I'm the bossy one.

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Speaker 1: Bernstein and his wife Felicia had three children, Jamie, Alexander,

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Speaker 1: and Nina, and while they knew him in the tucks

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Speaker 1: and tales. They also knew him as the dad who

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Speaker 1: loved games. He was a killer at anagrams and always

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Speaker 1: up for tennis or squash or skiing or touch football.

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Speaker 3: The word games, you have no idea.

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Speaker 1: Two of Bernstein's children, Jamie and Alexander, spoke with me

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Speaker 1: about their legendary father and what it was like to

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Speaker 1: grow up with people like Stephen Sondheim and Jerome Robbins

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Speaker 1: as regular HouseGuests.

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Speaker 3: When we were really little.

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Speaker 6: Alexander and I used to share a bedroom when we

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Speaker 6: were like, you know, really little, and we lived in

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Speaker 6: the Osbourne, which is that grand building, and Alexander and

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Speaker 6: I slept, you know, at sort of right angles to

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Speaker 6: each other in this bedroom, and we would go to

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Speaker 6: sleep listening to the grown ups carrying on downstairs. Is

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Speaker 6: what we fell asleep to the noise of the you know,

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Speaker 6: the laughing and the roaring around the piano, singing, sneaking

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Speaker 6: of the glasses, and the smell of the cigarette smoke

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Speaker 6: washing up the sas shape. We could not wait to

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Speaker 6: be grown ups because obviously all grown ups did was

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Speaker 6: have fun.

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Speaker 3: That's interesting.

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Speaker 6: That's how it seemed to us, And it seemed like

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Speaker 6: our dad certainly had fun when he was working too,

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Speaker 6: so we never saw anything that resembled drudgery, which is

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Speaker 6: probably a thing that most kids perceive in their working parents.

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Speaker 3: It's tough. What about your mother?

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Speaker 1: Was your mother someone who was his companion and she

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Speaker 1: was along for the ride and all of it and

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Speaker 1: loving it.

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Speaker 3: Or was she someone who was sitting in the room going,

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Speaker 3: when's it gonna stop my eyes?

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Speaker 1: The energizer bunny and the Martini in his hand and a.

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Speaker 7: Pell Mell in the other Scotch not Martinez, Scotchie, Valentine's

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Speaker 7: a Valentine's beer, Oh Scotch, Scotch did am and she

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Speaker 7: had a Chesterfield my grandfather vodka and the other.

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Speaker 3: But your mother was his trusted companion. She was she

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Speaker 3: was in. She was all in, absolutely.

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Speaker 6: All in, and I think it drove her crazy, every

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Speaker 6: bit as much as she loved it all.

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Speaker 3: She was very social. Where was she from? And where

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Speaker 3: did they meet?

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Speaker 5: They met at a party given by Claudio organist and.

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Speaker 3: Who was her teacher because he was studying piano.

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Speaker 5: She had told her parents that she was coming to

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Speaker 5: New York to study piano, but she really wanted to

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Speaker 5: be an actress, so she came.

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Speaker 3: She's a beautiful woman, and she was beautiful, very beautiful.

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Speaker 5: So she had this understanding with Aral that she would

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Speaker 5: be sort of studying with him, But meanwhile she was

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Speaker 5: studying with my parents.

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Speaker 8: Now make this sound of the piano. The debuts we're

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Speaker 8: like to make parents now in exactly so America.

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Speaker 3: I think it was very much like that.

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Speaker 6: It was, And the legend has it that our mother

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Speaker 6: sat at his feet and fed him shrimps one by one.

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Speaker 3: That was the beginning of the romance. Yeah, yeah, not around.

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Speaker 3: She might have been doing that and they got engaged.

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Speaker 3: But where was he ad in his career then?

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Speaker 6: So he had already had his big debut with the

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Speaker 6: New York Philharmonic, because that was in nineteen forty three.

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Speaker 3: Were he filled in for for he filled in the.

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Speaker 6: Ailing Bruno Vaulter, as he's always referred to in that circumstance.

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Speaker 6: I thought his first name was ailing anyway, So this

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Speaker 6: must have been like maybe four or five years later,

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Speaker 6: So he was riding high, but he was not yet.

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Speaker 3: That'll be a name.

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Speaker 1: I stay in a hotel, and from now I love

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Speaker 1: good names for hotels. I'm going to stay in a

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Speaker 1: hotel under the name.

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Speaker 3: Ailing e h l I aiming. Bruno Vote is the

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Speaker 3: name I would use this hotel, and so Bruno Vote.

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Speaker 3: The fluent year was that. That was November fourteenth, nineteen

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Speaker 3: forty three.

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Speaker 9: Wow, good afternoon, the United States Rubber Company again invites

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Speaker 9: you to Carnegie Hall to hear a concert of the

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Speaker 9: New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra. Bruno Vaulter, who was to

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Speaker 9: have conducted this afternoon, is ill, and his place will

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Speaker 9: be taken by the young American born assistant conductor of

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Speaker 9: the Philharmonic Symphony, Leonard Bernstein.

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Speaker 3: And he had to get up there on a moment's notes.

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Speaker 6: And he'd been up all night the night before because

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Speaker 6: he'd had a premiere of a song cycle of his

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Speaker 6: called I Hate Music, and it had premiered the night before.

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Speaker 6: So of course it was a cardi a town hall

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Speaker 6: and it was very well received, and of course there

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Speaker 6: was a party afterwards, and they were up all the

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Speaker 6: livelong night. And at the time, you know, our dad

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Speaker 6: was living in Carnegie Hall in those little apartments they

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Speaker 6: used to have at the top. So he gets back

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Speaker 6: to Carnegie Hall at you know, five in the morning

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Speaker 6: and passes out and then like an hour and a

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Speaker 6: half later, the phone rings and it's Bruno Zerrato of

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Speaker 6: the New York Philharmonic saying, this is a.

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Speaker 3: Kid you have to go on this afternoon. And it

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Speaker 3: was on the radio. It was a national broadcast, which

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Speaker 3: is why it was such a big deal.

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Speaker 9: Lennard Burns, Dane has come out on the platform.

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Speaker 6: It was highly covered in the press, probably because it

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Speaker 6: was the middle of the war and everybody needed a

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Speaker 6: feel good story. Yes, American boy makes good kind of thing.

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Speaker 6: So one guy said, it's like a shoe string catch

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Speaker 6: in center field. Make it and you're a hero, Muffett

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Speaker 6: and you're a dope. Bernstein made it.

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Speaker 1: Did he ever reflect on that to you? Meaning when

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Speaker 1: people have that kind of debut? He came up that

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Speaker 1: night and everything changed after.

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Speaker 6: That, Right, he pretty much knew that it was a

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Speaker 6: sort of Cinderella tale and that he just got this

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Speaker 6: unbelievable lucky break.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, And did he believe was it ever discussed even

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Speaker 1: by your mother or people like that? Did your father

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Speaker 1: realize he must have that his sexuality and that his

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Speaker 1: good looks were as much a part of this talent

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Speaker 1: as anything else.

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Speaker 3: I think there's no.

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Speaker 5: Doubt about that, and I think played he played it

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Speaker 5: probably from high school on, you know, and as soon

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Speaker 5: as he started playing the piano and knew he had

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Speaker 5: this incredible talent and could play at parties and get

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Speaker 5: all his attention and.

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Speaker 3: He had a meeting out of his hands, Oh my god,

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Speaker 3: and the shrimp out of the hand. Yeah, at age

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Speaker 3: twenty five, he was still a little geeky.

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Speaker 6: I mean the pictures of him with the Philharmonic after

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Speaker 6: the debut, where he's all exhausted and tousled and sweaty,

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Speaker 6: he actually looks like like a bar Mitzvah.

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Speaker 9: Boy.

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Speaker 6: He was a little funny, and I think he kind

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Speaker 6: of grew into his grooviness over the subsequent years.

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Speaker 3: So your father, he had three children over ten years.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, And what was that like for him in

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Speaker 1: terms of were there did he have certain kind of

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Speaker 1: rules in terms of how he protected you from the

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Speaker 1: public and the schools you went to and the way

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Speaker 1: you lived your life, or was he just very loosey goosey?

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Speaker 3: You know, I would say that he was not your

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Speaker 3: mother in charge.

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Speaker 6: He was the one who really designed the way our

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Speaker 6: lives went on a day to day basis. He was

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Speaker 6: busy being the maestro, and then you would come home

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Speaker 6: and play with us and hang out, but have fun

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Speaker 6: and have fun.

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Speaker 3: But he was not really the designer of the domestic scene.

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Speaker 5: He was a great He was home. He was really home.

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Speaker 5: You know, you didn't have an office to go to.

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Speaker 3: And when did you get him aware of who your

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Speaker 3: father was?

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Speaker 6: You know, you when you're growing up, your family's just

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Speaker 6: your family. You have no objectivity about it, and your

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Speaker 6: parents are just your parents, and you don't really think

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Speaker 6: about how different they might be from the others until

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Speaker 6: you get older. At some point when we were pretty young,

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Speaker 6: there was an episode of The Flintstones.

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Speaker 3: What time is it, Betty? It's tenants to nine, Betty

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Speaker 3: and Wilma. We're going to go to the HALLI Rock Bowl.

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Speaker 3: I love to watch Leonard Burnstown conduct and the first

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Speaker 3: thing on the.

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Speaker 4: Program is that gorgeous symphony by Rocky Manning A.

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Speaker 3: When we were here, he had hit the big time.

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Speaker 3: And how old were you kids? Little kids? Yeh, like

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Speaker 3: you know, nine and six even less? Was there a

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Speaker 3: downside to it? Did you feel like there were things

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Speaker 3: that were tough for you with him?

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Speaker 5: And looking back on it now or when we got older,

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Speaker 5: probably look back and think about some downsides, but at

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Speaker 5: the time it really didn't seem so bad at all.

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Speaker 3: It was a lot of when we were really little,

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Speaker 3: it was just a lark.

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Speaker 6: I often try to think back to come on, you know,

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Speaker 6: there must have been some he was shadows, But we

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Speaker 6: had a pretty fantastic early childhood.

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Speaker 2: It was.

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Speaker 3: It was kind of wonderful.

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Speaker 1: He's not some tortured introspective. He was a happy guy,

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Speaker 1: and he was a celebrity.

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Speaker 6: Was introspective, he was, but but back in those early

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Speaker 6: days of our family life, that was overshadowed by the

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Speaker 6: joy and the happiness, the busyness and the family life,

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Speaker 6: and the kept that from you.

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Speaker 5: We are ascended he kept that from you.

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Speaker 6: I'll tell you in my memory, the moment when it

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Speaker 6: changed was November twenty second, nineteen sixty three, the day

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Speaker 6: JFK was assassinated. That was when the shadow fell over

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Speaker 6: and life became sort of real. Up until that point,

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Speaker 6: you know, grown ups just had fun as far as

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Speaker 6: we could perceive. And then that day we saw our

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Speaker 6: parents fall apart. They were crying because they were friends

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Speaker 6: of the Kennedys. They had been to the White House.

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Speaker 6: They had had dinner just the four of them.

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Speaker 1: Imagine they had been centerpieces of Kennedy's cultural programming in

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Speaker 1: the White Acci.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, they could.

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Speaker 6: Not have been more connected to the Kennedy administration and

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Speaker 6: everything that it stood for. So on that day when

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Speaker 6: when he was assassinated, our parents just fell apart, and

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Speaker 6: so did the whole rest of the family and all

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Speaker 6: their friends. And they pulled down the shades and out

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Speaker 6: around crying all day. And just watch TV. Now we

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Speaker 6: could perceive that there were shadows and that there were

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Speaker 6: ups and downs that wasn't visible to us in the world.

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Speaker 3: Itself can affect people psychologically. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: What about your mom in terms of her music appreciation?

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Speaker 1: I mean, she studied the piano, but did she go

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Speaker 1: on have any kind of a serious career even ur

248
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Speaker 1: in her young years when she was with Arau, did

249
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Speaker 1: she play? Did she study? Once she met and married

250
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Speaker 1: your father? Did all that stop?

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Speaker 5: Her piano playing stopped? She would play sometimes at home,

252
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Speaker 5: and quite beautifully, but she wasn't.

253
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Speaker 3: As passionate about it. No, what was she passionate about?

254
00:12:36,640 --> 00:12:40,720
Speaker 5: Was passionate about her acting? She kept at that sometimes

255
00:12:40,800 --> 00:12:43,240
Speaker 5: she would and what were some of the things she

256
00:12:43,360 --> 00:12:44,480
Speaker 5: was working on During her career.

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Speaker 6: She did a lot of early television Playhouse ninety and

258
00:12:47,120 --> 00:12:50,280
Speaker 6: craft Heater and all those live dramas that they had

259
00:12:51,160 --> 00:12:52,520
Speaker 6: in early television.

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Speaker 3: She did a lot of that and a lot of

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Speaker 3: stage work. Did that stop at some point? It kind of.

262
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Speaker 6: Receded as she came missus maestro and a mom, which

263
00:13:02,440 --> 00:13:04,440
Speaker 6: was a double job that could keep anybody.

264
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Speaker 1: Of course, when was she generally happy to do those things?

265
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Speaker 1: Did she ever a voice? Because it's interesting to me

266
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Speaker 1: to have someone who is in the world of music herself.

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Speaker 1: She was studied with raw It's a serious opportunity there.

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Speaker 1: She had aspirations about music and acting, and did she

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Speaker 1: miss those things? Did she ever say gosh, I fondly?

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Speaker 1: Did she have a little bit of a wistfulness about it?

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Speaker 3: She was pretty ambivalent about it. Yeah she did.

272
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Speaker 5: And she didn't really talk a lot about her inner

273
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Speaker 5: herself too.

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Speaker 9: Ah.

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Speaker 3: What she did tell you.

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Speaker 6: About a little bit was that she had some stage

277
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Speaker 6: fright issues, and so when she started performing less in public,

278
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Speaker 6: she would say that she was relieved, and that being

279
00:13:47,559 --> 00:13:52,280
Speaker 6: you know, this, this Missus Bernstein persona was a way

280
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Speaker 6: of not having to confront her fears about performing, But

281
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Speaker 6: I think you know, anybody who has performed, how a

282
00:14:00,200 --> 00:14:01,959
Speaker 6: part of them that still wants to perform. But she

283
00:14:02,840 --> 00:14:05,120
Speaker 6: knew that that it was just going to be too

284
00:14:05,200 --> 00:14:09,000
Speaker 6: hard to have these two rampant egos in the household.

285
00:14:09,920 --> 00:14:11,520
Speaker 3: Probably a good call.

286
00:14:17,040 --> 00:14:21,200
Speaker 1: Coming up more about Bernstein's early years in Massachusetts and

287
00:14:21,320 --> 00:14:24,800
Speaker 1: his final concert at Tanglewood, which his brother described as

288
00:14:24,920 --> 00:14:26,520
Speaker 1: Lenny coming home to die.

289
00:14:34,560 --> 00:14:35,600
Speaker 3: This is Alec Baldwin.

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00:14:35,680 --> 00:14:40,080
Speaker 1: I'm talking with two of Leonard Bernstein's children, Jamie and Alexander.

291
00:15:01,680 --> 00:15:05,800
Speaker 1: I see someone like your dad who sounds very childlike

292
00:15:06,080 --> 00:15:10,480
Speaker 1: did the young People's concerts father, fun and joy and

293
00:15:10,640 --> 00:15:15,160
Speaker 1: and and family and love bursting with love. Leonard Bernstein

294
00:15:15,240 --> 00:15:16,760
Speaker 1: is someone to me who when he's on the podium,

295
00:15:16,800 --> 00:15:19,800
Speaker 1: who love is just shooting out of him like a rainbow.

296
00:15:20,480 --> 00:15:22,600
Speaker 1: Love of this and love of that, and love of life,

297
00:15:22,680 --> 00:15:24,640
Speaker 1: and love of sex, and love of sound, and love

298
00:15:24,680 --> 00:15:28,080
Speaker 1: of women and love of beauty. And I wonder was

299
00:15:28,120 --> 00:15:30,920
Speaker 1: it because as the result of his classical training, did

300
00:15:30,960 --> 00:15:32,360
Speaker 1: he not have enough childhood?

301
00:15:34,040 --> 00:15:38,680
Speaker 6: His childhood was not about music. He was raised where

302
00:15:39,200 --> 00:15:42,000
Speaker 6: he was where he was born, in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and

303
00:15:42,040 --> 00:15:45,960
Speaker 6: then shortly thereafter they moved to the Boston area.

304
00:15:46,080 --> 00:15:52,400
Speaker 10: First they lived in Roxburgh. He was a hair products salesman.

305
00:15:52,440 --> 00:15:55,200
Speaker 10: He was a salesman and his mom was she musical.

306
00:15:56,280 --> 00:15:57,680
Speaker 10: How did the music get into his life?

307
00:15:57,800 --> 00:16:02,160
Speaker 6: Well, here's the thing. There was this Clara who moved

308
00:16:02,280 --> 00:16:06,320
Speaker 6: to Florida, and so she sent all her furniture over

309
00:16:06,760 --> 00:16:10,480
Speaker 6: to her brother Sam's house, and along with all the

310
00:16:10,640 --> 00:16:13,840
Speaker 6: couches and breakfronts, arrived this upright piano.

311
00:16:14,440 --> 00:16:15,760
Speaker 3: Our dad was ten years old.

312
00:16:16,160 --> 00:16:20,840
Speaker 6: The piano got hauled into the house and as our

313
00:16:20,920 --> 00:16:23,080
Speaker 6: father told it, he touched the piano and that was it.

314
00:16:23,640 --> 00:16:26,560
Speaker 6: He knew it's one of those stories. And he taught

315
00:16:26,640 --> 00:16:29,840
Speaker 6: himself theory. He just played the piano.

316
00:16:29,960 --> 00:16:32,840
Speaker 3: He figured he could figure it all out late in

317
00:16:32,920 --> 00:16:33,600
Speaker 3: the modern world.

318
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Speaker 6: And the thing about his dad, Sam Bernstein, is that Sam,

319
00:16:39,200 --> 00:16:41,480
Speaker 6: you know, it was a depression. But Sam was very

320
00:16:41,520 --> 00:16:44,040
Speaker 6: proud that he was able to tide his family over

321
00:16:44,120 --> 00:16:48,920
Speaker 6: the depression because he had this very successful beauty supply business,

322
00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:53,440
Speaker 6: the Samuel J. Bernstein Hair Company in Boston. It's Bernstein

323
00:16:54,280 --> 00:16:58,360
Speaker 6: was the slogan, and he had the New England franchise

324
00:16:58,520 --> 00:17:01,120
Speaker 6: for the Frederick's Permanent Wave machine.

325
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Speaker 1: And everybody knows it, even in a depression. There's two

326
00:17:03,560 --> 00:17:06,040
Speaker 1: things you don't like, go booze and vanity. There you go,

327
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Speaker 1: you have your hair done.

328
00:17:07,359 --> 00:17:09,520
Speaker 6: All those women would go in and be attached to

329
00:17:09,600 --> 00:17:13,560
Speaker 6: that that machine that looks like Bride of Frankenstein. They

330
00:17:13,600 --> 00:17:15,760
Speaker 6: were all doing it. So they got through the depression.

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Speaker 6: And Sam was so proud that he was able to

332
00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:20,600
Speaker 6: pass the Samuel J. Bernstein Hair Company along to his

333
00:17:20,760 --> 00:17:25,200
Speaker 6: eldest son to run. And of course Lenny had no

334
00:17:25,400 --> 00:17:28,919
Speaker 6: intention of running the Samuel J. Bernstein Hair Company in Boston.

335
00:17:28,960 --> 00:17:32,680
Speaker 6: It's Bernstein and it was a real problem between hair.

336
00:17:33,280 --> 00:17:34,800
Speaker 3: Yes, he did swell had of hair.

337
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Speaker 5: Then what Sam was not going to let him be

338
00:17:38,720 --> 00:17:43,640
Speaker 5: a kletzmer musician, you know, because he can't get weddings

339
00:17:43,760 --> 00:17:45,800
Speaker 5: and funerals. And that was it, you know, that's what

340
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Speaker 5: a musician does in the old country.

341
00:17:47,520 --> 00:17:49,879
Speaker 6: That a musician was a beggar, a homeless guy who

342
00:17:49,920 --> 00:17:52,159
Speaker 6: went from Stettl to Stettele playing the fiddle and.

343
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Speaker 3: Getting a few kopeks at the wedding you call out

344
00:17:55,280 --> 00:17:55,640
Speaker 3: a living.

345
00:17:55,960 --> 00:17:59,760
Speaker 5: So what happened so little by little it became clear

346
00:17:59,800 --> 00:18:03,280
Speaker 5: that he was immensely talented at this and it went

347
00:18:03,359 --> 00:18:05,280
Speaker 5: to the Boston Latin School and then to Harvard.

348
00:18:05,359 --> 00:18:08,760
Speaker 3: And he gets to Harvard to study what music. Just know,

349
00:18:08,840 --> 00:18:11,760
Speaker 3: they had no music, no music department. You couldn't major

350
00:18:11,840 --> 00:18:13,840
Speaker 3: in it. So he was he a literature guy.

351
00:18:14,040 --> 00:18:16,680
Speaker 1: She was born in nineteen eighteen eighteen. So he's there,

352
00:18:16,800 --> 00:18:20,480
Speaker 1: you know, class thirty nine. No music department at Harvard.

353
00:18:20,520 --> 00:18:23,159
Speaker 1: There and the just immediately prior of the war. And

354
00:18:23,280 --> 00:18:25,440
Speaker 1: then when he leaves Harvard, where does he go. He

355
00:18:25,480 --> 00:18:28,720
Speaker 1: goes to Curtis. So Curtis where for one he goes

356
00:18:28,760 --> 00:18:30,200
Speaker 1: to the next level he was.

357
00:18:30,680 --> 00:18:33,399
Speaker 5: Curtis is where the music at Harvard, he's writing music,

358
00:18:33,480 --> 00:18:35,280
Speaker 5: he's putting on shows constantly.

359
00:18:35,520 --> 00:18:38,960
Speaker 1: Curtis is the real temple of musical study that he enters.

360
00:18:39,320 --> 00:18:41,359
Speaker 1: And this is the real formalizing of his musical education.

361
00:18:41,440 --> 00:18:45,480
Speaker 5: He studies with Fritz Reiner, right, you know, studies conducting.

362
00:18:45,520 --> 00:18:47,760
Speaker 3: It all goes on a big level here, a big level.

363
00:18:47,800 --> 00:18:50,000
Speaker 3: And it was it was tough. He was very lonely.

364
00:18:50,080 --> 00:18:51,720
Speaker 3: It was it was a tough year or two for

365
00:18:51,840 --> 00:18:55,960
Speaker 3: him at Curtis. He's there for how long a little

366
00:18:56,040 --> 00:18:56,520
Speaker 3: over a year?

367
00:18:56,560 --> 00:18:58,239
Speaker 5: I think, then what happens a long time? And then

368
00:18:58,320 --> 00:19:01,760
Speaker 5: he came to New York, desperate to find work. He

369
00:19:01,880 --> 00:19:05,760
Speaker 5: was ready to hit New York and do what he started.

370
00:19:05,920 --> 00:19:06,679
Speaker 3: He wrote.

371
00:19:08,040 --> 00:19:12,760
Speaker 5: Arrangements, arrangements and stuff under an assumed name Lenny Amber.

372
00:19:13,760 --> 00:19:17,320
Speaker 5: He arranged Ornette Coleman charts. He did all sorts of

373
00:19:17,400 --> 00:19:20,320
Speaker 5: weird things he did, didn't you do? Like a fourhands

374
00:19:20,440 --> 00:19:23,359
Speaker 5: version of Ilsel and Mickey co for Aaron Copeland. Well

375
00:19:23,400 --> 00:19:24,920
Speaker 5: that was the big thing that he got to know

376
00:19:25,119 --> 00:19:27,040
Speaker 5: Eric Copeland to know how did that happen?

377
00:19:27,280 --> 00:19:29,040
Speaker 3: That he was still in college when he met Aaron

378
00:19:29,280 --> 00:19:31,760
Speaker 3: Harvard or Curtis Harvard, Harvard. Yeah, so at Harvard he

379
00:19:31,840 --> 00:19:34,040
Speaker 3: meets Copeland under what circumstances? Because if he's not in

380
00:19:34,119 --> 00:19:35,960
Speaker 3: a music program, how does he rub shoulders with?

381
00:19:36,119 --> 00:19:39,040
Speaker 5: I think he gets invited to He came to New

382
00:19:39,160 --> 00:19:40,000
Speaker 5: York for the weekend.

383
00:19:40,760 --> 00:19:43,159
Speaker 1: He was invited to be seeking out and sniffing out

384
00:19:43,200 --> 00:19:44,680
Speaker 1: the musical world, even though it was at Harvest and

385
00:19:44,720 --> 00:19:45,520
Speaker 1: he's an a concert.

386
00:19:45,600 --> 00:19:49,280
Speaker 5: I think it was now sitting next to Aaron and

387
00:19:49,920 --> 00:19:50,720
Speaker 5: they get to know each other.

388
00:19:50,800 --> 00:19:53,119
Speaker 6: And it turned out to be Aaron's birthday and Aaron

389
00:19:53,600 --> 00:19:57,480
Speaker 6: invited our dad back to his loft for the party.

390
00:19:57,640 --> 00:19:59,320
Speaker 3: Clara Ships the piano of the house.

391
00:19:59,440 --> 00:20:03,200
Speaker 1: That's that's ooh moment number one. He gets seated next

392
00:20:03,240 --> 00:20:05,840
Speaker 1: to Copeland Ooh moment number two, and.

393
00:20:05,920 --> 00:20:08,680
Speaker 6: Then goes to the birthday party and plays Copeland's piano

394
00:20:08,760 --> 00:20:11,880
Speaker 6: variations in front of the whole crowd, which our dad

395
00:20:12,000 --> 00:20:14,399
Speaker 6: was in the habit of doing and clearing rooms because

396
00:20:14,400 --> 00:20:16,119
Speaker 6: it's a very gnarly piece.

397
00:20:16,600 --> 00:20:18,000
Speaker 3: And so he said, are you sure you want me.

398
00:20:18,000 --> 00:20:20,440
Speaker 6: To play it at this party because it usually clears

399
00:20:20,480 --> 00:20:22,919
Speaker 6: the room, And Aaron said, not at this party.

400
00:20:23,359 --> 00:20:25,200
Speaker 3: And he played it and didn't clear the room. He

401
00:20:25,280 --> 00:20:26,520
Speaker 3: did not clear that lands.

402
00:20:27,040 --> 00:20:29,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's all of Copeland's contemporaries, and he plays, and

403
00:20:30,000 --> 00:20:33,919
Speaker 1: a friendship and a relationship with Copeland commences there right

404
00:20:34,200 --> 00:20:37,680
Speaker 1: lifelong another than I would say, probably as much, if

405
00:20:37,720 --> 00:20:39,440
Speaker 1: not more than slat Can. Your father was one of

406
00:20:39,480 --> 00:20:41,400
Speaker 1: the great interpreters of Copeland. I mean that the two

407
00:20:41,400 --> 00:20:44,000
Speaker 1: of them were my two favorites. Bernstein and Slatkin are

408
00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:47,159
Speaker 1: my two favorite Copeland isers. And then what is the

409
00:20:47,760 --> 00:20:50,560
Speaker 1: quick series of steps that gets them to the associate

410
00:20:50,680 --> 00:20:52,000
Speaker 1: directorship of the Philharmonic?

411
00:20:52,600 --> 00:20:58,000
Speaker 5: I think an introduction to Krusoviski going to Tanglewood conducting

412
00:20:58,040 --> 00:20:58,640
Speaker 5: a tangle.

413
00:20:58,840 --> 00:21:00,679
Speaker 3: She was a guest conductor of tangle You know, he's

414
00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:02,760
Speaker 3: a student student conductors student.

415
00:21:04,680 --> 00:21:08,199
Speaker 6: Tangle would have just been invented by Krusovitski, and our

416
00:21:08,240 --> 00:21:09,439
Speaker 6: dad was in that first class.

417
00:21:09,560 --> 00:21:12,520
Speaker 3: And so Kruzovitski is the one who builds tango, would

418
00:21:12,520 --> 00:21:12,919
Speaker 3: he he.

419
00:21:13,000 --> 00:21:17,080
Speaker 1: Is, He's the music director, He's theso who oversees the

420
00:21:17,119 --> 00:21:19,720
Speaker 1: construction of that. What are some of your best memories

421
00:21:19,760 --> 00:21:20,560
Speaker 1: of your dad there?

422
00:21:20,680 --> 00:21:21,840
Speaker 3: What would you do? Remember? What was this?

423
00:21:22,040 --> 00:21:23,399
Speaker 6: If you will go ahead, give me give me here

424
00:21:23,440 --> 00:21:27,960
Speaker 6: you're laughing, Well, we're laughing because our dad loved to

425
00:21:28,080 --> 00:21:31,080
Speaker 6: go to tangle Wood so much his entire life. Every

426
00:21:31,119 --> 00:21:32,600
Speaker 6: time he went up there, it was like he would

427
00:21:32,640 --> 00:21:34,760
Speaker 6: be rejuvenated, he would turn into a kid again.

428
00:21:34,880 --> 00:21:36,800
Speaker 3: It's a holy place. It's a holy place.

429
00:21:36,840 --> 00:21:38,479
Speaker 1: And what he really loved was being with all those

430
00:21:38,520 --> 00:21:40,440
Speaker 1: Can we say that again, that that that the Berkshires

431
00:21:40,480 --> 00:21:50,920
Speaker 1: is a holy place. Your father loved it there.

432
00:21:51,000 --> 00:21:53,800
Speaker 5: Tell you we both worked at Tanglewood. What did you

433
00:21:53,880 --> 00:21:56,000
Speaker 5: do it for a few more years than James.

434
00:21:56,040 --> 00:21:56,639
Speaker 3: We were guide.

435
00:21:56,760 --> 00:21:59,480
Speaker 5: We were guides, which was a fancy name for just

436
00:21:59,800 --> 00:22:03,119
Speaker 5: doing anything that they need to be done. But you know,

437
00:22:03,200 --> 00:22:05,440
Speaker 5: you man the gates and you show people around. That

438
00:22:05,680 --> 00:22:08,800
Speaker 5: was the guide part. Sometimes there would be tours, and

439
00:22:08,920 --> 00:22:11,800
Speaker 5: also you would tend to be backstage and help the

440
00:22:11,920 --> 00:22:14,040
Speaker 5: artists and move them around and pick them up at

441
00:22:14,040 --> 00:22:16,720
Speaker 5: the airport stuff like that. And it was just heaven

442
00:22:16,800 --> 00:22:18,520
Speaker 5: to be up there for a summer.

443
00:22:19,440 --> 00:22:21,720
Speaker 3: And there was also this sense I think our dad

444
00:22:21,840 --> 00:22:23,760
Speaker 3: had it from the very beginning that.

445
00:22:24,280 --> 00:22:28,200
Speaker 6: You know, everybody was sort of out in this beautiful weather,

446
00:22:28,280 --> 00:22:31,040
Speaker 6: in this beautiful place with all these fun people, and

447
00:22:31,119 --> 00:22:34,639
Speaker 6: there would be Shenanigans. We just fell right into the

448
00:22:34,840 --> 00:22:37,800
Speaker 6: Shenanigan's sensibility of the place that you know, it was

449
00:22:37,920 --> 00:22:42,679
Speaker 6: just fun and everybody was partying all night and having romances.

450
00:22:42,840 --> 00:22:46,120
Speaker 1: And it's funny you say that, because it is probably

451
00:22:46,400 --> 00:22:49,320
Speaker 1: one of the two or three most romantic places I've

452
00:22:49,320 --> 00:22:49,680
Speaker 1: ever been.

453
00:22:49,760 --> 00:22:50,480
Speaker 3: I mean, you can go.

454
00:22:51,080 --> 00:22:55,400
Speaker 1: For those people listening who don't know, the tangle Wood

455
00:22:55,480 --> 00:22:57,840
Speaker 1: is in the Berkshires and Massachusetts and it's the it's

456
00:22:57,880 --> 00:23:01,040
Speaker 1: the summer residency of the Boston in the Orchestra.

457
00:23:01,200 --> 00:23:04,040
Speaker 3: And you go up there to Lennox massive piece of land.

458
00:23:04,240 --> 00:23:07,080
Speaker 1: It's a massive tract of land, and in that way,

459
00:23:07,840 --> 00:23:10,720
Speaker 1: in a good way that you can talk about going

460
00:23:10,880 --> 00:23:16,840
Speaker 1: somewhere with someone and driving that decompressing road trip that

461
00:23:16,960 --> 00:23:19,560
Speaker 1: as you drive and drive and you get closer and closer,

462
00:23:19,600 --> 00:23:22,440
Speaker 1: you just feel your your body relaxing. And then you

463
00:23:22,520 --> 00:23:26,280
Speaker 1: get the excitement of going to Tanglewood and you go

464
00:23:26,680 --> 00:23:29,120
Speaker 1: and you get your your basket.

465
00:23:28,800 --> 00:23:31,520
Speaker 3: And your food and your wine. The real fun is

466
00:23:31,560 --> 00:23:32,840
Speaker 3: to be out on the lawn. The lawn.

467
00:23:34,480 --> 00:23:36,600
Speaker 1: The lawn is even better in a way if you've

468
00:23:36,640 --> 00:23:38,720
Speaker 1: got the basket and the girl and the wine or

469
00:23:38,920 --> 00:23:42,119
Speaker 1: whatever your preference is there. And I think I've never

470
00:23:42,240 --> 00:23:45,040
Speaker 1: seen more people who are getting it right, you know,

471
00:23:45,080 --> 00:23:46,680
Speaker 1: I mean in terms of having a lovely evening and

472
00:23:46,680 --> 00:23:48,440
Speaker 1: if they get smashed on top of it, you know,

473
00:23:48,600 --> 00:23:50,120
Speaker 1: I guess what I'm saying is, there's nothing like getting

474
00:23:50,119 --> 00:23:51,240
Speaker 1: smashed at Tanglewood.

475
00:23:52,520 --> 00:23:53,679
Speaker 3: It's it's the best kind of thing.

476
00:23:53,680 --> 00:23:53,800
Speaker 5: You know.

477
00:23:54,400 --> 00:23:58,439
Speaker 3: That I was a guide, there was no comment.

478
00:24:00,040 --> 00:24:02,280
Speaker 6: And the year that I was a guide, there was

479
00:24:02,320 --> 00:24:05,720
Speaker 6: the year the Fillmore East came up there like three

480
00:24:05,760 --> 00:24:07,320
Speaker 6: different times, and I saw.

481
00:24:08,800 --> 00:24:11,800
Speaker 3: And Jimmy Hendrick, you're saying that Bill.

482
00:24:13,240 --> 00:24:16,639
Speaker 1: Graham, he had his production company Fillmore meaning as a

483
00:24:16,640 --> 00:24:17,280
Speaker 1: production company.

484
00:24:17,520 --> 00:24:21,440
Speaker 3: The Artist Boys.

485
00:24:22,040 --> 00:24:27,440
Speaker 1: Played the Shed played the Shed, And I was in

486
00:24:27,520 --> 00:24:29,520
Speaker 1: a bathroom. To them, we.

487
00:24:32,160 --> 00:24:36,480
Speaker 3: Say, what real pleasure has to be back in Tangleod again.

488
00:24:36,600 --> 00:24:38,080
Speaker 3: We were on the heir last August.

489
00:24:38,440 --> 00:24:41,040
Speaker 6: They trashed that long. That's why they were never invited back.

490
00:24:42,000 --> 00:24:43,200
Speaker 6: You would not have wanted.

491
00:24:45,119 --> 00:24:46,840
Speaker 1: Is it funny how we've changed Back then? I would

492
00:24:46,840 --> 00:24:49,000
Speaker 1: have been the who I'm like, we're not having them here.

493
00:24:49,600 --> 00:24:51,800
Speaker 1: We can have that that likes Sara and Tanglewood.

494
00:24:52,160 --> 00:24:53,440
Speaker 3: They tried. Who else did the Graham?

495
00:24:53,520 --> 00:24:57,280
Speaker 5: Mister Kylie, who ran the head of the groundskeepers, was

496
00:24:57,600 --> 00:24:58,480
Speaker 5: just beside himself.

497
00:25:00,760 --> 00:25:03,440
Speaker 3: He really was. It was a disaster. Your father loved

498
00:25:03,440 --> 00:25:03,879
Speaker 3: it there.

499
00:25:03,760 --> 00:25:06,159
Speaker 6: Though he loved it, and you loved to stay up

500
00:25:06,200 --> 00:25:07,920
Speaker 6: all night yacking with the students.

501
00:25:08,520 --> 00:25:11,879
Speaker 3: That was what really did your dad admire in his constellation?

502
00:25:11,960 --> 00:25:15,000
Speaker 3: Who did he? I heard a story once from someone.

503
00:25:15,240 --> 00:25:18,760
Speaker 1: They said they were at your family's home and your

504
00:25:18,800 --> 00:25:20,560
Speaker 1: father's standing there with a cigarette in his hand and

505
00:25:20,640 --> 00:25:22,200
Speaker 1: a drink in the other. And someone says, I just

506
00:25:22,280 --> 00:25:24,800
Speaker 1: came from seeing the Beatles and the and the quote

507
00:25:24,920 --> 00:25:26,880
Speaker 1: was a very simple one. They said that Bernstein said

508
00:25:26,920 --> 00:25:28,080
Speaker 1: turned to my friend and said.

509
00:25:28,080 --> 00:25:29,640
Speaker 3: You came and sold the Beatles. He says, I can't

510
00:25:29,680 --> 00:25:30,760
Speaker 3: wait to see them myself.

511
00:25:30,800 --> 00:25:33,719
Speaker 1: He said, I'm mad for them, and he just had

512
00:25:33,760 --> 00:25:36,480
Speaker 1: a passion for all disparate forms of music.

513
00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:39,720
Speaker 3: And he really did love the Beatles a lot.

514
00:25:39,840 --> 00:25:42,359
Speaker 6: And we were so lucky as we were growing up

515
00:25:42,400 --> 00:25:46,120
Speaker 6: because I was a complete beatlemaniac and my dad loved

516
00:25:46,160 --> 00:25:50,200
Speaker 6: their music too, So together we would discover the Beatles,

517
00:25:50,240 --> 00:25:52,560
Speaker 6: and when they had a new album, I would run

518
00:25:52,600 --> 00:25:54,399
Speaker 6: out and get it and go straight to my father's

519
00:25:54,400 --> 00:25:57,320
Speaker 6: studio and say, look, look I've got rubbers Oll and

520
00:25:57,440 --> 00:25:59,040
Speaker 6: you'd say, great, let's put it on right now, and

521
00:25:59,160 --> 00:26:01,920
Speaker 6: we'd stick the echered on. And I learned more about

522
00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:04,919
Speaker 6: music by listening to the Beatles with my dad than

523
00:26:04,960 --> 00:26:06,160
Speaker 6: I think I did any other way.

524
00:26:06,960 --> 00:26:09,160
Speaker 3: You know, my dad passed away. He was very young.

525
00:26:09,400 --> 00:26:11,200
Speaker 3: My dad was only fifty five. He was a year

526
00:26:11,240 --> 00:26:12,200
Speaker 3: older than I am now.

527
00:26:12,359 --> 00:26:15,200
Speaker 1: He had a very rare form of cancer and he

528
00:26:15,359 --> 00:26:18,040
Speaker 1: died of lung cancer when he was fifty five. And

529
00:26:18,359 --> 00:26:20,359
Speaker 1: your dad didn't live a very long life either. How

530
00:26:20,440 --> 00:26:22,280
Speaker 1: old were both of you when your dad passed.

531
00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:26,480
Speaker 3: Away, Well, he died at seventy two, which is not five.

532
00:26:26,840 --> 00:26:31,480
Speaker 3: It was you were thirty five and I was thirty nine,

533
00:26:31,600 --> 00:26:33,639
Speaker 3: So you were grown a dull people.

534
00:26:34,040 --> 00:26:34,639
Speaker 1: But like you.

535
00:26:35,040 --> 00:26:37,920
Speaker 6: Our mother died when she was fifty six, and we

536
00:26:38,040 --> 00:26:41,200
Speaker 6: were much younger when that happened. She died in nineteen

537
00:26:41,280 --> 00:26:45,720
Speaker 6: seventy eight, so we were in our early twenties, and.

538
00:26:46,040 --> 00:26:47,160
Speaker 3: Our dad died in what year?

539
00:26:47,359 --> 00:26:50,080
Speaker 6: He died in nineteen ninety, so by then we were

540
00:26:50,359 --> 00:26:53,640
Speaker 6: you know, adults more or less. But when our mother died,

541
00:26:53,680 --> 00:26:56,280
Speaker 6: we were still a very young family. Nina was only

542
00:26:56,760 --> 00:27:00,560
Speaker 6: fifteen or something. But did your mother die from un cancer?

543
00:27:00,920 --> 00:27:02,120
Speaker 3: Was a smoker? Yep?

544
00:27:03,119 --> 00:27:06,040
Speaker 1: My point is that your dad didn't live a very

545
00:27:06,160 --> 00:27:09,560
Speaker 1: long life. Did he die suddenly or did he get

546
00:27:09,600 --> 00:27:11,840
Speaker 1: sick and he knew he was in trouble he got

547
00:27:12,200 --> 00:27:15,439
Speaker 1: he was sick for like six months of being released.

548
00:27:15,480 --> 00:27:19,440
Speaker 5: He was diagnosed with Uh he had all sorts of

549
00:27:19,520 --> 00:27:22,080
Speaker 5: chess problems, sure, you know, through his life, but uh,

550
00:27:22,680 --> 00:27:27,320
Speaker 5: it was it was not cigarette related, which was probably

551
00:27:27,359 --> 00:27:29,440
Speaker 5: asbestos thing when he was a kid or who knows.

552
00:27:30,160 --> 00:27:32,280
Speaker 5: I mean, it didn't help that he smoked, obviously, but

553
00:27:34,920 --> 00:27:37,720
Speaker 5: but you know, just having the oxygen and stuff. That

554
00:27:37,840 --> 00:28:08,320
Speaker 5: was the last, you know, a month or so. He

555
00:28:08,520 --> 00:28:13,080
Speaker 5: died in October and his last concert was at Tanglewood

556
00:28:13,560 --> 00:28:17,520
Speaker 5: in August that nineteen ninety's okay, so he could barely

557
00:28:17,560 --> 00:28:18,119
Speaker 5: get through the.

558
00:28:18,520 --> 00:28:23,440
Speaker 1: Last thing your father conducted was a public performance into

559
00:28:23,520 --> 00:28:28,960
Speaker 1: the summer. He did the Beethoven seven at Tanglewood in

560
00:28:29,160 --> 00:28:41,480
Speaker 1: August of nineteen ninety yep, and died that October. I

561
00:28:41,520 --> 00:28:43,680
Speaker 1: think about your dad and did he just when he

562
00:28:43,760 --> 00:28:45,000
Speaker 1: knew he was sick and he knew he was in

563
00:28:45,040 --> 00:28:47,160
Speaker 1: trouble healthy because my dad knew he was in trouble.

564
00:28:47,760 --> 00:28:49,040
Speaker 1: I mean, there was a moment I had with my

565
00:28:49,160 --> 00:28:50,600
Speaker 1: dad where he like, he looked at me with this

566
00:28:50,680 --> 00:28:51,960
Speaker 1: look in his eye, like he knew it was over,

567
00:28:52,480 --> 00:28:54,000
Speaker 1: and he and he just I mean, he had a

568
00:28:54,040 --> 00:28:55,680
Speaker 1: tear one down his face. And my father said, I'll

569
00:28:55,720 --> 00:28:59,160
Speaker 1: never know my grandchildren. And when I think about this

570
00:28:59,280 --> 00:29:01,440
Speaker 1: with your dad, a guy like that, who had so

571
00:29:01,760 --> 00:29:03,960
Speaker 1: much more he wanted to do, did.

572
00:29:03,920 --> 00:29:05,680
Speaker 3: He ever express that too? Did he ever talk about

573
00:29:05,720 --> 00:29:06,360
Speaker 3: that he wasn't done?

574
00:29:06,520 --> 00:29:09,760
Speaker 6: Yeah, he did, you know, And I think, you know,

575
00:29:09,840 --> 00:29:14,160
Speaker 6: he had this fantastic climactic moment at the very end

576
00:29:14,200 --> 00:29:16,440
Speaker 6: of nineteen eighty nine, the year before he died, when

577
00:29:16,520 --> 00:29:19,280
Speaker 6: he conducted at the Fall of the Berlin Wall, and

578
00:29:19,400 --> 00:29:22,240
Speaker 6: he did the Ode to Joy and instead of singing Freuda,

579
00:29:22,320 --> 00:29:25,120
Speaker 6: which means joy. They sang thrii height, which means freedom.

580
00:29:32,240 --> 00:29:34,560
Speaker 6: It was such a big deal for him to be

581
00:29:34,720 --> 00:29:37,200
Speaker 6: there when the Berlin Wall came down, and it was

582
00:29:37,760 --> 00:29:39,200
Speaker 6: such a momentous occasion.

583
00:29:39,520 --> 00:29:40,600
Speaker 3: Where were you when that happened?

584
00:29:41,560 --> 00:29:44,200
Speaker 6: I wish I had been there, And in retrospect, I

585
00:29:44,320 --> 00:29:47,520
Speaker 6: regret that I wasn't there, But I had just given

586
00:29:47,560 --> 00:29:49,440
Speaker 6: birth to my son, Evan, like.

587
00:29:50,920 --> 00:29:52,920
Speaker 3: Less than eight weeks earlier. Do you have an excuse?

588
00:29:53,280 --> 00:29:54,120
Speaker 3: That was my excuse.

589
00:29:54,160 --> 00:29:57,360
Speaker 6: So I watched it on the couch on Christmas Day

590
00:29:57,400 --> 00:29:59,920
Speaker 6: while I was nursing my infant son. I watched it

591
00:30:00,080 --> 00:30:02,200
Speaker 6: on TV because they showed the whole thing in the

592
00:30:02,240 --> 00:30:03,280
Speaker 6: live broadcast about you.

593
00:30:03,760 --> 00:30:05,960
Speaker 5: I don't even have an excuse, and I can't remember

594
00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:08,480
Speaker 5: why I didn't go. I can't believe that I wasn't there.

595
00:30:08,640 --> 00:30:09,600
Speaker 5: It's just unbelievable.

596
00:30:09,840 --> 00:30:11,320
Speaker 6: You know, we didn't know he was going to be

597
00:30:11,440 --> 00:30:14,480
Speaker 6: gone within the year, so you know, he was always there,

598
00:30:14,520 --> 00:30:17,040
Speaker 6: and there were always these occasions where you could go

599
00:30:17,640 --> 00:30:20,160
Speaker 6: and meet him on the road, and there were hundreds

600
00:30:20,200 --> 00:30:22,680
Speaker 6: of them, and it was kind of a pain to

601
00:30:22,920 --> 00:30:26,640
Speaker 6: go get in with that whole retinue and the whole

602
00:30:26,800 --> 00:30:28,800
Speaker 6: madness of being of the tour thing.

603
00:30:28,840 --> 00:30:31,680
Speaker 5: And so but Bill did it become entourage city.

604
00:30:31,760 --> 00:30:31,920
Speaker 4: You know.

605
00:30:32,840 --> 00:30:35,040
Speaker 3: Right after that he got really sick with a flu.

606
00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:38,840
Speaker 3: And what year was that, nineteen eighty nine. It was

607
00:30:38,880 --> 00:30:39,800
Speaker 3: like this at the fall.

608
00:30:39,880 --> 00:30:43,120
Speaker 6: Christmas of nineteen eighty nine. And I remember visiting him

609
00:30:43,200 --> 00:30:45,040
Speaker 6: about a month later, less than a month later in

610
00:30:45,280 --> 00:30:50,240
Speaker 6: Key West, and he was just not feeling right and

611
00:30:50,400 --> 00:30:52,360
Speaker 6: he told me so, he said, I just I'm not

612
00:30:52,720 --> 00:30:55,720
Speaker 6: I don't feel right. That was the beginning of the

613
00:30:56,040 --> 00:30:58,600
Speaker 6: slow decline. And then things got a lot worse in May,

614
00:30:58,760 --> 00:31:01,080
Speaker 6: and then he just kind of struggle through all his

615
00:31:01,240 --> 00:31:04,239
Speaker 6: gigs over the summer and then barely made it through

616
00:31:04,280 --> 00:31:07,920
Speaker 6: that Beethoven seven. We were all in the audience clutching

617
00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:09,600
Speaker 6: each other's hands, like, is he gonna make it?

618
00:31:09,720 --> 00:31:10,360
Speaker 3: Is he gonna make it?

619
00:31:11,320 --> 00:31:15,200
Speaker 1: We're taking a break, so stay with us. What was

620
00:31:15,280 --> 00:31:19,040
Speaker 1: his life like after your mom passed away? He didn't remarry,

621
00:31:19,080 --> 00:31:19,280
Speaker 1: did he?

622
00:31:20,280 --> 00:31:20,320
Speaker 6: No?

623
00:31:20,480 --> 00:31:23,120
Speaker 5: He did not, And it was why do you think

624
00:31:23,160 --> 00:31:26,400
Speaker 5: he was so miserable for a long time after she

625
00:31:26,720 --> 00:31:30,120
Speaker 5: He needed her, he needed her, and he was just

626
00:31:32,040 --> 00:31:37,000
Speaker 5: a long long time until we went on vacation. Probably

627
00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:39,800
Speaker 5: I don't know. Eight months later or something like that,

628
00:31:39,960 --> 00:31:44,880
Speaker 5: and we sort of started seeing signs of a person again.

629
00:31:45,760 --> 00:31:50,800
Speaker 6: Tell about what happened in Jamaica. After the Christmas dinner

630
00:31:50,880 --> 00:31:52,120
Speaker 6: and then we went to the bar.

631
00:31:52,320 --> 00:31:56,760
Speaker 5: Oh my god, this was the vacation in Jamaica. A

632
00:31:56,840 --> 00:32:00,400
Speaker 5: bunch of our family and a couple of friends, and

633
00:32:00,720 --> 00:32:05,160
Speaker 5: we went down to the bar and there were probably

634
00:32:05,760 --> 00:32:08,239
Speaker 5: a couple of people in there. And he sits down

635
00:32:08,240 --> 00:32:11,880
Speaker 5: at the piano at the bar. And this was after dinner,

636
00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:14,239
Speaker 5: after you know, a lot of Scotch whatever, a lot

637
00:32:14,280 --> 00:32:17,560
Speaker 5: of wine, and he plays Rhapsody in Blue from beginning

638
00:32:17,600 --> 00:32:21,640
Speaker 5: to end. It was the most amazing performance you could

639
00:32:21,840 --> 00:32:49,000
Speaker 5: possibly imagine. I mean, he's just ripped it. It was unforgettable.

640
00:32:49,040 --> 00:32:51,200
Speaker 5: And then that's kind of when I knew he was back,

641
00:32:51,560 --> 00:32:54,440
Speaker 5: And it was just through the music he was.

642
00:32:54,960 --> 00:32:56,960
Speaker 3: He tells us, Oh my.

643
00:32:57,000 --> 00:33:00,760
Speaker 5: God, so obviously never married again.

644
00:33:00,880 --> 00:33:03,000
Speaker 3: But why do you think he never married again?

645
00:33:03,320 --> 00:33:04,760
Speaker 1: You see a guy like that, You mean, my gun,

646
00:33:04,840 --> 00:33:07,200
Speaker 1: he could have had any woman in New York. He

647
00:33:07,320 --> 00:33:09,080
Speaker 1: didn't have room in his life for that anymore.

648
00:33:09,400 --> 00:33:11,400
Speaker 5: No, And there were some men that he was very

649
00:33:11,440 --> 00:33:11,840
Speaker 5: close to.

650
00:33:12,120 --> 00:33:15,160
Speaker 1: And and would you say that once your mother passed

651
00:33:15,160 --> 00:33:18,360
Speaker 1: away was your father's life as a bisexual man, that

652
00:33:18,480 --> 00:33:20,360
Speaker 1: he just lived it more vividly once your mother was gone,

653
00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:23,720
Speaker 1: was much more, much more living color about it.

654
00:33:24,040 --> 00:33:27,720
Speaker 5: His uh, his mother was still alive. Oh, and I

655
00:33:27,800 --> 00:33:30,400
Speaker 5: think that played a great role. That was kind of

656
00:33:30,400 --> 00:33:32,320
Speaker 5: a governor there that for him, kind of a governor

657
00:33:32,400 --> 00:33:35,800
Speaker 5: yet and then when he still had a public it

658
00:33:35,880 --> 00:33:36,520
Speaker 5: was a different time.

659
00:33:37,040 --> 00:33:37,960
Speaker 3: She outlived him.

660
00:33:38,520 --> 00:33:41,880
Speaker 6: Yeah, she was ninety two when he died, and she

661
00:33:42,080 --> 00:33:45,120
Speaker 6: said memorably, this will shorten my life.

662
00:33:46,080 --> 00:33:48,000
Speaker 3: Wow. And so he and so he.

663
00:33:48,880 --> 00:33:51,200
Speaker 1: You think that he kept that quiet and kept that private,

664
00:33:51,640 --> 00:33:53,840
Speaker 1: not only because it was that that is nature to

665
00:33:53,920 --> 00:33:55,000
Speaker 1: be a little more private.

666
00:33:54,720 --> 00:33:55,280
Speaker 3: Like theatre.

667
00:33:55,520 --> 00:34:01,600
Speaker 5: He sort of came out sort of a few times,

668
00:34:02,720 --> 00:34:05,480
Speaker 5: and I think he was once he was hoping people

669
00:34:05,480 --> 00:34:07,680
Speaker 5: would take more notice of it than they did, I think.

670
00:34:07,880 --> 00:34:12,080
Speaker 5: But I think he didn't want his mother to have

671
00:34:12,239 --> 00:34:14,480
Speaker 5: to deal with it with her friends and you know,

672
00:34:15,160 --> 00:34:16,040
Speaker 5: people talking about it.

673
00:34:16,080 --> 00:34:17,960
Speaker 3: If he was alive now, how old should that be?

674
00:34:18,800 --> 00:34:20,560
Speaker 3: If he was alive now, he'd be nice.

675
00:34:21,280 --> 00:34:24,880
Speaker 5: Yeah, yes, centennial will be twenty eighteen.

676
00:34:25,120 --> 00:34:25,800
Speaker 3: Who was someone?

677
00:34:25,880 --> 00:34:27,839
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sure that we're boundless people because your

678
00:34:27,840 --> 00:34:30,760
Speaker 1: father was very generous of heart, it seems very passionate.

679
00:34:30,960 --> 00:34:33,399
Speaker 1: But who were some of the people other than Kuzovitski

680
00:34:33,440 --> 00:34:35,600
Speaker 1: and Copen that we've covered before. Who were some of

681
00:34:35,640 --> 00:34:37,560
Speaker 1: the people that were contemporaries of your father that you

682
00:34:37,680 --> 00:34:40,280
Speaker 1: remember him speaking very glowingly abou Who did he admire?

683
00:34:40,800 --> 00:34:42,239
Speaker 5: Lucas Voss would be one.

684
00:34:42,719 --> 00:34:45,040
Speaker 6: They were a Curtis together, that's where they met, and

685
00:34:45,200 --> 00:34:50,400
Speaker 6: they stayed friends and colleagues their entire lives. And Lucas

686
00:34:50,520 --> 00:34:53,880
Speaker 6: was a stupendous pianist in addition to being an excellent composer.

687
00:34:54,040 --> 00:34:58,320
Speaker 6: So he played our dad's Age of Anxiety, which is

688
00:34:58,360 --> 00:35:00,560
Speaker 6: a sort of like a piano concerto. Older it's called

689
00:35:00,560 --> 00:35:15,280
Speaker 6: a symphony, and Lucas could.

690
00:35:15,160 --> 00:35:16,279
Speaker 3: Just play the hell out of it.

691
00:35:16,400 --> 00:35:20,480
Speaker 6: And and our dad premiered many of Lucas's pieces with

692
00:35:20,600 --> 00:35:23,839
Speaker 6: the Philharmonic, And so that was he was one of them.

693
00:35:24,160 --> 00:35:27,800
Speaker 6: Michael Tilson Thomas was someone that our dad kind of

694
00:35:27,920 --> 00:35:29,560
Speaker 6: nurtured along when.

695
00:35:29,560 --> 00:35:34,359
Speaker 3: Hezovitsky to a degree, Yes, to a degree. Who else

696
00:35:34,400 --> 00:35:37,160
Speaker 3: did who else did he mentor? Oh well, he was

697
00:35:37,600 --> 00:35:40,640
Speaker 3: mister mentor to a great degree.

698
00:35:40,719 --> 00:35:46,359
Speaker 10: I think yeah, John, another guy with great hair, great hair,

699
00:35:46,400 --> 00:35:47,200
Speaker 10: school of conducting.

700
00:35:47,400 --> 00:35:49,439
Speaker 3: Nothing like that hair flying through the air looks great.

701
00:35:49,440 --> 00:35:51,839
Speaker 3: It's amazing how many great hair conductors there are, isn't

702
00:35:51,840 --> 00:35:56,120
Speaker 3: that so? Right? Well, when nothing at the Philharmonic, it

703
00:35:56,280 --> 00:35:57,560
Speaker 3: was his relationship with Sondheim.

704
00:35:58,520 --> 00:36:01,680
Speaker 6: Oh that was a big, big relationship, big friendship and

705
00:36:02,320 --> 00:36:03,120
Speaker 6: colleague ship.

706
00:36:03,600 --> 00:36:05,040
Speaker 3: You know, west Side Story.

707
00:36:05,160 --> 00:36:11,320
Speaker 1: Jerry Robins, all of them had this phenomenal success. Initially,

708
00:36:11,440 --> 00:36:13,239
Speaker 1: West Side Story was supposed to be if I'm if

709
00:36:13,239 --> 00:36:14,959
Speaker 1: I'm an Irish.

710
00:36:14,680 --> 00:36:17,719
Speaker 3: Jewish gang, Yeah, a lower east Side. It was going

711
00:36:17,760 --> 00:36:19,439
Speaker 3: to be east Side. It was going to be Lower

712
00:36:19,480 --> 00:36:23,240
Speaker 3: east Side. Tempers would flare over the Easter passover holidays

713
00:36:23,400 --> 00:36:30,279
Speaker 3: right right right right as Leles versus the Missus. Yeah, yeah,

714
00:36:30,560 --> 00:36:31,120
Speaker 3: something like that.

715
00:36:31,239 --> 00:36:36,000
Speaker 6: And then apparently Jerry Robins saw some article about gang

716
00:36:36,040 --> 00:36:38,560
Speaker 6: wars with Puerto Ricans on the Upper West.

717
00:36:38,400 --> 00:36:42,080
Speaker 3: Side and he went, ding, you know the bulls, Jerry

718
00:36:42,360 --> 00:36:44,440
Speaker 3: it was I think it was Jerry or was it Arthur?

719
00:36:44,480 --> 00:36:46,000
Speaker 5: Always said it was Arthur, so I don't know.

720
00:36:46,160 --> 00:36:46,759
Speaker 3: Maybe it was Arthur.

721
00:36:47,000 --> 00:36:49,640
Speaker 1: Probably the most romantic line in the movie I've ever heard,

722
00:36:50,040 --> 00:36:52,000
Speaker 1: and it always brings me to tears when he turns

723
00:36:52,040 --> 00:36:54,440
Speaker 1: to her, they have the moment of the dance. Then

724
00:36:54,480 --> 00:36:56,480
Speaker 1: he turns to her and says, you're not lying to me,

725
00:36:56,600 --> 00:36:58,799
Speaker 1: are you? And she says, I have not yet learned

726
00:36:58,840 --> 00:37:00,000
Speaker 1: to lie about such things.

727
00:37:00,560 --> 00:37:02,600
Speaker 3: That's right. I have not yet learned to joke that way.

728
00:37:02,800 --> 00:37:05,719
Speaker 3: I think you're not joking that what she says, you're

729
00:37:05,760 --> 00:37:07,960
Speaker 3: not joking. I have not yet to give it to

730
00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:14,840
Speaker 3: me again. You say it here we got rid of

731
00:37:14,880 --> 00:37:15,600
Speaker 3: a live performance.

732
00:37:15,680 --> 00:37:17,719
Speaker 5: Go you're not joking with me.

733
00:37:19,280 --> 00:37:21,600
Speaker 3: I have not yet learned to joke that way. I

734
00:37:21,719 --> 00:37:23,840
Speaker 3: think now I never will. There you go, there it is.

735
00:37:24,160 --> 00:37:26,440
Speaker 6: And the reason we're laughing is because there's a recording

736
00:37:26,520 --> 00:37:29,880
Speaker 6: of our dad conducting west Side Story for in a

737
00:37:29,960 --> 00:37:32,680
Speaker 6: recording session, and he got Alexander and my sister Nina

738
00:37:33,040 --> 00:37:36,279
Speaker 6: to do that dialogue so much to believe you're not.

739
00:37:36,360 --> 00:37:39,640
Speaker 3: Joking me, I have not yet learned how to joke

740
00:37:39,719 --> 00:37:40,160
Speaker 3: that way.

741
00:37:41,200 --> 00:37:43,360
Speaker 8: I think no, I never will.

742
00:37:46,320 --> 00:37:46,440
Speaker 3: Now.

743
00:37:46,520 --> 00:37:49,920
Speaker 1: Speaking of films, your father only composed I mean, other

744
00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:53,200
Speaker 1: than them transferring west Side to the film, your father

745
00:37:53,360 --> 00:37:56,239
Speaker 1: only composed one film score, that's right, and it was

746
00:37:56,239 --> 00:37:57,000
Speaker 1: a hell of a film.

747
00:37:56,840 --> 00:37:59,200
Speaker 3: Score and very Wartenstein asque.

748
00:37:59,239 --> 00:38:02,080
Speaker 1: And why do you think he only did? Your father someone?

749
00:38:02,120 --> 00:38:03,680
Speaker 1: I mean, I see people, this is interesting because I

750
00:38:03,719 --> 00:38:07,960
Speaker 1: see so many people Billy Joel Sting. I mean, you

751
00:38:08,040 --> 00:38:10,759
Speaker 1: see Elton John make his fore way into that. But

752
00:38:10,800 --> 00:38:12,440
Speaker 1: I see so many people who I think the mess

753
00:38:12,480 --> 00:38:15,480
Speaker 1: of Billy, especially who's a friend. I say, my god,

754
00:38:15,560 --> 00:38:17,520
Speaker 1: you could be doing so much music a movie score

755
00:38:17,520 --> 00:38:18,919
Speaker 1: if you wanted to, and they just don't. They don't

756
00:38:18,920 --> 00:38:20,640
Speaker 1: have a passion for it. Why did your father just

757
00:38:20,719 --> 00:38:21,040
Speaker 1: do the one?

758
00:38:21,120 --> 00:38:25,279
Speaker 6: You think, Well, because he really did not enjoy the experience.

759
00:38:25,600 --> 00:38:30,399
Speaker 6: Why because he was being bossed around? Because an yeah,

760
00:38:30,480 --> 00:38:32,880
Speaker 6: well what happened. For the example he gave was that

761
00:38:33,320 --> 00:38:37,360
Speaker 6: he wrote, you know, the soaring music, that the dynamics

762
00:38:37,440 --> 00:38:39,480
Speaker 6: that he composed were all in his head and all

763
00:38:39,600 --> 00:38:42,880
Speaker 6: recorded a certain way, and then when they're mixing, they

764
00:38:43,160 --> 00:38:45,719
Speaker 6: just dunk the fader on it so that, as our

765
00:38:45,800 --> 00:38:49,400
Speaker 6: dad put it, so that you could hear Marlon Brando's grunt.

766
00:38:50,719 --> 00:38:55,880
Speaker 6: And so just at the climactic moment of his love music,

767
00:38:56,400 --> 00:38:58,880
Speaker 6: you know, in the final mix, they just dunk the fader.

768
00:38:58,960 --> 00:39:03,440
Speaker 5: They would say, okay, fifteen bars of passion and then

769
00:39:04,120 --> 00:39:10,120
Speaker 5: you know, thirty seconds of you know, quick. And he

770
00:39:10,280 --> 00:39:13,520
Speaker 5: just couldn't write that way. That way, it was impossible,

771
00:39:13,600 --> 00:39:19,640
Speaker 5: So he he loves they but he just hated doing

772
00:39:19,719 --> 00:39:20,160
Speaker 5: the work.

773
00:39:20,600 --> 00:39:22,759
Speaker 3: You have children. I have a daughter. You have a

774
00:39:22,840 --> 00:39:23,640
Speaker 3: daughter who's how old?

775
00:39:23,880 --> 00:39:25,640
Speaker 5: She'll be fourteen in two weeks.

776
00:39:25,680 --> 00:39:28,120
Speaker 3: You have a daughter that's fourteen, and what does she into?

777
00:39:28,200 --> 00:39:28,680
Speaker 3: What does she do?

778
00:39:29,239 --> 00:39:33,920
Speaker 5: She's into her first year of high school and loving it.

779
00:39:34,040 --> 00:39:36,440
Speaker 5: And she's into theater in a big way. She loves

780
00:39:36,600 --> 00:39:39,680
Speaker 5: to you're raising your kids in the city. You're outside

781
00:39:39,680 --> 00:39:41,640
Speaker 5: the city in the city. You're raising your daughter inside

782
00:39:41,680 --> 00:39:43,880
Speaker 5: the city. And she likes acting. She likes acting, but

783
00:39:43,960 --> 00:39:47,840
Speaker 5: she's also you know, she loves her English class and

784
00:39:47,920 --> 00:39:50,760
Speaker 5: history class and math, to her school and her friends

785
00:39:50,880 --> 00:39:52,520
Speaker 5: and her What about you.

786
00:39:52,719 --> 00:39:53,080
Speaker 3: I have two.

787
00:39:53,400 --> 00:39:55,880
Speaker 6: I have ad they're in their twenties now, they're in

788
00:39:55,880 --> 00:39:59,400
Speaker 6: their early t do My daughter, Frankie, lives in Brooklyn,

789
00:39:59,440 --> 00:40:04,640
Speaker 6: she's a right and my son is still in school

790
00:40:05,160 --> 00:40:06,080
Speaker 6: up in the Berkshires.

791
00:40:06,120 --> 00:40:07,719
Speaker 3: As a matter of fact, he's up and he lives

792
00:40:07,719 --> 00:40:08,759
Speaker 3: in Lee, Massachusetts.

793
00:40:08,760 --> 00:40:10,640
Speaker 1: No, well, you know, for both of you, your children,

794
00:40:10,680 --> 00:40:13,399
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously they know they didn't have to watch.

795
00:40:13,520 --> 00:40:18,239
Speaker 1: In their case, they weren't watching Leonard Bernstone. That wasn't

796
00:40:18,239 --> 00:40:20,719
Speaker 1: the cartoon, wasn't the gateway into an understanding of who

797
00:40:20,760 --> 00:40:21,920
Speaker 1: their grandfather was.

798
00:40:22,280 --> 00:40:24,640
Speaker 3: But they know who he is and have you had

799
00:40:24,680 --> 00:40:26,480
Speaker 3: and do they do? They have an appetite and a

800
00:40:26,600 --> 00:40:28,960
Speaker 3: passion to understand who he is and see who he is.

801
00:40:29,200 --> 00:40:29,879
Speaker 3: My kids don't.

802
00:40:29,920 --> 00:40:33,359
Speaker 6: They're very careful about sort of keeping their distance from

803
00:40:33,400 --> 00:40:36,919
Speaker 6: that whole connection. I think it makes them a little shy,

804
00:40:37,080 --> 00:40:39,879
Speaker 6: a little a little anxious, and so they don't.

805
00:40:40,400 --> 00:40:43,080
Speaker 3: They don't embrace.

806
00:40:42,760 --> 00:40:44,680
Speaker 1: Based on without getting too personal, because I have an

807
00:40:44,719 --> 00:40:46,719
Speaker 1: opinion about that because of my daughter. Oh really, well,

808
00:40:47,040 --> 00:40:49,080
Speaker 1: what they want is that they sense that celebrity has

809
00:40:49,120 --> 00:40:54,160
Speaker 1: become so exponentially out of control now and they prefer

810
00:40:54,320 --> 00:40:57,920
Speaker 1: their privacy. If knowing that I was related directly to

811
00:40:58,040 --> 00:41:01,320
Speaker 1: Leonard Bernstein was going to lead to something appropriate or

812
00:41:01,400 --> 00:41:04,280
Speaker 1: comfortable or rite, there would be one thing, But nowadays

813
00:41:04,280 --> 00:41:05,640
Speaker 1: everybody's after the wrong thing.

814
00:41:05,719 --> 00:41:06,840
Speaker 3: And that's really interesting.

815
00:41:06,880 --> 00:41:10,279
Speaker 5: I mean I think about that a lot because our

816
00:41:10,360 --> 00:41:13,600
Speaker 5: father really loved being famous and we had fun with it,

817
00:41:13,880 --> 00:41:17,400
Speaker 5: and it was just a different type of thing in

818
00:41:17,480 --> 00:41:18,000
Speaker 5: those days.

819
00:41:18,960 --> 00:41:19,480
Speaker 3: It was different.

820
00:41:19,560 --> 00:41:22,600
Speaker 5: It's more of an industry now. And he started seeing

821
00:41:22,640 --> 00:41:25,120
Speaker 5: that more and more starting in the eighties, and you

822
00:41:25,160 --> 00:41:27,840
Speaker 5: talked about it a lot, and he once said to

823
00:41:27,920 --> 00:41:31,040
Speaker 5: me I'm so sick of Leonard Bernstein.

824
00:41:31,880 --> 00:41:41,520
Speaker 3: I've had it with him. I've always had a problem

825
00:41:41,600 --> 00:41:46,680
Speaker 3: about time. But when I had a problem about.

826
00:41:46,480 --> 00:41:50,520
Speaker 2: Time at the age of twenty five or thirty, when

827
00:41:50,560 --> 00:41:55,160
Speaker 2: you're still, at least in part, thinking you're immortal and

828
00:41:55,400 --> 00:41:58,160
Speaker 2: nothing's ever going to change the way you are.

829
00:41:59,880 --> 00:42:03,239
Speaker 3: Abbreviated, everything's all right.

830
00:42:03,440 --> 00:42:06,440
Speaker 2: I mean I would go on concert tours and compose

831
00:42:06,520 --> 00:42:08,959
Speaker 2: in the airport or on the plane, or on the train,

832
00:42:09,160 --> 00:42:11,279
Speaker 2: or I wrote half of the Age of Anxiety and

833
00:42:11,400 --> 00:42:16,600
Speaker 2: airports and trains and hotels. I can't do that anymore,

834
00:42:17,640 --> 00:42:20,360
Speaker 2: and it's been some time since I could. One of

835
00:42:20,400 --> 00:42:25,120
Speaker 2: the reasons is one's standards get higher and higher. Self

836
00:42:25,160 --> 00:42:29,680
Speaker 2: identification with the composer whose works you are performing become

837
00:42:30,400 --> 00:42:35,839
Speaker 2: closer and closer to the point where there are performances

838
00:42:36,200 --> 00:42:39,960
Speaker 2: which are the ones I call good performances, but I

839
00:42:40,080 --> 00:42:43,320
Speaker 2: know it's been a really good performance. It's one in

840
00:42:43,440 --> 00:42:46,960
Speaker 2: which I have the feeling I've written the piece standing there,

841
00:42:47,160 --> 00:42:52,320
Speaker 2: and when it's over, I don't know where I'm standing.

842
00:43:11,600 --> 00:43:14,840
Speaker 1: As he grew older, Bernstein's connection to the music of

843
00:43:14,920 --> 00:43:18,800
Speaker 1: Gustav Mahler, whom he had championed throughout his career became

844
00:43:19,080 --> 00:43:19,800
Speaker 1: even stronger.

845
00:43:20,719 --> 00:43:25,320
Speaker 5: I think he felt a deep association I mean, apart

846
00:43:25,480 --> 00:43:29,839
Speaker 5: from the music itself, obviously, an association with Mahler as

847
00:43:30,880 --> 00:43:36,680
Speaker 5: a conflicted musician, Mahler being Jewish and in a Georgian

848
00:43:36,760 --> 00:43:41,719
Speaker 5: Jewish world and being a tonal composer in an a

849
00:43:42,920 --> 00:43:52,440
Speaker 5: more atonal world, becoming so being a European man who

850
00:43:52,520 --> 00:43:56,600
Speaker 5: came to America. You know, somebody from the classical tradition

851
00:43:57,239 --> 00:44:03,000
Speaker 5: coming to America and suddenly finding themselves in this crazy world.

852
00:44:04,120 --> 00:44:05,640
Speaker 5: So I think there was an affinity there.

853
00:44:07,080 --> 00:44:11,439
Speaker 6: Plus, he was the combination of composer and conductor, which

854
00:44:11,600 --> 00:44:12,240
Speaker 6: there aren't.

855
00:44:12,040 --> 00:44:35,439
Speaker 3: That many of. I would love to have known your father.

856
00:44:36,840 --> 00:44:41,399
Speaker 1: Your father was so singular and remains so singular because

857
00:44:41,480 --> 00:44:45,800
Speaker 1: number one, whenever he came on, I was happy, And

858
00:44:45,880 --> 00:44:48,640
Speaker 1: whenever he came on, I was excited, and he never

859
00:44:48,760 --> 00:44:51,879
Speaker 1: disappointed me. And when I would see him, I'd say,

860
00:44:52,440 --> 00:44:55,840
Speaker 1: once you get from Bernstein, you can only get from Bernstein.

861
00:44:55,920 --> 00:45:13,280
Speaker 1: He was the original in his field. Leonard Bernstein's children,

862
00:45:13,480 --> 00:45:16,680
Speaker 1: Jamie and Alexander, say their father was so original in

863
00:45:16,840 --> 00:45:21,000
Speaker 1: part because he just never stopped celebrating music, celebrating life.

864
00:45:21,440 --> 00:45:24,799
Speaker 6: He never slept. He was a terrible insomniac. I think

865
00:45:24,800 --> 00:45:27,560
Speaker 6: that's probably why I managed to squeeze in so much action.

866
00:45:28,560 --> 00:45:30,279
Speaker 3: He was always at it.

867
00:45:30,440 --> 00:45:30,600
Speaker 5: You know.

868
00:45:30,760 --> 00:45:31,720
Speaker 3: I wish he was around.

869
00:45:31,760 --> 00:45:33,680
Speaker 1: He and I could have hung out together. Oh oh,

870
00:45:33,760 --> 00:45:36,520
Speaker 1: I'm an insomniac. And could you imagine you're in Stein

871
00:45:36,600 --> 00:45:38,920
Speaker 1: and I watching YouTube together.

872
00:45:38,960 --> 00:45:40,719
Speaker 3: Would have come over at four am and you could

873
00:45:40,760 --> 00:45:42,879
Speaker 3: have hung out. God, we could have been watching old

874
00:45:42,960 --> 00:45:45,040
Speaker 3: movies together. And yeah, you would have gone to the

875
00:45:45,080 --> 00:45:49,360
Speaker 3: piano and played all the old Hermann scores. Yes, everything.

876
00:46:03,280 --> 00:46:06,520
Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin. To learn more about Leonard Bernstein

877
00:46:06,880 --> 00:46:11,440
Speaker 1: and artful learning and educational organization that his son Alex spearheads,

878
00:46:11,800 --> 00:46:13,759
Speaker 1: go to Here's the thing dot org