A restful walk

Brian Wise’s Walk New York! feature (May) delightfully chronicles the former homes of many musicians. Certainly during my times in New York I have passed by many of these sites completely oblivious to their musical heritage and thus the article provides a valuable guide. But I’d like to add another ‘residence’ in New York connected to famous musicians and free for all to visit and pay their respects. I speak of Louis Moreau Gottschalk and Leonard Bernstein, both of whom have their final resting place in beautiful Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn. Established in 1838 as one of the first park cemeteries with ponds, plantings and walkways designed for strolling, Greenwood became the fashionable burying ground for the late19th century. Bernstein has a modest tombstone while Gottschalk is memorialised with a bronze statue of the ‘Angel of Music’ erected in 2012 to replace the original marble angel destroyed by vandalism. Gottschalk died in 1869 but Bernstein has been at Greenwood only since 1990. We can assume neither will be moving anytime soon.

Margaret B Barker, Madison, Wisconsin, US