A friend’s Bernstein salute.
Troy concert to feature some rarities
Last year Leonard Bernstein ranked as the third-most widely performed classical composer in the world, right after Beethoven and Mozart. That’s according to the website Backtrack, which compiled data on nearly 20,000 concerts. The Symphonic Dances from “West Side Story” received more performances than Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Obviously the Bernstein centennial celebrations were a success.
Though the Lenny-mania climaxed on Aug. 25, 2018, the date of his actual centennial, the tributes continue. On Thursday, Feb. 28 the Troy Chromatics present an all-bernstein program with conductor John Mauceri leading the Czech National Symphony Orchestra at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall.
Mauceri insists there’s no reason to take a hiatus from toasting Bernstein, saying, “His birthday’s in August, so it goes until next August when he turns 101!”
Even if you’ve recently heard the “Candide” Overture and the dances from “West Side Story,” there’s reason to pay attention with Mauceri on the podium. For 18 years Mauceri worked closely with Bernstein and he became an intimate friend of the family. “With a couple of exceptions, only about two to three minutes of music, every piece on this program is something I edited, orchestrated or conducted for him, or I was at the premiere,” says Mauceri.
Along with the big hits, Mauceri is pulling out some rarities. He opens with “A Musical Toast,” a mini-overture written in 1980 in memory of conductor Andre Kostelanetz. Mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard will be on hand to sing several early songs during the concert’s first half, and after intermission she’ll offer selections from some of the lesser-known shows, including “Peter Pan” and “Trouble in Tahiti.”
Mauceri is not too surprised by the boost in Bernstein performances and hopes that the centennial “opens the door” to a reassessment of the music.
“Some of my colleagues who confessed to love him all along did not actually conduct his music. He was not considered a serious composer,” says Mauceri. “In my lifetime, I’ve watched Gershwin and Rachmaninoff go from the fringes to central, valued composers. Rachmaninoff was just recycling Tchaikovsky, who himself was not so good. And Gershwin was this clever guy who played piano and wrote hit tunes.”
It was while a student at Tanglewood that Mauceri first met Bernstein. The year was 1971 and the composer was working on his mammoth creation, “Mass.” The following year Mauceri became his assistant. There was never an employment contract or any other sort of guarantee of continuing work; he got asked to help out on one project after the next and along the way the level of trust and the importance of the tasks increased.
“It gives me a certain authority,” says Mauceri. “That isn’t to say that others aren’t good or better at leading his music. It just means that when you open any of those scores, there are stories and memories of London, the Hollywood Bowl, the Kennedy Center and Broadway. Eighteen years is a long time.”
One of the only times Mauceri turned down a project with Bernstein was the invitation to be music director of “1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,” the ill-fated musical written for the American bicentennial. Mauceri had a good excuse, as he was making his debut at the Metropolitan Opera with an extended run of Beethoven’s “Fidelio.”
Bernstein had his share of f lops, but “1600” was probably the biggest. It ran in
the Mark Hellinger Theater for 13 previews and only seven performances. That’s enough to scare away anyone interested in a revival. Part of the problem, as Mauceri explains it, is that the book by Alan Jay Lerner deals with the history of race relations in a ham-fisted way. The scenario is an upstairs/downstairs depiction of the White House over the course of many administrations. One white couple plays the presidents and first ladies, while a black couple plays the servants. A minstrel show is among the built-in problems, but the fact that there has now been an African American president only complicates things further in terms of the show having any future.
The musical also dates from a tragic period in the history of the Bernstein family, when Lenny had left his wife Felicia for a male lover. They later reconciled, but she subsequently was diagnosed with lung cancer and died in 1978 at age 56. Mauceri alludes to the show and the time period still being a sore spot for the three Bernstein children, saying, “You have to be very careful how you approach ‘1600.’”
All this history aside, Mauceri is an ardent fan of the music in the show and he’s giving Troy audiences a generous sampling. Isabel Leonard will sing “Take Care of This House,” a lyric tribute to the traditions and lore of the White House. That will be followed by the “1600 Pennsylvania Avenue” Suite for Orchestra, which was constructed in 2000 by Charlie Harmon, who was another longtime member of the Bernstein musical team.
“It’s as good as anything he wrote,” says Mauceri, adding that there are sparkling passages reminiscent of “Candide” and other places with the dark emotional force of “On the Waterfront,” Bernstein’s only film score. As to a future life for the songs, Mauceri thinks a new cast album is order. “That way the color of the singers [is] irrelevant,” he says.
Obviously, Mauceri is still deeply involved in the art and industry of what might be called Bernstein, Inc. He can also turn reflective when it comes to his personal memories of the great man. There are lots of great anecdotes plus lessons of music and life learned from the elder maestro in his 2017 book “Maestros and Their Music: The Art and Alchemy of Conducting.”
Bernstein died in 1990 when he was 72. Mauceri is now 73. “It’s funny to be talking about this,” he says. “He died close to 30 years ago but it doesn’t feel that long ago. Getting through 72, every now and then I’d think about it.”
Bernstein gave Mauceri a set of his cuff links, among other gifts over the years He also agreed to be the godfather for Mauceri’s son, who was named “Ben,” the name Bernstein’s siblings used for him. Every year for his birthday, the boy received a song or a poem written by Bernstein and inscribed “To little Ben, from big Ben.”
“He so trusted me. 18 years together. That’s one of the great approbations of my life,” says Mauceri.