While scrolling on FB this morning I saw a lovely post by flutist Sir James Galway that August 25 marked Leonard Bernstein's 104th birthday. Such an incredible musician who contributed so much to Israel's music and culture. For Bernstein's 100th birthday, the Israel Philharmonic - along with 3,000 other orchestras worldwide - celebrated the occasion with numerous concerts and festivals.
In an article by Maya Nahum Shahal from 2018 "Calcalist" webpage she writes: "Bernstein's first liaison with the Israel Philharmonic began a year before Israel was declared. A year later he conducted the Israel Philharmonic during a mythological concert under the stars in Beer Sheva with hundreds of soldiers in the audience - a concert which took place in the midst of the tiny new state's War of Independence. In 1957, at the inauguration of the orchestra’s home at the Mann Auditorium, the then Mayor of Tel Aviv - Chaim Lebanon - handed Bernstein his baton for the orchestra to play Hatikva.
Being a flutist, I had heard from my father about the piece "Halil". It was written for solo flute, percussion and string orchestra. It was composed in memory of Flutist Yadin Tanenbaum - a child prodigy and student of the renowned flutist Uri Teplitz. Sadly, Yadin lost his life in battle during the Yom Kippur war. A few years later, Tenebaum's family met Leonard Bernstein at one of his concerts with the Israel Philharmonic orchestra. The gave the maestro recordings of the young prodigy, and Bernstein promised the family to dedicate a piece in memory of the fallen flutist. Four years later, in 1983, Flutist Jean Pierre Rampal performed "Halil" at the premiere at the Sualtan's Pool in Jerusalem.
Bernstein was no doubt a brilliant, witty, funny and humble man. I read in"The magazine of unseen articles"on FB an interesting article by Eyal Sharaf. Sharaf writes that for Bernstein, conducting was entirely physical - an erotic "give and take". Was he more of a conductor than a composer or vice versa?...On one of his summer vacations at the age of 14, with his family and friends from the Jewish Sharon, MA, community, Bernstein initiated a production of Carmen. It was a somewhat avant-garde production "purely for ego reasons" said Lennie once in an interview for his brother Barton's memoire book. "It seemed just right that I would play the part of Carmen...and my then girlfriend would be casted as Don José (the soldier)...We managed to find girls for the boys' choir, and we had them dressed up as boys with yarmulkes...I played the piano when I wasn't on stage as Carmen". The singing was in English and in Yiddish. A Carmen production in drag in the Sharon community theatre is certainly a mark of what was yet to come in Bernstein's life: a man who always challenged the norm and strived to change the expected.
I would hereby like to wish Leonard Bernstein a very happy birthday from a flutist who also believes that "Music is everything and everywhere" as I write in my book "The Tune of Life:I wish this to a giant composer whose tunes and rhythms are still playing in the heads of millions of people worldwide!
I think this photo says it all and is an example of Bernstein and his daughter's wonderful sense of humor. I came across it on Jacov Katz's FB page:
