Leonard Bernstein by Humphrey Burton

• "This is where you can help, if you would" -- from a letter from Bernstein to Aaron Copland, one of his mentors
• "I thoroughly disapprove of Mr. Bernstein's arrogant attitude and the air of superiority achieved by him. His otherwise interesting analysis of the modernistic idiom would have gained much without this display of immature, juvenile and unjust criticism. With this reservation I accept his thesis for honors, but would like to see that my objections are made known to him" Hugo Leichtentritt, a Harvard musicologist, on Bernstein's thesis
• Mitropoulos offered the assistance Bernstein needed -- seventy-five dollars a month. Bernstein never forgot this characteristic act of generosity, and thereafter ascribed to Mitropoulos a more central role in determining his career than was perhaps merited by facts.
• "I work and work and work (practice about 3 to 5 hrs. a day), and do nothing else, except sleep plenty. No social life -- no friend to speak of." -- Bernstein's letter to Helen Coates in 1940, from the Curtis Institute in Pennsylvania
• "So long as art and culture exist there is hope for humanity" -- Serge Koussevitzky
• In later life Bernstein used "To thine own self be true", Polonius's injunction to Laertes, as the basis for a commencement speech to students. But as a young man he had a hard time recognizing which was his own true self.
• "I have come to the Big City, finally, to seek my fortune"
• He proved to be one of those New Yorkers who love their adoped city more than their own birthplaces.
• [Rorem] had decided to travel to New York for the weekend and "get drunk and get into trouble, as was my wont," and Shirley had encouraged him to look up Lenny.
• [Fritz Reiner had the] "same criticism my father had: which raises Pop in my estimation no end" - L. Bernstein
• "It's one of those very rare instances when somebody worthwhile land something. And it is so much fun to land things when one is a mere youth of 25. Oh, I knew it all along, didn't I -- and told it to you all along -- and said have patience -- and now I am slightly amazed at being so right" - Aaron Copland in a letter to Leonard
• "And in the middle of all this, I only have to look at your picture in my room, and I am perfectly contented, knowing that there is one supreme that I have, who will understand whatever I do, mistakes included: I hope to see you very soon; meanwhile take good care of your health, and know that my love is with you always." - Leonard to Serge Alexandrovich Koussevitzky
• "Call Bernstein," was the maestro's immediate reply; "that's why we hired him." It was a grand gesture by Rodzinski, whose own first chance in New York had come in 1926 when he substituted for an ailing Stokowski.
• For Sam it was a pivotal moment in his relationship with his son; he was, the young conductor remembered, "all aglow ... absolutely dazzled, bewildered, stupefied. ... He suddenly realized that it was all possible. And there was a great moment of forgiveness and very deep emotion." after Bernstein's first major concert.
• [Bernstein] was on the verge of joining the YMCA and swimming in its indoor pool for a mile each day. He would stay on that verge all his life.
• Koussevitzky: a potential great conductor must not dissipate his talents.
• "You are fully grown up and have to realize that you are responsible for every word you say and all of your actions, especially responsible on account of your gifts and the position you are beginning to occupy" Dr. Koussevitzky
• "Music comes first and it always will. If he ever does marry, his wife will have to recognize that from the beginning" - Helen Coates in an interview concerning Lenny's possible engagement
• "neither Felicia nor Leonard was ready at that point for the sacrifices involved in marriage"
• "the adulation he received in Europe weakened his sense of direction"
• The pattern was similar to the summer of 1947: an agonizing (but brief) reappraisal of his circumstances, and a firm resolution to pause, take stock, explore his inner motivations, followed by a long period of hectic activity carried out in much the same spirit as before.
• The five-week separation cannot have been easy for Felicia, her work in New York finished and halfway through her first pregnancy, but she knew how important it was for Bernstein to deliver his musical child on time.
• Tchaikovsky and Elgar used “Serenade” as the title for works for string orchestra which were sophisticated entertainment music, similar to divertimenti, and intellectually less ambitious than a symphony