Featured Work
Divertimento for Orchestra (1980)
Leonard Bernstein composed Divertimento for the Boston Symphony Orchestra's centenary, dedicating the piece, "With affection to the Boston Symphony Orchestra in celebration of its First Centenary."
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The Leonard Bernstein Office (LBO) sustains and strengthens Leonard Bernstein’s legacy by inspiring global engagement with his work as a composer, conductor, educator, and humanitarian. Through licensing, promotion, music editing, and publishing, the LBO strives to communicate his lifelong devotion to the transformative power and joy of music.
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Thus Spake Leonard Bernstein:
"I suppose the easiest composer to interpret from a conductor’s point of view is Mahler.. you can never be in any doubt about what he wanted.
Music is very difficult to write down exactly the way you hear it in your mind. But Mahler, being a conductor himself, put in not only many marks like bowings, etc. that a conductor would normally put in, but also a lot of words and verbal instructions...if the contrabassoon cannot play this note pianissimo, you could substitute a tuba, and so on...So, what I mean about the Mahler ninth being easy to conduct is the fact that you cannot possibly misunderstand Mahler’s intentions."
-Leonard Bernstein
Interview with Helena Matheopoulos, 1979