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By Marin Alsop
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Leonard Bernstein so much as
a pianist, but he was a
formi-
dable
pianist. Fantastic. And
one of his big party pieces was
Gershwin’s
Rhapsody in Blue
.
Of course, I didn’t want to let
the celebration of Bernstein
pass without that piece, but I
also wanted to present it in a
way that Bernstein would have
said, “Oh, that’s cool.” at
meant having this particular
soloist, Makoto Ozone, who
has a little bit of a di erent
approach—much more of
a jazz and improvisational
approach to it. ere is always
a give and take when you work
with a soloist—a real balance
and a partnership that you
have to strike. In this case,
when we are doing
Rhapsody
in Blue
, I am really deferring
to Ozone. Being a jazz lover, I
had a swingman for years;
I can de nitely go to that side.
I think Bernstein would have
really enjoyed it.
Bernstein’s relationship
to Aaron Copland one of the
foundational and formative
relationships I think of his mu-
sical growth. Copland was not
only a mentor and a teacher,
but also a dear friend to Ber-
nstein. Programming
Appa-
lachian Spring
—it has a very
personal story attached to it.
At Bernstein’s apartment at the
Dakota, in the powder room
on the main oor, there was a
tiny fragment of the opening
of
Appalachian Spring
that
was framed, and so every time
I went there, I looked at that
little excerpt from
Appalachian
Spring
. I came to think about it
o en and say to myself, “Oh, I
want to go look at that again.”
at’s how much a part of his
life Aaron Copland was. is
music was right there in his
house.
I think every conductor
does
e Rite of Spring
—this is
a benchmark piece for us. But
watching Bernstein rehearse
and conduct this piece, espe-
cially with a group of young
musicians, was probably the
most inspirational experience
of my musical life. He was
able to talk about it in terms
of it being a piece about
them
,
about adolescence, about
coming of age, about rebellion,
about forbidden things. I think
it’s a piece that lends itself to
excess, and when I think of
Bernstein, I never think of
moderation. I think
e Rite
of Spring
has to be almost the
torch song for Bernstein.
Bernstein championed
many of the composers of the
th century—many compos-
ers that we wouldn’t think he
would champion—but espe-
cially the music of Stravinsky.
He brought so much insight
and understanding to these
works. And you have to re-
member that when Bernstein
learned
e Rite of Spring
, he
learned it from Koussevitzky,
who had gone through and
re-barred the piece because he
thought it was too complex.
So we’re talking about a huge
seismic change from when
Bernstein rst learned
e Rite
of Spring
to later in his career
when he was working on it. It
became just part of the reper-
toire, something that all of the
kids could play.
’
, it’s a journey. It’s not
just like,
we are going to re-
hearse this piece and then per-
form it
. Just the casting alone
of the piece is so complex. We
have to nd soloists to be
part of the Street Chorus. en
we need a wonderful choir as
well. And we need a children’s
choir. And then we need a
marching band. And then we
need—it just never ends. You
feel like you’re going to be
looking for the elephants and
camels soon. at’s the kind of
piece it is. e forces required,
they can be probably as small
as
people but as large as
people, depending on
the venue and the resources.
I think our performance at
Ravinia will be a real semi-
nal experience because the
space is so majestic, having
this outdoor component and
bringing nature into it. It will
just wear the scale of the piece
well. Whereas when you try
to squish it into a tiny concert
hall, it’s really a challenge. It’s
great to team up with Kevin
Newbury again as director
and Leslie Stifelman as music
supervisor—we have so many
great people working togeth-
er, and it is not just a few, it
is a
team
working on it. And
they’ll begin work at least a
week or two weeks before I
arrive on the scene. It’s pretty
labor intensive, but I think the
audience will just go crazy for
the piece.
People always think, Well
what is it? Is it a Mass? Is it
a religious piece? Bernstein
used the Mass as a framework
because this piece was com-
missioned by Jackie Kennedy
Onassis when the Kennedy
Center was opened in Wash-
ington, DC, in memory of her
husband, John F. Kennedy. So
Bernstein, in thinking about
JFK and what was one thing
that distinguished him—it was
the fact that he was our only
Roman Catholic President,
so the Mass was important to
him. So Bernstein takes the
Mass and uses it as a vehicle
to tell this story—it’s told
through the Celebrant, the
priest—it’s his journey. He
starts o almost with blinders
on. He believes what he be-
lieves, and that’s it. ere is no
other way. en he’s confront-
ed with all of these di ering
viewpoints. It’s right near the
end of the Vietnam War—a
lot of protests, a lot of anger,
a lot of emotions that we feel
today, a lot of divisiveness.
And so the Celebrant starts to
question and starts to waver,
and nally all of his followers,
who started o just blindly
following him, they’re saying,
“But why should we believe
this? You have to answer these
RAVINIA MAGAZINE | JULY 23 – AUGUST 5, 2018
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