It was Leonard Bernstein's centennary on the 25th, which given various other events happening in the US and elsewhere fell a bit to the side. Though I loved the Google Doodle of the day:



Here is a great lj post about Bernstein, and this article writes about and links five non-West-Side-Story examples of his greatness as a composer. I remember the big public celebration when he turned 70, and Stephen Sondheim filked a Kurt Weill song in his honor to The Saga of Lenny, presented with panache by Lauren Bacall and as amusing a summary as any of the life and times:



Now yours truly does love West Side Story and wrote the post to prove it many years ago. But here's one of my favourite Leonard Bernstein trivia factoids, which I came across when I visited the Jewish Museum in Vienna and saw the (temporary) exhibition devoted to composer Hanns Eisler there. Complete with Chaplin's quote about the Eisler family being something out of Shakespeare, which considering what it referred to - Eisler's sister Ruth denouncing her two brothers, Gerhart and Hanns, to the HUAC not just as communists but "atom spies" - was fair enough. They also have the poster of the "justice for Hanns Eissler" protest concert conducted by a young Leonard Bernstein. In 1947, when McCarthyism was just gathering steam - the Eisler brothers were the first two cases in front of the HUAC - and a young up and coming musician did have a lot to lose by allying himself to a middle-agend German communist. And Bernstein didn't just conduct one concert but headed, with Aaron Copeland, the "Justice for Hanns Eisler" commitee. These are the times that test men's souls, indeed.