A Trip to Remember

It was a day that Leonard Bernstein was not likely to forget--nor would his audience. In Moscow last week, for the fourth of 18 Russian concerts scheduled for the world-touring New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Lenny celebrated his 41st birthday by shattering Soviet musical tradition, and except for a little official sniping, came away unscathed, a hero.

Musical Revolution. Never before had a conductor in Russia lectured his audience from the podium. But Bernstein, being Bernstein, wanted everyone to know the fine points of Charles Ives's 1908 The Unanswered Question, and with help from a translator gave a brief talk before leading his musicians through the intricate, dissonant piece. The effect was electric. So great was the applause that Bernstein played it again. He gave a second chat before playing Stravinsky's Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments, and still a third for the composer's Le Sacre du Printemps, explaining that it touched off a "musical revolution five years before your own revolution--music has never been the same since." Each time the audience cheered its approval, and later, at a birthday party given by Russian officials, Lenny was showered with congratulations for his triumph.

The Ministry of Culture's Sovetskaya Kultura grumbled that Bernstein was "violating all traditions" and "looked somehow conceited." Yet it was only a squeak, lost among the cheers. In five concerts last week, Bernstein took Moscow by storm. Composer Aram Khachaturian rushed to pump Bernstein's hand after performances, bubbled over with rave reviews in the government's official organ, Izvestia, and added special praise for Bernstein's Symphony No. 2 ("Age of Anxiety"). Said another top Russian composer, Dmitry Kabalevsky, after hearing Bernstein's rendition of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony: "Never have I heard a better interpretation!"

The Long Road. The acclaim in Moscow was no greater than that in the five other countries that the Philharmonic has visited so far on the longest tour in its history. The tour is also likely to go down as the most successful of all time. Opening its 17-nation tour in Athens in early August, Bernstein and the Philharmonic so moved the audience with Mozart's G-Major Piano Concerto that it had to play three encores, and a halt had to be called after Lenny explained: "We are very tired from a long plane flight." As he shuffled offstage, a Greek woman shouted: "A new god has come to Athens." Two days later, in Lebanon, the music chairman of the Baalbek Festival said: "I want to cry. Everything now will be anticlimactic."

The cops had to be called out in Turkey (TIME, Aug. 24), and the Salzburg concert was S.R.O. In Warsaw, where the orchestra was showered with flowers, Associate Manager Carlos Moseley reported: "The whole hall stood and cried 'bis' in some funny way that sounded like hundreds of birds cooing." Bernstein managed to steal a few hours to visit Chopin's home and drop in at a jazz club for a jam session. The party broke up at 3 a.m., and Lenny was accompanied to his hotel in a long, gay, noisy procession that dispersed only after scores of students of both sexes kissed him farewell.

At week's end, the Philharmonic flew off to Leningrad for six concerts, will go to Kiev for four, return to Moscow for three more. Then come Germany, France, Yugoslavia, Italy, Scandinavia, and finally on Oct. 10, London. If the reception is anything like those to date, New York will have trouble keeping the Philharmonic and its maestro at home from now on.

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