Conductor Bernstein

Of all the glories, the thrills and excitement Leonard Bernstein gave us, perhaps the most moving was in the last year of his life. Conducting Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with an international orchestra in Berlin as the wall crumbled and hands joined, there was Bernstein, bellowing along with the chorus singing Schiller’s “Ode to Joy”--” alle menschen seine brudern .” What a gift of hope for the human condition!

JERRY PACHT

Los Angeles