Maestro

It's always better on the piano, I don't know why.

So to...

answer your question, yes, I carry her around with me quite a bit.

I've often seen her in the garden working.

Julia Vega swears that she's at the top of the stairs every morning

when she comes down to do the laundry,

making sure she's separating the whites and the darks.

And our children are very jealous because they've never seen her.

I... I...

I miss her terribly.

Hello?

Yes.

Of course.

Yes, I'm aware.

Oh.

Can you hold on one second, please?

That's terrible news. Is he gonna be okay?

No, I understand.

And no chance for a rehearsal?

Yes.

All right.

May I get three tickets for today?

Yes.

All right.

All right, yes, thank you.

You got 'em, boy!

- Leonard, bellissimo. - Oh, yes.

Did you get any sleep?

No, I didn't get any sleep, Bruno. "Manfred" starts on the downbeat rest,

and you didn't get me any rehearsal with the orchestra.

I told you you were going on.

No, you told me it was a possibility.

Good afternoon.

United States Rubber Company again invites you to Carnegie Hall,

to hear a concert of the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra

of which Artur Rodziński is musical director.

Bruno Walter, who was to have conducted this afternoon, is ill,

and his place will be taken by the young American-born assistant conductor

of the Philharmonic Symphony, Leonard Bernstein.

Today, you were here for an historic performance.

This performance that was fantastic was broadcast all over the world.

And I feel obliged to say that Maestro Bernstein

was called this morning at 9:30

and he was told that he would actually conduct here

- for the first time after many years... - Without rehearsal.

Without rehearsal.

But he loves the music, he doesn't need rehearsal,

he feels it so much.

And after many years, he really wanted this,

it has happened and I'm so proud.

Carnegie Hall is so proud of you and New York is proud of you.

Leonard Bernstein.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I'll tell you fellas, I don't remember a thing after that downbeat rest.

I must've blacked out and then when the audience applauded I came to.

Don't let this get in the way. We're on a roll here, baby.

I wanna choreograph the segment with the dancers while in Cincinnati.

Jerry, I'm in love with the music. I told you.

As soon as I have something, I'll record and send it to you.

This the new ballet he's composing?

About three sailors on leave in New York getting up to no good?

- That's the one. - Don't argue with him.

He's a young man to be reckoned with. You can read it here.

- David, please. - "Bernstein shows mastery of score."

"Youthful conductor carries out an exacting program..."

Sure, right next to Hitler's bombing of Poland.

Come on in, it's open.

- Sorry, gentlemen... - No, no, he likes leaving the door open.

Hey, Isaac, you know David and that's Jerry Robbins.

- Hi. - Hello. We've got to get downstairs.

- You're an hour late... - I'm just working on the score...

- Rodziński's coming early... - Rodziński's here?

- Okay, I'll be down in a second. - Isaac.

Don't forget your show pony here is a composer.

I'm learning not to do it so hard, right?

- It's perfect. - I always get so...

overzealous.

- I get too excited. - Right.

Both your feet in my lap. I don't know what to do with it.

I don't know what to do with myself. It's just too much.

- I think... - It's too much for one man.

- Because it was on the liver spot? - No.

It's too much for one man to take. Honestly, David.

I mean, I'll never leave the apartment.

- That's the reality. - Please don't.

Dear Jerry,

this is an impromptu apology for the record

which isn't so very bad, but it's not so very good either.

I'm looking through the score now, exhausted,

and everything's okay up to number three

when all the counterpoint comes in with the two pianos.

I'm afraid it's sort of messy there.

Anyway, it's hard to do on two pianos,

so with an orchestra, I think it'll be very clear.

And pardon all the mistakes.

But it was all Aaron Copland's fault.

- It was all my fault. - And there he sits now.

- That's not true. - Anyway...

I'll leave it to you to figure out, Mr. Robbins,

how to dance to this type of music, but,

give my love to everybody and the thing, and, uh...

I hope you like it. Good luck, Jerry.

All right, got to get to rehearsal.

- I got it. - You do?

- Yeah. - You're such a chap.

It's downstairs and you're still going to be late.

Put in a word for me with Rodziński.

I will. I'm not his favorite, but I will.

- Love you, baby. - Love you.

Brilliant, but... but what no one here knows

is how he beat the soprano out of his poor baby sister

performing all those operas when we were children.

Let that be fair warning to you and to everyone.

Hello.

Thought you might be here. You've certainly been making the rounds.

Have you met the gang?

- No. - Betty and Adolf, they're a riot.

- Hello. - Hello.

Ellen. Of course, you've run into her at another studio, no doubt.

Hello, Felicia.

Who did I miss? Have I missed anyone?

Just the piano player.

Well, I figured you needed no introduction.

- Hello. I'm Lenny. - Hello. Felicia.

Bernstein, like that one.

Montealegre.

Montealegre?

- Montealegre Cohn. - Cohn?

Montealegre Cohn.

Well, that's an interesting marriage of words.

You come from an aristocratic European family on your mother's side,

and your father is American and he's Jewish

and you moved to Chile because...

- It's amazing, I remember all this. - I know.

I don't know how.

You moved to Chile because of your father's business.

And now you're firmly planted in New York City studying...

piano, but you're actually studying acting.

A career which demands the versatility to play a panoply of characters.

And that is my conclusion,

that you, my dear, are very similar to me.

- How? - Because you had to take

all the pieces, all the bits of you scattered across these varied landscapes

and form, create the veritable person that stands before me now.

How is that similar?

- You just asked me and I told you. - I know. Okay.

Russian Orthodox Jew.

- Growing up in Boston. - Oh, someone else was listening.

- Child of immigrants. - Yes.

Your father's a self-made businessman.

Steeped in Talmud. Harvard.

- Then Curtis School for Music... - Institute.

Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

Now firmly planted here in New York City pursuing composition and conducting.

Under the guise of a concert pianist drawn to this artistic Mecca,

fleeing my puritanical origins just like you.

Surely your family was a tad more supportive.

My father imagined me a klezmer, playing for kopecks on the street corner,

desperate for me to join the family business to make a living.

What was the family business?

Samuel J. Bernstein Hair Company.

- Really? - Yes.

So I had no choice but to become a composite of

adopted speech, manner and outlook on life,

a composite, which enables me to be many things at once.

And that's why, we, you and I, are able to endure and survive

'cause the world wants us to be only one thing and I find that deplorable.

I find you very attractive, Felicia.

It's really too much. I'm very sorry.

Wait! Wait!

Go! Go! Go!

Oh, I like that.

You've a lot of energy, have to tell you.

I'm just following you. I don't know where.

I've never been in this part of town.

I can't imagine you being in a place like this.

- Now, you go in here. - Okay.

- Just on the stage... Take your shoes off. - Oh.

Okay. Where do I put them?

Over on the other side.

- Where are you going? - I'm just getting the script.

- The script? - Yes.

- Would I have to act too? - What?

- Do I have to do something? - Well... maybe.

Now I'm nervous.

You should be nervous.

Well, this is just lovely.

This is just lovely.

I'm going to read a scene with Maestro Bernstein.

I better make a show of myself.

Maestro Bernstein? That sounds very fancy.

- Here. - Okay. We're gonna read it.

- We're actually gonna do it. - Yes.

- I'm the king? - You're the king, and this is your castle.