I'm still angry at Leonard Bernstein...for having cut his life short mostly through smoking cigarettes incessantly. Through his charisma he opened the minds and hearts of countless young people to the breadth and depth of music. Mozart used the sonata form. So did the Beatles. I am listening at this moment to one of his Young People's Concerts as I did fifty years ago...and still enjoying it. Retired now, I have the time to revisit some of my most cherished memories, those of being led into "the house of music" by Leonard Bernstein. Do I want to be confronted by another interpretation? Maybe.

What Mr. Aucoin fails to mention here is the struggle, depicted onstage by Mr. Felder, of Bernstein's identity as a first generation American and how his immigrant parents, particularly his father, instilled in him a competitive spirit that was also rooted in piety. These elements -- along with his own personal demons -- made Bernstein the complicated man he was, and succeeded in making the play that much more compelling.

Ah, those youth concerts were my introduction to real music which 'til then had consisted of the William Tell Overture, and a few other pieces used as themes in radio programming. A young Leonard did not talk down to his audience; he captivated them. I sat with other members of my high school music club drinking in his lessons. That was 1946, but not easily forgotten.