A 1979 Tanglewood Summer Romance Still Going Strong - All The Way To Việt Nam
“He’s the greatest player I’ve ever conducted....do everything he tells you to do!” That was the first time I heard Leonard Bernstein’s voice in person. I was introduced to him by his favorite, Roland Berger of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, on the stage of the Musikverein at a rehearsal break during a year of study in Vienna. I never dreamed that by the following summer at Tanglewood in 1979 I’d be playing principal horn for him with the BMC in Prokofiev’s 5th Symphony, doing my best to put every ounce of what I’d learn in Vienna from Berger to work with Bernstein at Tanglewood. I was truly nervous before the concert. But once we started on stage - Bernstein made it the easiest concert I’ve ever played. Everything was possible with him, the best teacher of all helped me find my own musical voice that night. And that performance also sealed the love of my life. My wife violist Jan Karlin and I met that summer as BMC Fellows, a summer romance still going strong, often propelled by the memory of that performance. I had to suppress a proposal right then and there, but wisely held back the timing in my heart to allow enough time for us both to absorb the road ahead. But by the following summer in 1980, sure enough a few hours before I would propose to Jan, Bernstein saw me on the Tanglewood lawn and gave me a slap on my back, saying of all things “Good luck!” Today in 2018 and in our early 60s, Jan and I are now the first Americans appointed as artistic advisors by the Vietnamese government to guide the development of the Hà Nội New Music Ensemble. Everyday we are in Việt Nam, the engaged life of Leonard Bernstein inspires us to do our best to realize his well known statement as a response to violence. And there is another influence worth mentioning. Roland Berger told me that the second time Bernstein returned to Vienna, his German was flawless. They had never experienced such a dramatic language change from any other conductor. So Jan and I are following another lifetime influence from Leonard Bernstein. We now speak intermediate Vietnamese (talk about a challenge.....), building trust in countless ways, and of course our studies continue. And sometimes in Việt Nam, of all places for us as American musicians who met at Tanglewood, I can still feel him slapping my back after a performance in Hà Nội.
Jeff von der Schmidt, Pasadena, CA, United States