BIDDING WARS
Cherished possessions of legendary
composer-conductor Leonard Bernstein
— musical instruments, books, Judaica,
awards, memorabilia and clothes — are
being auctioned Dec. 10-11 by
Sotheby's in New York.
The items are from both his New
York apartment in the Dakota building
and Connecticut composing studio.
Among the specific pieces and their
estimated prices are his Bosendorfer
piano ($80,000), an autographed musi-
cal fragment from Aaron Copland
($2,000) and a suit he wore while con-
ducting ($700).
Leonard Ber nstein's Bosendorfer piano.
His working library of approxi-
mately 1,000 volumes ($7,000)
includes a Talmud published in
Vilnius in 1927 as well as inscribed
works by Abba Eban, Chaim Herzog
and Elie Wiesel.
"The best part about the Dakota
apartment was the fun of sharing it
with others, and sharing was what our
father loved to do best," said Jamie
Bernstein Thomas, a writer and musi-
cian who co- announces the New York
Philharmonic's monthly national radio
broadcast.
"It feels right that we share apart-
ment No. 23's contents one last time."
A portion of the proceeds from the
sale, which is estimated at $500,000,
will benefit the Bernstein Education
Through the Arts (BETA) Fund Inc.,
developed to encourage creative
approaches to teaching that will foster
a lifelong appetite for learning.
Also working on the sale are
Bernstein's other children: Alexander
Bernstein, BETA Fund president and
former teacher at the Packer-
Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn, and
Nina Bernstein, president of Springate
Corporation (a not-for-profit organi-
zation which oversees the Leonard
Bernstein archives) and executive pro-
ducer of leonardbernstein.com , a Web
site devoted to her father's legacy.
The sale also will offernumerous
recordings from his collection, includ-
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128
)97
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News 6- Reviews.
ing classical, Broadway and popular
music.
For information on the sale, call
(212) 606-7176.
Syndrome and
motivating peo-
ple with disabili-
ties.
— Suzanne Chessler
TV WATCH
A new family-entertainment special
premieres Sunday, Nov. 30, on TNT,
based on the award-winning children's
book How Smudge Came by Nan
Gregory. The drama tells the story of
Cindy, a young woman with Down
Syndrome who befriends a lost puppy
she calls Smudge.
Cindy, played by Andrea Friedman
("Life Goes On"), wants to keep her
new friend, but the caretakers at the
group home where she lives do not
allow pets and question her ability to
care for the puppy while working full
time at a hospice.
Smudge eventually ends up at the
Society for Prevention of Cruelty to
— Linda Bachrack
OF NOTE ... NEW ON CD
Barbra Streisand works best in con-
ceptual settings. Give her an album of
disconnected, individual songs, and she
flounders a bit, with too many hands
trying to create saleable product around
the supple vocal delivery that is her
trademark.
But as her massive-selling Broadway
albums showed, when there's a theme
for her to lock onto, Streisand generally
connects and quite often soars.
Higher Ground (Columbia),
Streisand writes in her liner notes, was
inspired by the 1994 funeral of
E President Clinton's mother, Virginia
Clinton Kelley, and particularly by the
performance of the song "On Holy
Ground."
It apparently got Streisand thinking
about prayers as healing, and about
m usic as prayer. The resulting Higher
round collects songs, both new and
t raditional, that convey some sort of
h ope or faith. They range from the
Amanda Friedman stars in "Smudge."
H ebrew High Holiday
rayer "Avinu
Animals (S.P.C.A.), devastating Cindy
Malkeinu" ("Our
and creating a surprising void in the
Father Our King")
lives of the hospice patients who have
to the gospel fla-
also grown to love the dog. But a gift
vor of "On Holy
arrives that reminds them all of the
Ground," from
healing power of friendship and kind-
the Celtic folk
ness.
song "The Water Is
Most recently seen in an episode of
Wide" to "You'll
"Chicago Hope," Friedman began act-
Never Walk Alone" from the
ing in 1984 with the Stagecoach
musical Carousel and "Tell
Theatre Group in Los Angeles. She
Him," an understated duet
landed her best-known role as Amanda
with younger diva Celine Dion
on the critically acclaimed series "Life
that also appears on Dion's new
Goes On" after suggesting to producers
album.
of the show that Chris Burke's charac-
There are messages about over-
ter needed a girlfriend who was similar-
coming doubt ("Lessons to be
ly developmentally disabled.
Learned"), about letting children grow
In addition to acting, Friedman
("If I Could"), about the need for unity
travels the country speaking to civic
("At the Same Time") and the redeem-
and social organizations about Down
ing properties of love ("Leading With
0
O
Your Heart").
All of these are bathed in a sweeping
lushness provided by a 70-piece orches-
tra conducted by Marvin Hamlisch.
Streisand's voice is a wonder, of course
— wonderfully expressive and even
soulful.
But the character of the individual
songs gets lost amidst the swelling
strings and vocal crescendos, making
Higher Ground sound like one long
tone poem rather than the thematic
collection it was intended to be.
Only the title track, with its promi-
nent acoustic guitar and soft spiritual
ambience, and the quietly melodic
"Lessons to Be Learned" display the
kind of restraint that lets them stand
out a bit. A bit more of that, and per-
haps just one up-tempo selection,
would raise Higher Ground closer to its
lofty ambitions.
—
Gary Graff
Editor's Note: Read on only if you are a
certified Streisand fan. Limited edition
medals are being issued to commemo-
rate the induction of the pop diva into
the Jewish-American Hall of Fame. Yes,
she joins previous honorees like Albert
Einstein, Golda Meir, Jonas Salk,
Benny Goodman and
Streisand
Leonard
Bernstein
medals..
(pick up his medal
cheap at the Sotheby
auction!). Gold medals
are $995; silver medals
are $89.50; and bronze
medals are $29.50 (50
percent of the cost is
tax-deductible; include
$5 per order for ship-
ping and insurance).
Orders should be sent to the nonprofit
Magnes Museum, Dept. M, 2911
Russell St., Berkeley, CA 94075; or call
Mel Wacks, director of the Jewish-
American Hall of Fame, at (818) 225-
9666.