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Lenny and Mahler II

I hate to contradict Avik Gilboa, whose Gustav Mahler Society USA has done so much to further understanding of this great composer. But he is incorrect in his statement that Leonard Bernstein’s December, 1989, performance of Beethoven’s Ninth included the Berlin Philharmonic (Letters, Jan. 17).

The orchestra on that occasion was indeed a festival ensemble, with players drawn from both halves of then-divided Germany as well as from the four Allied nations. For the record, the orchestra comprised members of the Orchestra of the Kirov Theatre, the London Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, the Dresden Staatskapelle and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

It is this Bavarian ensemble, not the Berlin Philharmonic, with which Bernstein enjoyed a successful partnership, particularly in the late ‘70s.

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MATTHEW B. TEPPER

Los Angeles

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