For New York For New York For New York (Variations on Themes of Leonard Bernstein) (originally titled To Lenny! To Lenny!) is a one-movement orchestral composition by the American composer John Williams. Written as a tribute to fellow composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, the piece premiered on the last day of Bernstein's 70th birthday gala at Tanglewood on August 28, 1988. The premiere was performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Williams, who was then conductor of its sister orchestra, the Boston Pops. Music critic John Rockwell of "The New York Times" described the work as "feathery and flashy." "For New York" utilizes
Symphony for Organ and Orchestra (Copland) she arranged for him to write a major symphonic work for organ and orchestra to be premiered by herself on organ and the New York Symphony Orchestra under Walter Damrosch followed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) under Serge Koussevitzky. He had come to be known around Paris as "that talented young American composer," and at a meeting at Koussevitzky's house with Sergei Prokofiev and Boulanger, the conductor remarked ""You" vill [sic] write an organ concerto, Mademoiselle Boulanger vill [sic] "play" it and "I" vill [sic] conduct it!" Despite his apprehensiveness about his preparedness to write such a large work