Leonard Bernstein '39 came back to Harvard last Tuesday. In the scant ten years since his graduation, Bernstein has had many handfuls of musical confetti flung upon him: two symphonies, two ballets, a Broadway musical, and the official blessing of Dr. Serge Koussevitzky. Now he is rising in the field of conducting, and Tuesday's concert added to his already brilliant record in a not unenviable post as guest conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

No doubt about it, Bernstein is an actor. A young lady once remarked she thought he'd make a divine dancing partner. But for all his shenanigans on the podium, Bernstein is an excellent conductor, and it's not unreasonable to suppose that had he had 20 years' more age and experience, he might have succeeded Dr. Koussevitzky as permanent conductor.

Perhaps he is best known for his fiery interpretations of Stravinsky, but he showed remarkable self-restraint in the two Mozart pieces. Both were played with almost painful simplicity, endearing Bernstein in the hearts of the many to whom Koussevitzky's racy Mozart was heresy. In the B-flat Concerto, which he conducted from the piano, Bernstein achieved another tour de force for which he is famous, pacing the Orchestra with everything except his hands. Scowling, grimacing, heaving his shoulders like an asthmatic, he managed to wind himself up into every sort of contortion, but the effect was still only accuracy and taste.

In the Brahms, Bernstein really let himself go. Teetering on the edge of his platform, he milked every drop of romanticism from the music, but without the syrup which enthusiastic conductors too frequently incur. Lenny danced and Brahms was terrific.