Leonard returned home from the postconcert party for Tourel at four in the morning on Sunday, November 14, 1943. It was the date of Copland’s birthday (and the date the two had first met at Anna Sokolow’s concert). Leonard was suddenly awakened, at 9 a.m., hung over, by a telephone call from the gruff-voiced Bruno Zirato, manager of the New York Philharmonic, saying, “Well, this is it; you are on for this afternoon.” Guest conductor Bruno Walter had come down with influenza, and Rodzinski was out of town and unable to return to New York.
