Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first American conductor to receive international acclaim. According to music critic
Donal Henahan
Donal Henahan (February 28, 1921 – August 19, 2012) was an American music critic and journalist who had lengthy associations with the ''Chicago Daily News'' and ''The New York Times''. With the ''Times'' he won the annual Pulitzer Prize for ...
, he was "one of the most prodigiously talented and successful musicians in American history".
Bernstein was the recipient of many honors, including seven
Emmy Awards
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
, two
Tony Awards
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual c ...
, sixteen
Grammy Awards
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...
including the Lifetime Achievement Award, and the
Kennedy Center Honor.
As a composer he wrote in many genres, including symphonic and orchestral music, ballet, film and theatre music, choral works, opera, chamber music and works for the piano. His best-known work is the
Broadway musical ''
West Side Story'', which continues to be regularly performed worldwide, and has been adapted into two (
1961
Events January
* January 3
** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba (Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015).
** Aero Flight 311 (K ...
and
2021) feature films.
His works include three symphonies, ''
Chichester Psalms
''Chichester Psalms'' is an extended choral composition in three movements by Leonard Bernstein for boy treble or countertenor, choir and orchestra. The text was arranged by the composer from the Book of Psalms in the original Hebrew. Part 1 use ...
'', ''
Serenade after Plato's "Symposium"
The ''Serenade, after Plato's Symposium'', is a composition by Leonard Bernstein for solo violin, strings and percussion. He completed the serenade in five movements on August 7, 1954. For the serenade, the composer drew inspiration from Plato' ...
'', the original score for the film ''
On the Waterfront'', and theater works including ''
On the Town'', ''
Wonderful Town'', ''
Candide'', and his ''
MASS
Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different ele ...
''.
Bernstein was the first American-born conductor to lead a major American symphony orchestra. He was music director of the
New York Philharmonic and conducted the world's major orchestras, generating a significant legacy of audio and video recordings. He was also a critical figure in the modern revival of the music of
Gustav Mahler, in whose music he was most passionately interested. A skilled pianist, he often conducted piano concertos from the keyboard. He was the first conductor to share and explore music on television with a mass audience. Through dozens of national and international broadcasts, including the Emmy Award-winning ''
Young People's Concerts'' with the New York Philharmonic, he made even the most rigorous elements of classical music an adventure in which everyone could join. Through his educational efforts, including several books and the creation of two major international music festivals, he influenced several generations of young musicians.
A lifelong humanitarian, Bernstein worked in support of
civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life ...
; protested against the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
; advocated nuclear disarmament; raised money for HIV/AIDS research and awareness; and engaged in multiple international initiatives for human rights and world peace. Near the end of his life, he conducted an historic performance of Beethoven's
Symphony No. 9 in Berlin to celebrate the
fall of the Berlin Wall. The concert was televised live, worldwide, on Christmas Day, 1989.
Early life and education
1918–1934: Early life and family
Born Louis Bernstein in
Lawrence, Massachusetts
Lawrence is a city located in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, on the Merrimack River. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 89,143. Surrounding communities include Methuen to the north, Andover to the southwest, and Nort ...
, he was the son of
Ukrainian-Jewish parents, Jennie (née Resnick) and Samuel Joseph Bernstein, both of whom immigrated to the United States from
Rivne
Rivne (; uk, Рівне ),) also known as Rovno (Russian: Ровно; Polish: Równe; Yiddish: ראָוונע), is a city in western Ukraine. The city is the administrative center of Rivne Oblast ( province), as well as the surrounding Rivne ...
(now in Ukraine).
[; als]
here
at ginnydougary.co.uk. His grandmother insisted that his first name be
Louis, but his parents always called him
Leonard. He legally changed his name to Leonard when he was eighteen, shortly after his grandmother's death. To his friends and many others he was simply known as "Lenny".
His father was the owner of The Samuel Bernstein Hair and Beauty Supply Company. It held the New England franchise for the Frederick's Permanent Wave Machine, whose immense popularity helped Sam get his family through
The Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
.
In Leonard's early youth, his only exposure to music was the household radio and music on Friday nights at Congregation Mishkan Tefila in
Roxbury Roxbury may refer to:
Places
;Canada
* Roxbury, Nova Scotia
* Roxbury, Prince Edward Island
;United States
* Roxbury, Connecticut
* Roxbury, Kansas
* Roxbury, Maine
* Roxbury, Boston, a municipality that was later integrated into the city of Bo ...
, Massachusetts. When Leonard was ten years old, Samuel's sister Clara deposited her upright piano at her brother's house. Bernstein began teaching himself piano and music theory and was soon clamoring for lessons. He had a variety of piano teachers in his youth, including Helen Coates, who later became his secretary. In the summers, the Bernstein family would go to their vacation home in
Sharon, Massachusetts, where young Leonard conscripted all the neighborhood children to put on shows ranging from Bizet's ''
Carmen
''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the ...
'' to Gilbert and Sullivan's ''
The Pirates of Penzance''. He would often play entire operas or
Beethoven symphonies
The compositions of Ludwig van Beethoven consist of 722 works written over forty-five years, from his earliest work in 1782 (variations for piano on a march by Ernst Christoph Dressler) when he was only eleven years old and still in Bonn, until hi ...
with his younger sister Shirley. Leonard's youngest sibling, Burton, was born in 1932, thirteen years after Leonard. Despite the large span in age, the three siblings remained close their entire lives.
Sam was initially opposed to young Leonard's interest in music and attempted to discourage his son's interest by refusing to pay for his piano lessons. Leonard then took to giving lessons to young people in his neighborhood. One of his students,
Sid Ramin, became Bernstein's most frequent orchestrator and lifelong beloved friend.
Sam took his son to orchestral concerts in his teenage years and eventually supported his music education. In May 1932, Leonard attended his first orchestral concert with the
Boston Pops Orchestra conducted by
Arthur Fiedler. Bernstein recalled, "To me, in those days, the Pops was heaven itself ... I thought ... it was the supreme achievement of the human race." It was at this concert that Bernstein first heard Ravel's ''
Boléro
''Boléro'' is a 1928 work for large orchestra by French composer Maurice Ravel. At least one observer has called it Ravel's most famous composition. It was also one of his last completed works before illness forced him into retirement.
Co ...
'', which made a tremendous impression on him.
Another strong musical influence was
George Gershwin
George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ' ...
. Bernstein was a counselor at a summer camp when news came over the radio of Gershwin's death. In the mess hall, a shaken Bernstein demanded a moment of silence, and then played Gershwin's second
''Prelude'' as a memorial.
On March 30, 1932, Bernstein played Brahms's
''Rhapsody in G minor'' at his first public piano performance in Susan Williams's studio recital at the
New England Conservatory. Two years later, he made his solo debut with orchestra in Grieg's
Piano Concerto in A minor
The Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16, composed by Edvard Grieg in 1868, was the only concerto Grieg completed. It is one of his most popular works and is among the most popular of the genre.
Structure
The concerto is in three movements:
...
with the Boston Public School Orchestra.
1935–1940: College years
Bernstein's first two education environments were both public schools: the
William Lloyd Garrison School
The William Lloyd Garrison School is a historic school building at 20 Hutchings Street in Boston, Massachusetts. Built in stages between 1910 and 1929 and named for abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, it is a high-quality example of period sch ...
, followed by the prestigious
Boston Latin School
The Boston Latin School is a public exam school in Boston, Massachusetts. It was established on April 23, 1635, making it both the oldest public school in the British America and the oldest existing school in the United States. Its curriculum f ...
, for which Bernstein and classmate Lawrence F. Ebb wrote the Class Song.
Harvard University
In 1935, Bernstein enrolled at
Harvard College
Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher ...
, where he studied music with, among others,
Edward Burlingame Hill
Edward Burlingame Hill (September 9, 1872 in Cambridge, Massachusetts – July 9, 1960 in Francestown, New Hampshire) was an American composer.
Career
After graduating from Harvard University in 1894, Hill studied music in Boston with John Kno ...
and
Walter Piston. His first extant composition,
Psalm 148
Psalm 148 is the 148th psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "Praise ye the Lord from the heavens". In Latin, it is known as "Laudate Dominum de caelis". The psalm is one of the Laudate psalms. Old Testame ...
set for voice and piano, is dated in 1935. He majored in music with a final year thesis titled "The Absorption of Race Elements into American Music" (1939; reproduced in his book ''Findings''). One of Bernstein's intellectual influences at Harvard was the
aesthetics
Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed t ...
Professor
David Prall, whose multidisciplinary outlook on the arts inspired Bernstein for the rest of his life.
One of his friends at Harvard was future philosopher
Donald Davidson, with whom Bernstein played piano duets. Bernstein wrote and conducted the musical score for the production Davidson mounted of
Aristophanes
Aristophanes (; grc, Ἀριστοφάνης, ; c. 446 – c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme Kydathenaion ( la, Cydathenaeum), was a comic playwright or comedy-writer of ancient Athens and a poet of Old Attic Comedy. Eleven of his ...
' play ''
The Birds'', performed in the original Greek. Bernstein recycled some of this music in future works.
While a student, he was briefly an accompanist for the
Harvard Glee Club as well as an unpaid pianist for Harvard Film Society's silent film presentations.
Bernstein mounted a student production of ''
The Cradle Will Rock
''The Cradle Will Rock'' is a 1937 play in music by Marc Blitzstein. Originally a part of the Federal Theatre Project, it was directed by Orson Welles and produced by John Houseman. A Brechtian allegory of corruption and corporate greed, it i ...
'', directing its action from the piano as the composer
Marc Blitzstein had done at the infamous premiere. Blitzstein, who attended the performance, subsequently became a close friend and mentor to Bernstein.
As a sophomore at Harvard, Bernstein met the conductor
Dimitri Mitropoulos. Mitropoulos's charisma and power as a musician were major influences on Bernstein's eventual decision to become a conductor. Mitropoulos invited Bernstein to come to Minneapolis for the 1940–41 season to be his assistant, but the plan fell through due to union issues.
In 1937, Bernstein sat next to
Aaron Copland at a dance recital at
Town Hall in New York City. Copland invited Bernstein to his birthday party afterwards, where Bernstein impressed the guests by playing Copland's challenging
Piano Variations, a work Bernstein loved. Although he was never a formal student of Copland's, Bernstein would regularly seek his advice, often citing him as his "only real composition teacher".
[See for instance Bernstein's 1980 TV Documentary, ''Teachers and Teaching'' available on a Deutsche Grammophon DVD.]
Bernstein graduated from Harvard in 1939 with a
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
''cum laude''.
Curtis Institute of Music
After graduating from Harvard, Bernstein enrolled at the
Curtis Institute of Music in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...
. At Curtis, Bernstein studied conducting with
Fritz Reiner (who anecdotally is said to have given Bernstein the only "A" grade he ever awarded); piano with
Isabelle Vengerova
Isabelle Vengerova ( be, Ізабэла Венгерава; 7 February 1956) was a Russian, later American, pianist and music teacher.
She was born Izabella Afanasyevna Vengerova (Изабелла Афанасьевна Венгерова) in M ...
; orchestration with
Randall Thompson
Randall Thompson (April 21, 1899 – July 9, 1984) was an American composer, particularly noted for his choral works.
Career
Randall attended The Lawrenceville School, where his father was an English teacher. He then attended Harvard University, ...
; counterpoint with
Richard Stöhr; and score reading with Renée Longy Miquelle.
In 1940, Bernstein attended the inaugural year of the
Tanglewood Music Center (then called the Berkshire Music Center) at the
Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer home. Bernstein studied conducting with the BSO's music director,
Serge Koussevitzky, who became a profound lifelong inspiration to Bernstein. He became Koussevitzky's conducting assistant at Tanglewood and later dedicated his
Symphony No. 2: ''The Age of Anxiety'' to his beloved mentor. One of Bernstein's classmates, both at Curtis and at Tanglewood, was
Lukas Foss, who remained a lifelong friend and colleague. Bernstein returned to Tanglewood nearly every summer for the rest of his life to teach and conduct the young music students.
Life and career
1940s
Soon after he left Curtis, Bernstein moved to New York City where he lived in various apartments in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
. Bernstein supported himself by coaching singers, teaching piano,
and playing the piano for dance classes in Carnegie Hall. He found work with Harms-Witmark, transcribing jazz and pop music and publishing his work under the pseudonym "Lenny Amber". (''Bernstein'' means "
amber
Amber is fossilized tree resin that has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects."Amber" (2004). In M ...
" in German.)
Bernstein briefly shared an apartment in
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
with his friend
Adolph Green. Green was then part of a satirical music troupe called The Revuers, featuring
Betty Comden and
Judy Holliday. With Bernstein sometimes providing piano accompaniment, the Revuers often performed at the legendary jazz club the
Village Vanguard.
On April 21, 1942, Bernstein performed the premiere of his first published work,
''Sonata for Clarinet and Piano'', with clarinetist David Glazer at the
Institute of Modern Art in Boston.
New York Philharmonic conducting debut
On November 14, 1943, having recently been appointed assistant conductor to
Artur Rodziński of the New York Philharmonic, Bernstein made his major conducting debut at short notice—and without any rehearsal—after guest conductor
Bruno Walter came down with the flu. The challenging program included works by
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career a ...
,
Miklós Rózsa,
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
, and
Richard Strauss.
The next day, ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' carried the story on its front page and remarked in an editorial, "It's a good American success story. The warm, friendly triumph of it filled
Carnegie Hall and spread far over the air waves."
Many newspapers throughout the country carried the story, which, in combination with the concert's live national
CBS Radio
CBS Radio was a radio broadcasting company and radio network operator owned by CBS Corporation and founded in 1928, with consolidated radio station groups owned by CBS and Westinghouse Broadcasting/Group W since the 1920s, and Infinity Broad ...
Network broadcast, propelled Bernstein to instant fame.
Over the next two years, Bernstein made conducting debuts with ten different orchestras in the United States and Canada, greatly broadening his repertoire and initiating a lifelong frequent practice of conducting concertos from the piano.
Symphony No. 1: ''Jeremiah'', ''Fancy Free'', and ''On the Town''
On January 28, 1944, he conducted the premiere of his
Symphony No. 1: ''Jeremiah'' with the
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
The ''Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra'' (''PSO'') is an American orchestra based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The orchestra's home is Heinz Hall, located in Pittsburgh's Cultural District.
History
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is an Ameri ...
with Jennie Tourel as soloist.
In the fall of 1943, Bernstein and
Jerome Robbins
Jerome Robbins (born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz; October 11, 1918 – July 29, 1998) was an American dancer, choreographer, film director, theatre director and producer who worked in classical ballet, on stage, film, and television.
Among his nu ...
began work on their first collaboration, ''
Fancy Free'', a ballet about three young sailors on leave in wartime New York City. ''Fancy Free'' premiered on April 18, 1944, with the
Ballet Theatre (now the American Ballet Theatre) at the old
Metropolitan Opera House, with scenery by
Oliver Smith and costumes by
Kermit Love
Kermit Ernest Hollingshead Love (August 7, 1916 – June 21, 2008) was an American puppet maker, puppeteer, costume designer, and actor in children's television and on Broadway. He was best known as a designer and builder with the Muppets, ...
.
Bernstein and Robbins decided to expand the ballet into a musical and invited Comden and Green to write the book and lyrics. ''
On the Town'' opened on Broadway's
Adelphi Theatre
The Adelphi Theatre is a West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster, central London. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, and today it is a receivin ...
on December 28, 1944. The show resonated with audiences during World War II, and it broke race barriers on Broadway: Japanese-American dancer
Sono Osato in a leading role; a multiracial cast dancing as mixed race couples; and a Black concertmaster,
Everett Lee
Everett Astor Lee (August 31, 1916 – January 12, 2022) was an American symphonic conductor, opera music director, violinist and music scholar. He was the first African American to conduct a Broadway theatre, Broadway musical, the first to "con ...
, who eventually took over as music director of the show. ''On the Town'' became
an MGM motion picture in 1949, starring
Gene Kelly,
Frank Sinatra, and
Jules Munshin as the three sailors. Only part of Bernstein's score was used in the film and additional songs were provided by
Roger Edens.
Rising conducting career
From 1945 to 1947, Bernstein was the music director of the New York City Symphony, which had been founded the previous year by the conductor
Leopold Stokowski. The orchestra (with support from Mayor Fiorello La Guardia) had modern programs and affordable tickets.
In 1946, he made his overseas debut with the
Czech Philharmonic in Prague. He also recorded Ravel's
Piano Concerto in G as soloist and conductor with the
Philharmonia Orchestra. On July 4, 1946, Bernstein conducted the European premiere of ''Fancy Free'' with the Ballet Theatre at the
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal ...
in London.
In 1946, he conducted opera professionally for the first time at Tanglewood with the American premiere of
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...
's ''
Peter Grimes'', which was commissioned by Koussevitzky. That same year,
Arturo Toscanini invited Bernstein to guest conduct two concerts with the
NBC Symphony Orchestra, one of which featured Bernstein as soloist in
Ravel's Piano Concerto in G.
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
In 1947, Bernstein conducted in
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...
for the first time, beginning a lifelong association with the
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, then known as the Palestine Symphony Orchestra. The next year he conducted an open-air concert for Israeli troops at
Beersheba
Beersheba or Beer Sheva, officially Be'er-Sheva ( he, בְּאֵר שֶׁבַע, ''Bəʾēr Ševaʿ'', ; ar, بئر السبع, Biʾr as-Sabʿ, Well of the Oath or Well of the Seven), is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. ...
in the middle of the desert during the
Arab-Israeli war
The Arab citizens of Israel are the Demographics of Israel#Arabs, largest ethnic minority in the country. They comprise a hybrid community of Israeli citizenship law, Israeli citizens with a heritage of Palestinian Citizenship Order 1925, Pales ...
. In 1957, he conducted the inaugural concert of the
Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv. In 1967, he conducted a concert on
Mount Scopus to commemorate the
Reunification of Jerusalem
The Israeli annexation of East Jerusalem, known to Israelis as the reunification of Jerusalem, refers to the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War, and its annexation.
Jerusalem was envisaged as a separate, internatio ...
, featuring Mahler's Symphony No. 2 and Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with soloist
Isaac Stern. The city of Tel Aviv added his name to the
Habima Square (Orchestra Plaza) in the center of the city.
First television appearance
On December 10, 1949, he made his first television appearance as conductor with the
Boston Symphony Orchestra at
Carnegie Hall. The concert, which included an address by
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...
, celebrated the one-year anniversary of the
United Nations General Assembly
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...
's ratification of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN committee chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt ...
, and included the premiere of
Aaron Copland's "Preamble" with
Sir Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier (; 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director who, along with his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud, was one of a trio of male actors who dominated the British stage o ...
narrating text from the
UN Charter. The concert was televised by
NBC Television Network.
Summer at Tanglewood
In April 1949, Bernstein performed as piano soloist in the world premiere of his
Symphony No. 2: The Age of Anxiety with Koussevitzy conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Later that year, Bernstein conducted the world premiere of the ''
Turangalîla-Symphonie'' by
Olivier Messiaen, with the
Boston Symphony Orchestra. Part of the rehearsal for the concert was recorded and released by the orchestra. When Koussevitzky died in 1951, Bernstein became head of the orchestra and conducting departments at
Tanglewood.
1950s
The 1950s comprised among the most active years of Bernstein's career. He created five new works for the Broadway stage; he composed several symphonic works and an iconic film score; he was appointed music director of the New York Philharmonic with whom he toured the world, including concerts behind the Iron Curtain; he harnessed the power of television to expand his educational reach; and he married and started a family.
Compositions in the 1950s
= Theatrical works
=
''Peter Pan''
In 1950, Bernstein composed incidental music for a Broadway production of J. M. Barrie's play ''
Peter Pan''. The production, which opened on Broadway on April 24, 1950, starred
Jean Arthur as
Peter Pan and
Boris Karloff
William Henry Pratt (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), better known by his stage name Boris Karloff (), was an English actor. His portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the horror film ''Frankenstein'' (1931) (his 82nd film) established ...
in the dual roles of
George Darling
George Darling, Baron Darling of Hillsborough, PC (20 July 1905 – 18 October 1985) was a politician in the United Kingdom. He was Labour Co-operative Member of Parliament for Sheffield Hillsborough from 1950 to 1974.
Early life and education ...
and
Captain Hook. The show ran for 321 performances.
''Trouble in Tahiti''
In 1951, Bernstein composed ''Trouble in Tahiti'', a one-act
opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...
in seven scenes with an English
libretto by the composer. The opera portrays the troubled marriage of a couple whose idyllic suburban post-war environment belies their inner turmoil. Ironically, Bernstein wrote most of the opera while on his honeymoon in Mexico with his wife,
Felicia Montealegre.
Bernstein was a visiting music professor at
Brandeis University
, mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts"
, established =
, type = Private research university
, accreditation = NECHE
, president = Ronald D. Liebowitz
, p ...
from 1951 to 1956. In 1952, he created the
Brandeis Festival of the Creative Arts, where he conducted the premiere of ''
Trouble in Tahiti
''Trouble in Tahiti'' is a one-act opera in seven scenes composed by Leonard Bernstein with an English libretto by the composer. It is the darkest among Bernstein's "musicals", and one of only two for which he wrote the words and the music. (He ...
'' on June 12 of that year.
The
NBC Opera Theatre subsequently presented the opera on television in November 1952. It opened on Broadway at the Playhouse Theatre on April 19, 1955, and ran for six weeks.
Three decades later, Bernstein wrote a second opera, ''
A Quiet Place'', which picked up the story and characters of ''Trouble in Tahiti'' in a later period.
''Wonderful Town''
In 1953, Bernstein wrote the score for the musical ''
Wonderful Town'' on very short notice, with a book by
Joseph A. Fields
Joseph Albert Fields (February 21, 1895 – March 4, 1966)According to the State of California. ''California Death Index, 1940–1997''. Center for Health Statistics, California Department of Health Services, Sacramento, Californiaancestry.com/ ...
and
Jerome Chodorov and lyrics by
Betty Comden and
Adolph Green. The musical tells the story of two sisters from Ohio who move to New York City and seek success from their squalid
basement apartment
A basement apartment is an apartment located below street level, underneath another structure—usually an apartment building, but possibly a house or a business. Cities in North America are beginning to recognize these units as a vital source ...
in
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
.
''Wonderful Town'' opened on
Broadway on February 25, 1953, at the
Winter Garden Theatre, starring
Rosalind Russell in the role of Ruth Sherwood,
Edie Adams as Eileen Sherwood, and
George Gaynes
George Gaynes (born George Jongejans; May 16, 1917 – February 15, 2016) was a Finnish-born American singer, actor, and voice artist. Born to Dutch and Russian-Finnish parents in the Grand Duchy of Finland of the Russian Empire, he served in the ...
as Robert Baker. It won five
Tony Awards
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual c ...
, including Best Musical and Best Actress.
''Candide''
In the three years leading up to Bernstein's appointment as music director of the New York Philharmonic, Bernstein was simultaneously working on the scores for two Broadway shows. The first of the two was the
operetta-style musical ''
Candide.''
Lillian Hellman originally brought Bernstein her idea of adapting
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his '' nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his criticism of Christianity—e ...
's
novella. The original collaborators on the show were book writer
John Latouche and lyricist
Richard Wilbur.
''Candide'' opened on
Broadway on December 1, 1956, at the
Martin Beck Theatre, in a production directed by
Tyrone Guthrie
Sir William Tyrone Guthrie (2 July 1900 – 15 May 1971) was an English theatrical director instrumental in the founding of the Stratford Festival of Canada, the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the Tyrone Guthrie Centre at ...
. Anxious about the parallels Hellman had deliberately drawn between Voltaire's story and the ongoing hearings conducted by the
House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative United States Congressional committee, committee of the United States House of Representatives, create ...
, Guthrie persuaded the collaborators to cut their most incendiary sections prior to opening night.
While the production was a box office disaster, running for only two months for a total of 73 performances, the cast album became a cult classic, which kept Bernstein's score alive. There have been several revivals, with modifications to improve the book.
The elements of the music that have remained best known and performed over the decades are the Overture, which quickly became one of the most frequently performed orchestral compositions by a
20th century
The 20th (twentieth) century began on
January 1, 1901 ( MCMI), and ended on December 31, 2000 ( MM). The 20th century was dominated by significant events that defined the modern era: Spanish flu pandemic, World War I and World War II, nucle ...
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
composer; the coloratura aria "Glitter and Be Gay", which
Barbara Cook sang in the original production; and the grand finale "Make Our Garden Grow".
''West Side Story''
The other musical Bernstein was writing simultaneously with ''Candide'' was ''
West Side Story''. Bernstein collaborated with director and choreographer
Jerome Robbins
Jerome Robbins (born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz; October 11, 1918 – July 29, 1998) was an American dancer, choreographer, film director, theatre director and producer who worked in classical ballet, on stage, film, and television.
Among his nu ...
, book writer
Arthur Laurents, and lyricist
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim (; March 22, 1930November 26, 2021) was an American composer and lyricist. One of the most important figures in twentieth-century musical theater, Sondheim is credited for having "reinvented the American musical" with sho ...
.
The story is an updated retelling of Shakespeare's ''
Romeo and Juliet'', set in the mid-1950s in the slums of New York City's
Upper West Side. The Romeo character, Tony, is affiliated with the Jets gang, who are of white Northern European descent. The Juliet character is Maria, who is connected to the Sharks gang, recently arrived immigrants from
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...
.
The original Broadway production opened at the
Winter Garden Theatre on September 26, 1957, and ran 732 performances. Robbins won the
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual c ...
for Best Choreographer, and
Oliver Smith won the Tony for Best Scenic Designer.
Bernstein's score for ''West Side Story'' blends "jazz, Latin rhythms, symphonic sweep and musical-comedy conventions in groundbreaking ways for Broadway". It was
orchestrated by
Sid Ramin and
Irwin Kostal
Irwin Kostal (October 1, 1911 – November 23, 1994) was an American musical arranger of films and an orchestrator of Broadway musicals.
Biography
Born in Chicago, Illinois, Kostal attended Harrison Technical High School, but opted not to ...
following detailed instructions from Bernstein. The dark theme, sophisticated music, extended dance scenes, and focus on social problems marked a turning point in musical theatre.
In 1960, Bernstein prepared a
suite
Suite may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
*Suite (music), a set of musical pieces considered as one composition
** Suite (Bach), a list of suites composed by J. S. Bach
** Suite (Cassadó), a mid-1920s composition by Gaspar Cassadó
** ''Suite ...
of orchestral music from the show, titled ''Symphonic Dances from West Side Story'', which continues to be popular with orchestras worldwide.
A
1961 United Artists film adaptation, directed by
Robert Wise and Robbins and starred
Natalie Wood as Maria and
Richard Beymer as Tony. The film won ten
Academy Awards
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
, including
Best Picture and a ground-breaking Best Supporting Actress award for Puerto Rican-born
Rita Moreno playing the role of Anita.
A
new film adaptation directed by Steven Spielberg opened in 2021.
= ''Serenade'', ''Prelude, Fugue and Riffs'', and ''On The Waterfront''
=
In addition to Bernstein's compositional activity for the stage, he wrote a symphonic work, ''
Serenade after Plato's "Symposium"
The ''Serenade, after Plato's Symposium'', is a composition by Leonard Bernstein for solo violin, strings and percussion. He completed the serenade in five movements on August 7, 1954. For the serenade, the composer drew inspiration from Plato' ...
''; the score to the Academy Award-winning film
''On The Waterfront''; and ''
Prelude, Fugue and Riffs'', composed for jazz big band and solo clarinet''.''
First American to conduct at La Scala
In 1953, Bernstein became the first American conductor to appear at
La Scala in Milan, conducting Cherubini's ''
Medea
In Greek mythology, Medea (; grc, Μήδεια, ''Mēdeia'', perhaps implying "planner / schemer") is the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, a niece of Circe and the granddaughter of the sun god Helios. Medea figures in the myth of Jaso ...
'', with
Maria Callas in the title role. Callas and Bernstein reunited at La Scala to perform Bellini's ''
La sonnambula'' in 1955.
Omnibus
On November 14, 1954, Bernstein presented the first of his television lectures for the CBS Television Network arts program
''Omnibus''. The live lecture, entitled "Beethoven's Fifth Symphony", involved Bernstein explaining the symphony's first movement with the aid of musicians from the "Symphony of the Air" (formerly
NBC Symphony Orchestra). The program featured manuscripts from Beethoven's own hand, as well as a giant painting of the first page of the score covering the studio floor. Six more Omnibus lectures followed from 1955 to 1961 (later on ABC and then NBC) covering a broad range of topics: jazz, conducting, American musical comedy, modern music, J.S. Bach, and
grand opera.
Music director of the New York Philharmonic
Bernstein was appointed the music director of the New York Philharmonic in 1957, sharing the post jointly with
Dimitri Mitropoulos until he took sole charge in 1958. Bernstein held the music directorship until 1969 when he was appointed "Laureate Conductor". He continued to conduct and make recordings with the orchestra for the rest of his life.
= Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic
=
Bernstein's television teaching took a quantum leap when, as the new music director of the New York Philharmonic, he put the orchestra's traditional Saturday afternoon ''
Young People's Concerts'' on the CBS Television Network. Millions of viewers of all ages and around the world enthusiastically embraced Bernstein and his engaging presentations about classical music. Bernstein often presented talented young performers on the broadcasts. Many of them became celebrated in their own right, including conductors
Claudio Abbado and
Seiji Ozawa; flutist
Paula Robison
Paula Robison (born June 8, 1941) is a flute soloist and teacher.
Early life and education
Paula Robison was born in Nashville, Tennessee, the daughter of David V. and Naomi Robison, an actor. David Robison was a playwright and writer for film a ...
; and pianist
André Watts. From 1958 until 1972, the fifty-three ''Young People's Concerts'' comprised the most influential series of music education programs ever produced on television. They were highly acclaimed by critics and won numerous
Emmy Awards
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
.
Some of Bernstein's scripts, all of which he wrote himself, were released in book form and on records. A recording of ''Humor in Music'' was awarded a
Grammy award for Best Documentary or Spoken Word Recording (other than comedy) in 1961. The programs were shown in many countries around the world, often with Bernstein dubbed into other languages, and the concerts were later released on home video by
Kultur Video.
= United States Department of State tours
=
In 1958, Bernstein and Mitropoulos led the New York Philharmonic on its first tour south of the border, through 12 countries in Central and South America. The
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other na ...
sponsored the tour to improve the nation's relations with its southern neighbors.
In 1959, the Department of State also sponsored Bernstein and the Philharmonic on a 50-concert tour through Europe and the Soviet Union, portions of which were filmed by the
CBS Television Network. A highlight of the tour was Bernstein's performance of
Shostakovich's
Fifth Symphony, in the presence of the composer, who came on stage at the end to congratulate Bernstein and the musicians.
1960s
New York Philharmonic Innovations
Bernstein's innovative approach to themed programming included introducing audiences to lesser performed composers at the time such as
Gustav Mahler,
Carl Nielsen,
Jean Sibelius
Jean Sibelius ( ; ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; 8 December 186520 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic and early-modern periods. He is widely regarded as his country's greatest composer, and his music is often ...
, and
Charles Ives (including the world premiere of his
Symphony No. 2). Bernstein actively advocated for the commission and performance of works by contemporary composers, conducting over 40 world premieres by a diverse roster of composers ranging from
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading f ...
to
Alberto Ginastera
Alberto Evaristo Ginastera (; April 11, 1916June 25, 1983) was an Argentinian composer of classical music. He is considered to be one of the most important 20th-century classical composers of the Americas.
Biography
Ginastera was born in Buenos ...
to
Luciano Berio
Luciano Berio (24 October 1925 – 27 May 2003) was an Italian composer noted for his experimental work (in particular his 1968 composition ''Sinfonia'' and his series of virtuosic solo pieces titled ''Sequenza''), and for his pioneering work ...
. He also conducted US premieres of 19 major works from around the globe, including works by
Dmitri Shostakovich,
Pierre Boulez, and
György Ligeti
György Sándor Ligeti (; ; 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde composers in the latter half of the twentieth century ...
.
Bernstein championed American composers, especially with whom he had a close friendship, such as
Aaron Copland,
William Schuman, and
David Diamond. This decade saw a significant expansion of Bernstein and the Philharmonic's collaboration with
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. It was founded on January 15, 1889, evolving from the A ...
, together they released
over 400 compositions, covering a broad swath of the classical music canon.
Bernstein welcomed the Philharmonic's additions of its first Black musician,
Sanford Allen
Sanford Allen (born 1939) is an American classical violinist. At the age of 10, he began studying violin at the Juilliard School of Music and continued at the Mannes School of Music under Vera Fonaroff. He was the first African-American regular ...
, and its second woman musician,
Orin O'Brien. Bernstein also shared the Philharmonic's commitment to connecting with as many New Yorkers as possible. That vision became a reality with the launch of the Concerts in the Parks in 1965, which Bernstein conducted often.
Another milestone was the Philharmonic's first visit to Japan in 1961, when Bernstein led acclaimed Philharmonic concerts and engaged in cultural exchange. Over the years he led the Orchestra on tours to 144 cities in 38 countries.
He initiated the Philharmonic's informal Thursday Evening Preview Concerts, which included Bernstein's talks from the stage, a practice that was unheard of at the time.
In one oft-reported incident, on April 6, 1962, Bernstein appeared on stage before
a performance of the
Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor to explain that the soloist,
Glenn Gould, had chosen an idiosyncratic approach to the work. Bernstein explained that while he did not totally agree with it, he thought Gould's interpretation was an artistically worthy exploration. Bernstein questioned: "In a concerto, who is the boss: the soloist or the conductor?" The incident created a stir that reverberated in the press for decades.
= Bernstein and Mahler
=
In 1960, Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic introduced American audiences to the music of Gustav Mahler, beginning with a festival marking the centennial of the composer's birth. The composer's widow,
Alma, attended some of Bernstein's rehearsals. In that same year, Bernstein made his first commercial recording of a
Mahler symphony (the Fourth). Over the next seven years, he recorded the entire
Mahler symphony cycle with the New York Philharmonic (except for
the 8th Symphony, which was recorded with the
London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...
).
The combination of concert performances, television talks, and recordings led to a renewed interest in Mahler, especially in the United States. Bernstein claimed that he identified with the works on a personal level, and once wrote of the composer: "I'm so sympathetic to Mahler: I understand his problem. It's like being two different men locked up in the same body; one man is a conductor and the other a composer ... It's like being a double man."
= Opening Lincoln Center
=
On May 14, 1959, President
Dwight D. Eisenhower broke ground for
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. On September 23, 1962, the New York Philharmonic moved from Carnegie Hall to its new home, Philharmonic Hall (now
David Geffen Hall). Bernstein conducted the gala opening concert featuring works by Mahler,
Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...
, and
Vaughan Williams, as well as the premiere of Aaron Copland's ''
Connotations''.
Metropolitan Opera debut
In 1964, Bernstein conducted at
The Metropolitan Opera for the first time in
Franco Zeffirelli
Gian Franco Corsi Zeffirelli (12 February 1923 – 15 June 2019), was an Italian stage and film director, producer, production designer and politician. He was one of the most significant opera and theatre directors of the post-World War II era, ...
's production of
Verdi's ''
Falstaff''. In subsequent years, Bernstein returned to The Met to conduct ''
Cavalleria Rusticana'' (1970) and ''
Carmen
''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the ...
'' (1972), as well as at the
Centennial Gala in 1983.
An Artist's Response to Violence
In 1961, Bernstein composed a fanfare for President
John F. Kennedy's pre-inaugural gala, at which Bernstein conducted.
On November 23, 1963, the day after the
assassination of President John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. CST in Dallas, Texas, while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza. Kennedy was in the vehicle with ...
, Bernstein conducted the New York Philharmonic and the Schola Cantorum of New York in a nationally televised memorial featuring the
Mahler's Symphony No. 2: "Resurrection". Later that week, in a speech to the United Jewish Appeal, Bernstein said: "
This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before."
After President Kennedy's brother
Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1968, Bernstein conducted at the funeral mass, featuring the "Adagietto" movement from
Mahler's Symphony No. 5.
''Kaddish'' and ''Chichester Psalms''
Due to his commitment to the New York Philharmonic and his many other activities, Bernstein had little time for composition during the 1960s. Nevertheless, he was able to compose two major works.
Bernstein's
Symphony No. 3: ''Kaddish'' was written in 1963; Bernstein dedicated the work: "To the Beloved Memory of
John F. Kennedy." The work features a large orchestra, a full choir, a boys' choir, a soprano soloist, and a narrator. "
Kaddish" refers to the Jewish prayer recited for the dead. Bernstein wrote the text of the narration himself; his wife, Felicia Montealegre, narrated the US premiere of the work.
In 1965, Bernstein took a sabbatical year from the New York Philharmonic in order to concentrate on composition, during which he composed ''
Chichester Psalms
''Chichester Psalms'' is an extended choral composition in three movements by Leonard Bernstein for boy treble or countertenor, choir and orchestra. The text was arranged by the composer from the Book of Psalms in the original Hebrew. Part 1 use ...
.'' Commissioned by the Dean of
Chichester Cathedral, Walter Hussey, the work premiered at
Philharmonic Hall in New York City on July 15, 1965, conducted by Bernstein himself, and subsequently at Chichester Cathedral, conducted by John Birch. For his text, Bernstein chose excerpts from the
Book of Psalms in the original
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
. In 2018, Bernstein's Centennial year, ''Chichester Psalms'' was cited as the 5th-most performed concert work worldwide.
= Vienna Philharmonic debut
=
In 1966, Bernstein began a lifelong rich relationship with the
Vienna Philharmonic, conducting concerts as well as making his debut at the
Vienna State Opera in
Luchino Visconti's production of ''Falstaff'' with
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in the title role. Bernstein was largely responsible for restoring the works of Mahler to the Vienna Philharmonic's core repertoire. Bernstein recorded Mahler's Symphonies numerous times with the orchestra.
He returned to the State Opera in 1968 for a production of ''
Der Rosenkavalier'' and in 1970 for
Otto Schenk's production of Beethoven's ''
Fidelio
''Fidelio'' (; ), originally titled ' (''Leonore, or The Triumph of Marital Love''), Op. 72, is Ludwig van Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto was originally prepared by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly, ...
''.
1970s
During the 1970s, Bernstein's company, Amberson, in partnership with Unitel, produced and coordinated filmed recordings of his symphonic concerts around the world. For the remainder of his life, Bernstein preferred to derive his audio recordings from live performances. Nearly 80% of Bernstein's recordings with his new recording partner, Deutsche Grammophon, were recorded live.
Bernstein's major compositions during the 1970s were his ''
Mass: A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players, and Dancers''; his score for the ballet ''
Dybbuk''; his orchestral vocal work ''
Songfest''; and his U.S. bicentennial musical ''
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,'' with lyrics by
Alan Jay Lerner, which was his last Broadway show and his only theatrical flop.
''Mass: A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players, and Dancers''
In 1966,
Jacqueline Kennedy
Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis ( ; July 28, 1929 – May 19, 1994) was an American socialite, writer, photographer, and book editor who served as first lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963, as the wife of President John F. Kennedy. A p ...
commissioned Bernstein to compose a work for the inauguration of the
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (formally known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and commonly referred to as the Kennedy Center) is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the Potom ...
in Washington, D.C. Bernstein began writing ''Mass'' in 1969 as a large-scale theatrical work based on the
Tridentine Mass
The Tridentine Mass, also known as the Traditional Latin Mass or Traditional Rite, is the liturgy of Mass (liturgy), Mass in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church that appears in Editio typica, typical editions of the Roman Missal published from ...
of the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...
, and in 1971, Bernstein invited the young composer and lyricist
Stephen Schwartz, who had recently opened the musical ''
Godspell'' off-Broadway, to collaborate as co-lyricist. The world premiere took place on September 8, 1971, conducted by
Maurice Peress, directed by
Gordon Davidson, and choreographed by
Alvin Ailey
Alvin Ailey Jr. (January 5, 1931 – December 1, 1989) was an American dancer, director, choreographer, and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT). He created AAADT and its affiliated Alvin Ailey American Dance Center ...
.
Bernstein's score combines elements of musical theater, jazz, gospel, blues, folk, rock, and symphonic music, and the libretto combines Latin and English liturgy, Hebrew prayer, and additional lyrics written by Bernstein and Schwartz.
''Mass'' received both rapturous and critical reactions, from audiences and music critics alike. While some members of the Catholic Church praised the piece's expression of contemporary crises of faith, others considered it blasphemous. (In 2000,
Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...
requested a performance of Mass at the Vatican itself.)
President Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was t ...
declined to attend the premiere due to its anti-
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
message. Viewpoints on ''Mass'' continue to evolve over time, and
Edward Seckerson
Edward Seckerson is a British music journalist and radio presenter specialising in musical theatre. Formerly Chief Classical Music Critic of the Independent, Edward Seckerson is a writer, broadcaster and podcaster. He wrote and presented the lon ...
wrote in 2021, 50 years after its premiere: "Put simply, no other work of Bernstein's encapsulates exactly who he was as a man or as a musician; no other work displays his genius, his intellect, his musical virtuosity and innate theatricality quite like MASS."
The Unanswered Question: Six Talks at Harvard
In the 1972–73 academic year, Bernstein was appointed to the
Charles Eliot Norton Chair as Professor of Poetry at Harvard, where he delivered six lectures, ''
The Unanswered Question
''The Unanswered Question'' is a musical work by American composer Charles Ives. Originally paired with ''Central Park in the Dark'' as ''Two Contemplations'' in 1908, ''The Unanswered Question'' was revised by Ives in 1930–1935. As with many ...
'', which explored such elements as tonality, harmony, and form through the lens of
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky i ...
's linguistic theories. Bernstein provided musical examples from the piano, and pre-recorded musical works with the
Boston Symphony Orchestra. Amberson arranged for the lectures to be videotaped at the WGBH studios in Boston. The six lectures were broadcast on PBS in 1976, and subsequently released on home video and published as a book.
''Dybbuk''
Bernstein collaborated with Jerome Robbins to create
''Dybbuk'', a ballet based on
S. Ansky
Shloyme Zanvl Rappoport (1863 – November 8, 1920), known by his pseudonym S. Ansky (or An-sky), was a Jewish author, playwright, researcher of Jewish folklore, polemicist, and cultural and political activist. He is best known for his play ' ...
's play of the same name. The ballet depicts Ansky's tale of a young woman possessed by a malicious spirit, known in Jewish folklore as a "dybbuk". ''Dybbuk'' was premiered by the
New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company. Léon Barzin was the company ...
at the
New York State Theater
The David H. Koch Theater is a theater for ballet, modern and other forms of dance, part of the Lincoln Center, at the intersection of Columbus Avenue and 63rd Street in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Original ...
on 16 May 1974, with Bernstein conducting. A revision of the choreography and the score was made later the same year, titled ''Dybbuk Variations''. It received its premiere in November 1974.
''Songfest: A Cycle of American Poems for Six Singers and Orchestra''
Bernstein's ''Songfest: A Cycle of American Poems for Six Singers and Orchestra'' premiered on October 11, 1977, the
Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C, with the composer conducting the
National Symphony Orchestra. The work was intended as a tribute to the 1976
American Bicentennial but was not finished in time.
The work sets an array of texts by thirteen American poets spanning three centuries. Bernstein deliberately selected the widest possible array of literary voices to express the nation's essential diversity; the poets include
June Jordan
June Millicent Jordan (July 9, 1936 – June 14, 2002) was an American poet, essayist, teacher, and activist. In her writing she explored issues of gender, race, immigration, and representation.
Jordan was passionate about using Black English ...
,
Julia de Burgos
Julia de Burgos García (February 17, 1914 – July 6, 1953) was a Puerto Rican poet. As an advocate of Puerto Rican independence, she served as Secretary General of the Daughters of Freedom, the women's branch of the Puerto Rican National ...
,
Walt Whitman
Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among ...
, and
Langston Hughes
James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1901 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. One of the earliest innovators of the literary art form called jazz poetry, H ...
.
On July 4, 1985, Bernstein conducted a nationally televised performance of ''Songfest'' as part of the National Symphony's annual ''
A Capitol Fourth
''A Capitol Fourth'' is an annual Independence Day concert special broadcast by PBS. It is presented from the west lawn of the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., and is also simulcast by NPR and the American Forces Network.
The ...
'' concert.
International conducting and recordings
After becoming Conductor Laureate of the New York Philharmonic in 1969, Bernstein took advantage of his freed-up schedule to increase the pace of his world travel, conducting twenty-nine orchestras throughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas, and making live recordings with them for both
Unitel GmbH & Co.KG and
Deutsche Grammophon.
Bernstein founded Amberson Productions in 1969. In partnership with Unitel, Amberson created many video productions of concert performances, starting with
Verdi's Requiem Mass in St. Paul's Cathedral with the
London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...
in 1970, produced and directed by
Humphrey Burton. Burton would go on to collaborate with Bernstein on his music video projects for the rest of Bernstein's life.
In 1972, Bernstein recorded
Bizet
Georges Bizet (; 25 October 18383 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, ''Carmen'', which has become on ...
's ''
Carmen
''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the ...
'', with
Marilyn Horne in the title role and
James McCracken as Don Jose, after leading several stage performances of the opera at
The Metropolitan Opera. The recording was one of the first in stereo to use the original spoken dialogue between the sung portions of the opera. The recording was Bernstein's first for
Deutsche Grammophon and won a
Grammy.
In working with Unitel and Deutsche Grammophon, Bernstein made a host of video and audio recordings with such orchestras as
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra,
Orchestre de Paris,
Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma della Rai, and
Orchestre National de France
The Orchestre national de France (ONF; literal translation, ''National Orchestra of France'') is a French symphony orchestra based in Paris, founded in 1934. Placed under the administration of the French national radio (named Radio France sinc ...
. Among the many noteworthy Amberson productions with Unitel were Bernstein conducting Mahler's Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection" with the
London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...
at
Ely Cathedral in 1973, and ''Fidelio'' at the Vienna State Opera in 1978.
One particularly noteworthy film was "Bernstein on Beethoven: A Celebration in Vienna," which Bernstein wrote and narrated in 1970. The film is an in-depth exploration of Beethoven on the composer's 200th birthday, filmed on location in and around Vienna. It features excerpts of Bernstein's rehearsals and performance of ''
Fidelio
''Fidelio'' (; ), originally titled ' (''Leonore, or The Triumph of Marital Love''), Op. 72, is Ludwig van Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto was originally prepared by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly, ...
'' at the
Vienna State Opera, directed by
Otto Schenk (which was later revived and filmed in 1978); Bernstein playing the
Piano Concerto No. 1 and conducting from the piano; and a performance of
Symphony No. 9 with the
Vienna Philharmonic, featuring the young
Plácido Domingo
José Plácido Domingo Embil (born 21 January 1941) is a Spanish opera singer, conductor, and arts administrator. He has recorded over a hundred complete operas and is well known for his versatility, regularly performing in Italian, French ...
among the soloists. The show, produced and directed by Humphrey Burton, was broadcast around the world and won an
Emmy Award
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
.
During the 1970s, Bernstein recorded his symphonies and other works with the
Israel Philharmonic
The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (abbreviation IPO; Hebrew: התזמורת הפילהרמונית הישראלית, ''ha-Tizmoret ha-Filharmonit ha-Yisra'elit'') is an Israeli symphony orchestra based in Tel Aviv. Its principal concert venue ...
on
Deutsche Grammophon. In May 1978, the
Israel Philharmonic
The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (abbreviation IPO; Hebrew: התזמורת הפילהרמונית הישראלית, ''ha-Tizmoret ha-Filharmonit ha-Yisra'elit'') is an Israeli symphony orchestra based in Tel Aviv. Its principal concert venue ...
played two U.S. concerts under his direction to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Orchestra under that name. On consecutive nights, the Orchestra, with the
Choral Arts Society of Washington, performed Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Bernstein's ''
Chichester Psalms
''Chichester Psalms'' is an extended choral composition in three movements by Leonard Bernstein for boy treble or countertenor, choir and orchestra. The text was arranged by the composer from the Book of Psalms in the original Hebrew. Part 1 use ...
'' at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and at Carnegie Hall in New York.
In the late 1970s, Bernstein conducted a complete Beethoven symphony cycle with the Vienna Philharmonic, and cycles of Brahms and Schumann were to follow in the 1980s. Other orchestras he conducted on numerous occasions in the 1970s include the
Israel Philharmonic
The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (abbreviation IPO; Hebrew: התזמורת הפילהרמונית הישראלית, ''ha-Tizmoret ha-Filharmonit ha-Yisra'elit'') is an Israeli symphony orchestra based in Tel Aviv. Its principal concert venue ...
, the
Orchestre National de France
The Orchestre national de France (ONF; literal translation, ''National Orchestra of France'') is a French symphony orchestra based in Paris, founded in 1934. Placed under the administration of the French national radio (named Radio France sinc ...
, and the
Boston Symphony Orchestra.
In October 1976, Bernstein led the
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (german: Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, BRSO) is a German radio orchestra. Based in Munich, Germany, it is one of the city's four orchestras. The BRSO is one of two full-size symphony orches ...
and pianist
Claudio Arrau in an
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and s ...
Benefit Concert in Munich. To honor his late wife and to continue their joint support for human rights, Bernstein established the Felicia Montealegre Bernstein Fund of Amnesty International USA to provide aid for human rights activists with limited resources.
In 1979, Bernstein conducted the
Berlin Philharmonic for the first time, in two charity concerts for Amnesty International involving performances of Mahler's
Ninth Symphony. The invitation for the concerts had come from the orchestra and not from its principal conductor
Herbert von Karajan. There has been speculation about why Karajan never invited Bernstein to conduct his orchestra. (Karajan did conduct the New York Philharmonic during Bernstein's tenure.) The full reasons will probably never be known—reports suggest they were on friendly terms when they met, but sometimes practiced a little mutual
one-upmanship.
[ One of the concerts was broadcast on radio and was posthumously released on CD by Deutsche Grammophon. One oddity of the recording is that the trombone section fails to enter at the climax of the finale, as a result of an audience member fainting just behind the trombones a few seconds earlier.
]
1980s
Bernstein received the Kennedy Center Honors award in 1980. For the rest of the 1980s he continued to conduct, teach, compose, and produce the occasional TV documentary. His most significant compositions of the decade were probably his opera '' A Quiet Place'', which he wrote with Stephen Wadsworth and which premiered, in its original version, in Houston in 1983; his Divertimento for Orchestra; his '' Ḥalil'' for flute and orchestra; his Concerto for Orchestra "Jubilee Games"; and his song cycle ''Arias and Barcarolles'', which was named after a comment President Dwight D. Eisenhower had made to him in 1960.
International fame
In 1982 in the U.S., PBS aired an 11-part series of Bernstein's late 1970s films for Unitel of the Vienna Philharmonic playing all nine Beethoven symphonies and various other Beethoven works. Bernstein gave spoken introduction and actor Maximilian Schell was also featured on the programs, reading from Beethoven's letters. The original films have since been released on DVD by Deutsche Grammophon. In addition to conducting in New York, Vienna and Israel, Bernstein was a regular guest conductor of other orchestras in the 1980s. These included the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, with whom he recorded Mahler's First, Fourth, and Ninth Symphonies amongst other works; the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (german: Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, BRSO) is a German radio orchestra. Based in Munich, Germany, it is one of the city's four orchestras. The BRSO is one of two full-size symphony orches ...
in Munich, with whom he recorded Wagner's '' Tristan und Isolde''; Haydn's ''Creation
Creation may refer to:
Religion
*''Creatio ex nihilo'', the concept that matter was created by God out of nothing
*Creation myth, a religious story of the origin of the world and how people first came to inhabit it
*Creationism, the belief that ...
''; Mozart's Requiem
A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead ( la, Missa pro defunctis) or Mass of the dead ( la, Missa defunctorum), is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, ...
and ''Great Mass in C minor
''Great Mass in C minor'' (german: Große Messe in c-Moll, links=no), K. 427/417a, is the common name of the musical setting of the mass by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, which is considered one of his greatest works. He composed it in Vienna in 1782 ...
''; and the orchestra of Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, with whom he recorded some Debussy and Puccini's '' La bohème''.
In 1982, he and Ernest Fleischmann founded the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute The Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute was a summer training program held in Los Angeles, California for conservatory aged orchestral instrumentalists and conductors. It ran from 1982 to 1991 under the auspices of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
H ...
as a summer training academy along the lines of Tanglewood. Bernstein served as artistic director and taught conducting there until 1984. Around the same time, he performed and recorded some of his own works with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for Deutsche Grammophon. Bernstein was also at the time a committed supporter of nuclear disarmament. In 1985 he took the European Community Youth Orchestra in a "Journey for Peace" tour across Europe and Japan.
In 1984, he conducted a recording of '' West Side Story'', the first time he had conducted the entire work. The recording, featuring what some critics felt were miscast opera singers such as Kiri Te Kanawa, José Carreras, and Tatiana Troyanos in the leading roles, was nevertheless an international bestseller. A TV documentary ''The Making of West Side Story
''West Side Story'' is a musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents.
Inspired by William Shakespeare's play ''Romeo and Juliet'', the story is set in the mid-1 ...
'' about the recording was made at the same time and has been released as a DVD. Bernstein also continued to make his own TV documentaries during the 1980s, including ''The Little Drummer Boy'', in which he discussed the music of Gustav Mahler, perhaps the composer he was most passionately interested in, and ''The Love of Three Orchestras'', in which he discussed his work in New York, Vienna, and Israel.
In his later years, Bernstein's life and work were celebrated around the world (as they have been since his death). The Israel Philharmonic celebrated his involvement with them at festivals in Israel and Austria in 1977. In 1986 the London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...
mounted a Bernstein Festival in London with one concert that Bernstein himself conducted attended by the Queen
Queen or QUEEN may refer to:
Monarchy
* Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom
** List of queens regnant
* Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king
* Queen dowager, the widow of a king
* Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...
. In 1988, Bernstein's 70th birthday was celebrated by a lavish televised gala at Tanglewood featuring many performers who had worked with him over the years.
During summer 1987, he celebrated the 100th anniversary of Nadia Boulanger
Juliette Nadia Boulanger (; 16 September 188722 October 1979) was a French music teacher and conductor. She taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century, and also performed occasionally as a pianist and organist.
From a ...
at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau. He gave a masterclass inside the castle of Fontainebleau.
In December 1989, Bernstein conducted live performances and recorded in the studio his operetta '' Candide'' with the London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...
. The recording starred Jerry Hadley
Jerry Hadley (June 16, 1952 – July 18, 2007) was an American operatic tenor. He received three Grammy awards for his vocal performances in the recordings of ''Jenůfa'' (2004 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording), '' Susannah'' (1995 Grammy Awa ...
, June Anderson, Adolph Green, and Christa Ludwig
Christa Ludwig (16 March 1928 – 24 April 2021) was a German mezzo-soprano and occasional dramatic soprano, distinguished for her performances of opera, lieder, oratorio, and other major religious works like masses, passions, and solos in symp ...
in the leading roles. The use of opera singers in some roles perhaps fitted the style of operetta better than some critics had thought was the case for ''West Side Story'', and the posthumously released recording was universally praised. One of the live concerts from the Barbican Centre in London is available on DVD. ''Candide'' had had a troubled history, with many rewrites and writers involved. Bernstein's concert and recording were based on a final version that had been first performed by Scottish Opera in 1988. The opening night, which Bernstein attended in Glasgow, was conducted by his former student John Mauceri.
Ode to "Freedom"
On December 25, 1989, Bernstein conducted Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in East Berlin's Schauspielhaus as part of a celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall. He had conducted the same work in West Berlin
West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...
the previous day. The concert was broadcast live in more than twenty countries to an estimated audience of 100 million people. For the occasion, Bernstein reworded Friedrich Schiller's text of the '' Ode to Joy'', using the word ''Freiheit'' (freedom) instead of the original ''Freude'' (joy). Bernstein, in his spoken introduction, said that they had "taken the liberty" of doing this because of a "most likely phony" story, apparently believed in some quarters, that Schiller wrote an "Ode to Freedom" that is now presumed lost. Bernstein added, "I'm sure that Beethoven would have given us his blessing."
Founding of Pacific Music Festival
In the summer of 1990, Bernstein and Michael Tilson Thomas founded the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan. Like his earlier activity in Los Angeles, this was a summer training school for musicians modeled on Tanglewood and is still in existence. At this time, Bernstein was already suffering from the lung disease that would lead to his death. In his opening address Bernstein said that he had decided to devote what time he had left to education. A video showing Bernstein speaking and rehearsing at the first Festival is available on DVD in Japan.
In the same year, Bernstein received the Praemium Imperiale, an international prize awarded by the Japan Arts Association for lifetime achievement in the arts. Bernstein used the $100,000 prize to establish The Bernstein Education Through the Arts (BETA) Fund. He provided this grant to develop an arts-based education program. The Leonard Bernstein Center was established in April 1992, and initiated extensive school-based research, resulting in the Bernstein Model, the Leonard Bernstein Artful Learning
Artful Learning is an educational philosophy model that is concept-based and interdisciplinary. Artful Learning was initiated by Leonard Bernstein and is rooted in using the arts to enhance all areas of education.
History
In 1990, Leonard Bernst ...
Program.
Last concert
Bernstein conducted his last concert on August 19, 1990, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood. The program consisted of Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...
's ''Four Sea Interludes'' from '' Peter Grimes'' and Beethoven's Symphony No. 7. He suffered a coughing fit during the third movement of the Beethoven symphony, but continued to conduct the piece until its conclusion, leaving the stage during the ovation, appearing exhausted and in pain. The concert was later issued in edited form on CD as ''Leonard Bernstein – The Final Concert'' by Deutsche Grammophon. Also included was Bernstein's own '' Arias and Barcarolles'' in an orchestration by Bright Sheng. However, poor health prevented Bernstein from performing it. Carl St. Clair was engaged to conduct it in his stead.
Personal life
After much personal struggle and a turbulent on-off engagement, Bernstein married actress Felicia Cohn Montealegre on September 10, 1951. One suggestion is that he chose to marry partly to dispel rumors about his private life to help secure a major conducting appointment, following advice from his mentor Dimitri Mitropoulos about the conservative nature of orchestra boards. Bernstein had expressed the same internal conflict and sought similar advice from Aaron Copland in April 1943, suggesting he could resolve it by marrying his then "girl-friend ... my dentist's daughter". ( Adolph Green asked Bernstein about the status of this idea in a letter five months later.) In a private letter published after both had died, Bernstein's wife within a year of their marriage acknowledged his homosexuality. Felicia wrote to him: "You are a homosexual and may never change—you don't admit to the possibility of a double life, but if your peace of mind, your health, your whole nervous system depend on a certain sexual pattern what can you do?" Arthur Laurents (Bernstein's collaborator in '' West Side Story'') said that Bernstein was "a gay man who got married. He wasn't conflicted about it at all. He was just gay." Shirley Rhoades Perle, another friend of Bernstein, said that she thought "he required men sexually and women emotionally". But the early years of his marriage seem to have been happy, and no one has suggested Bernstein and his wife did not love each other. They had three children, Jamie, Alexander, and Nina. There are reports, though, that Bernstein did sometimes have brief liaisons with young men, which his wife and children knew about.
A major period of upheaval in Bernstein's personal life began in 1976 when he decided that he could no longer conceal his homosexuality. He left Felicia for a period to live with the musical director of the classical music radio station KKHI in San Francisco, Tom Cothran. The next year Felicia was diagnosed with lung cancer, and eventually Bernstein moved back in with her and cared for her until she died on June 16, 1978.[ Bernstein is reported to have often spoken of feeling terrible guilt over his wife's death. Most biographies of Bernstein state that his lifestyle became more excessive and his personal behavior sometimes more reckless and crude after Felicia's death. However, his public standing and many of his close friendships appear to have remained unaffected, and he resumed his busy schedule of musical activity.
His affairs with men included a ten-year relationship with Kunihiko Hashimoto, a Tokyo insurance employee. The two met when the New York Philharmonic was performing in Tokyo. Hashimoto went backstage and they ended up spending the night together. It was a long distance affair, but according to letters, they both cared about each other deeply. ''Dearest Lenny: Letters from Japan and the Making of the World Maestro'' by ]Mari Yoshihara
is an American academic. She is a professor of American Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and specializes in American cultural history and US-Asian relations. She is also an amateur pianist.
Biography
Yoshihara was born in New Yo ...
(Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...
, 2019) goes into detail about their letters and relationship including interviews with Hashimoto. The book also includes other letters Bernstein received from Japanese fans.
Bernstein had asthma, which kept him from serving in the military during World War II.
Death and legacy
Bernstein announced his retirement from conducting on October 9, 1990. He died five days later, in his New York apartment at The Dakota, of a heart attack brought on by mesothelioma
Mesothelioma is a type of cancer that develops from the thin layer of tissue that covers many of the internal organs (known as the mesothelium). The most common area affected is the lining of the lungs and chest wall. Less commonly the lining ...
. He was 72 years old.[; also i]
"On this Day – 25 August"
A longtime heavy smoker, he had emphysema
Emphysema, or pulmonary emphysema, is a lower respiratory tract disease, characterised by air-filled spaces ( pneumatoses) in the lungs, that can vary in size and may be very large. The spaces are caused by the breakdown of the walls of the alv ...
from his mid-50s. On the day of his funeral procession through the streets of Manhattan, construction workers removed their hats and waved, calling out "Goodbye, Lenny".[See the TV Documentary: ''Leonard Bernstein: Reaching for the Note'' originally shown in the series ''American Masters'' on PBS in the U.S., now on DVD.] Bernstein is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
, New York, next to his wife and with a copy of Mahler's Fifth Symphony opened to the famous Adagietto lying across his heart. On August 25, 2018 (his 100th birthday), he was honored with a Google Doodle. Also for his centennial, the Skirball Cultural Center
The Skirball Cultural Center, founded in 1996, is a Jewish educational institution in Los Angeles, California. The center, named after philanthropist-couple Jack H. Skirball and Audrey Skirball-Kenis, features a museum with regularly changing ex ...
in Los Angeles created an exhibition titled ''Leonard Bernstein at 100''.
Social activism
While Bernstein was very well known for his music compositions and conducting, he was also known for his outspoken political views and his strong desire to further social change. His first aspirations for social change were made apparent in his producing (as a student) a recently banned opera, ''The Cradle Will Rock
''The Cradle Will Rock'' is a 1937 play in music by Marc Blitzstein. Originally a part of the Federal Theatre Project, it was directed by Orson Welles and produced by John Houseman. A Brechtian allegory of corruption and corporate greed, it i ...
'', by Marc Blitzstein, about the disparity between the working and upper class. His first opera, ''Trouble in Tahiti
''Trouble in Tahiti'' is a one-act opera in seven scenes composed by Leonard Bernstein with an English libretto by the composer. It is the darkest among Bernstein's "musicals", and one of only two for which he wrote the words and the music. (He ...
'', was dedicated to Blitzstein and has a strong social theme, criticizing American civilization and suburban upper-class life in particular. As he went on in his career, Bernstein would go on to fight for everything from the influences of "American Music" to the disarming of western nuclear weapons.
Like many of his friends and colleagues, Bernstein had been involved in various left-wing causes and organizations since the 1940s. He was blacklisted by the US State Department and CBS in the early 1950s, but unlike others his career was not greatly affected, and he was never required to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative United States Congressional committee, committee of the United States House of Representatives, create ...
.
His political life received substantial press coverage though in 1970, due to a gathering hosted at his Manhattan apartment at 895 Park Avenue
Park Avenue is a wide New York City boulevard which carries north and southbound traffic in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Av ...
on January 14, 1970. Bernstein and his wife held the event seeking to raise awareness and money for the defense of several members of the Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxism-Leninism, Marxist-Leninist and Black Power movement, black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. New ...
against a variety of charges, especially the case of the Panther 21. ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' initially covered the gathering as a lifestyle item, but later posted an editorial harshly unfavorable to Bernstein following generally negative reaction to the widely publicized story.
This reaction culminated in June 1970 with the appearance of " Radical Chic: That Party at Lenny's", an essay by journalist Tom Wolfe featured on the cover of the magazine '' New York''. The article contrasted the Bernsteins' comfortable lifestyle in one of the world's most expensive neighborhoods with the anti-establishment
An anti-establishment view or belief is one which stands in opposition to the conventional social, political, and economic principles of a society. The term was first used in the modern sense in 1958, by the British magazine ''New Statesman'' ...
politics of the Black Panthers. It led to the popularization of " radical chic" as a critical term. Both Bernstein and his wife Felicia responded to the criticism, arguing that they were motivated not by a shallow desire to express fashionable sympathy but by their concern for civil liberties
Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties ma ...
.
Bernstein was named in the book '' Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television'' (1950) as a Communist along with Aaron Copland, Lena Horne, Pete Seeger
Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notabl ...
, Artie Shaw and other prominent figures of the performing arts. ''Red Channels'' was issued by the right-wing journal ''Counterattack
A counterattack is a tactic employed in response to an attack, with the term originating in "war games". The general objective is to negate or thwart the advantage gained by the enemy during attack, while the specific objectives typically seek ...
''.
Rostropovich
Bernstein played an instrumental role in the release of renowned cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich
Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich, (27 March 192727 April 2007) was a Russian cellist and conductor. He is considered by many to be the greatest cellist of the 20th century. In addition to his interpretations and technique, he was well ...
from the USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nati ...
in 1974. Rostropovich, a strong believer in free speech and democracy, had been officially held in disgrace; his concerts and tours both at home and abroad cancelled, and in 1972 he was prohibited to travel outside of the Soviet Union. During a trip to the USSR in 1974, Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy
Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Massachusetts for almost 47 years, from 1962 until his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic ...
and his wife Joan Joan may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Joan (given name), including a list of women, men and fictional characters
*: Joan of Arc, a French military heroine
*Joan (surname)
Weather events
*Tropical Storm Joan (disambiguation), multip ...
, urged by Bernstein and others in the cultural sphere, mentioned Rostropovich's situation to Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev; uk, links= no, Леонід Ілліч Брежнєв, . (19 December 1906– 10 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union between 1964 and 1 ...
, the Soviet Union Communist Party Leader. Two days later, Rostropovich was granted his exit visa.
Philanthropy
Among the many awards Bernstein earned throughout his life, one allowed him to make one of his philanthropic dreams a reality. He had for a long time wanted to develop an international school to help promote the integration of arts into education. When he won the Praemium Imperiale, Japan Arts Association award for lifetime achievement in 1990, he used the $100,000 that came with the award to build such a school in Nashville, that would strive to teach teachers how to better integrate music, dance, and theater into the school system which was "not working". The school opened shortly after Bernstein's death. This would eventually yield an initiative known as Artful Learning
Artful Learning is an educational philosophy model that is concept-based and interdisciplinary. Artful Learning was initiated by Leonard Bernstein and is rooted in using the arts to enhance all areas of education.
History
In 1990, Leonard Bernst ...
as part of the Leonard Bernstein Center.
Influence and characteristics as a conductor
Bernstein was one of the major figures in orchestral conducting in the second half of the 20th century. He was held in high regard amongst many musicians, including the members of the Vienna Philharmonic, evidenced by his honorary membership; the London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...
, of which he was president; and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, with which he appeared regularly as guest conductor. He was probably the main conductor from the 1960s onwards who acquired a sort of superstar status similar to that of Herbert von Karajan, although unlike Karajan he conducted relatively little opera and part of Bernstein's fame was based on his role as a composer. As the first American-born music director of the New York Philharmonic, his rise to prominence was a factor in overcoming the perception of the time that the top conductors were necessarily trained in Europe.
Bernstein's conducting was characterized by extremes of emotion with the rhythmic pulse of the music conveyed visually through his balletic podium manner. Musicians often reported that his manner in rehearsal was the same as in concert. As he got older his performances tended to be overlaid to a greater extent with a personal expressiveness which often divided critical opinion. Extreme examples of this style can be found in his Deutsche Grammophon recordings of "Nimrod" from Elgar's '' Enigma Variations'' (1982), the end of Mahler's 9th Symphony (1985), and the finale of Tchaikovsky's '' Pathétique Symphony'' (1986), where in each case the tempos are well below those typically chosen. A skilled pianist, he used to perform the piano parts himself and conduct orchestras from the keyboard (for instance, when he conducted Gershwin's '' Rhapsody in Blue'').
Bernstein performed a wide repertoire from the Baroque era to the 20th century, although perhaps from the 1970s onwards he tended to focus more on music from the Romantic era. He was considered especially accomplished with the works of Gustav Mahler and with American composers in general, including George Gershwin
George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ' ...
, Aaron Copland, Charles Ives, Roy Harris, William Schuman, and of course himself. Some of his recordings of works by these composers would likely appear on many music critics' lists of recommended recordings. A list of his other well-thought-of recordings would include, among others, individual works from Haydn, Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...
, Berlioz, Schumann, Liszt, Nielsen, Sibelius, Stravinsky, Hindemith, and Shostakovich. His recordings of '' Rhapsody in Blue'' (full-orchestra version) and '' An American in Paris'' for Columbia Records, released in 1959, are considered definitive by many, although Bernstein cut the ''Rhapsody'' slightly, and his more 'symphonic' approach with slower tempi is quite far from Gershwin's own conception of the piece, evident from his two recordings. ( Oscar Levant, Earl Wild, and others come closer to Gershwin's own style.) Bernstein never conducted Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F, or more than a few excerpts from ''Porgy and Bess
''Porgy and Bess'' () is an English-language opera by American composer George Gershwin, with a libretto written by author DuBose Heyward and lyricist Ira Gershwin. It was adapted from Dorothy Heyward and DuBose Heyward's play '' Porgy'', ...
'', although he did discuss the latter in his article ''Why Don't You Run Upstairs and Write a Nice Gershwin Tune?'', originally published in ''The New York Times'' and later reprinted in his 1959 book '' The Joy of Music''.
In addition to being an active conductor, Bernstein was an influential teacher of conducting. During his many years of teaching at Tanglewood and elsewhere, he directly taught or mentored many younger conductors, including John Mauceri, Marin Alsop
Marin Alsop ( �mɛər.ɪn ˈæːl.sɑːp born October 16, 1956) is an American conductor, the first woman to win the Koussevitzky Prize for conducting and the first conductor to be awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. She is music director laureate ...
, Herbert Blomstedt
Herbert Thorson Blomstedt (; born 11 July 1927) is a Swedish conductor.
Herbert Blomstedt was born in Massachusetts. Two years after his birth, his Swedish parents moved the family back to their country of origin. He studied at the Stockholm Ro ...
, Edo de Waart, Alexander Frey, Paavo Järvi, Eiji Oue, Maurice Peress, Seiji Ozawa (who made his American TV debut as the guest conductor on one of the ''Young People's Concerts''), Carl St. Clair, Helmuth Rilling, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Jaap van Zweden. He also undoubtedly influenced the career choices of many American musicians who grew up watching his television programmes in the 1950s and 60s.
Recordings
Bernstein recorded extensively from the mid-1940s until just a few months before his death. Aside from those 1940s recordings, which were made for RCA Victor, Bernstein recorded primarily for Columbia Masterworks Records, especially when he was music director of the New York Philharmonic between 1958 and 1971. In the late 1950's he also joined forces with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra and Glenn Gould in a recording of Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...
's Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 19 and Bach's Keyboard Concerto No. 1 in D minor, BWV 1052 for Columbia Masterworks (ML 5211, 1957). His typical pattern of recording at that time was to record major works in the studio immediately after they were presented in the orchestra's subscription concerts or on one of the ''Young People's Concerts'', with any spare time used to record short orchestral showpieces and similar works. Many of these performances were digitally remastered and reissued by Sony Classical Records (the successor to American Columbia/CBS Masterworks following Sony's 1990 acquisition of Columbia/CBS Records) between 1992 and 1993 as part of its 100 volume, 125-CD "Royal Edition", as well as its 1997–2001 "Bernstein Century" series. The rights to Bernstein's 1940s RCA Victor recordings became fully owned by Sony following its 2008 acquisition of Bertelsmann Music Group's (BMG), and now controls both the RCA Victor and Columbia archives. The complete Bernstein Columbia and RCA Victor catalog was reissued on CD in a three-volume series of box sets (released in 2010, 2014, and 2018, respectively) comprising a total of 198 discs under the mantle "Leonard Bernstein Edition".
His later recordings (starting with Bizet's ''Carmen
''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the ...
'' in 1972) were mostly made for Deutsche Grammophon, though he would occasionally return to the Columbia label. Notable exceptions include recordings of Gustav Mahler's '' Song of the Earth'' and Mozart's 15th piano concerto and "Linz" symphony with the Vienna Philharmonic for Decca Records
Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American Decca's president. ...
(1966); Berlioz's ''Symphonie fantastique
' (''Fantastical Symphony: Episode in the Life of an Artist … in Five Sections'') Op. 14, is a program symphony written by the French composer Hector Berlioz in 1830. It is an important piece of the early Romantic period. The first performan ...
'' and '' Harold in Italy'' (1976) for EMI; and Wagner's '' Tristan und Isolde'' (1981) for Philips Records
Philips Records is a record label founded by the Dutch electronics company Philips. It was founded as Philips Phonographische Industrie in 1950. In 1946, Philips acquired the company which pressed records for British Decca's Dutch outlet i ...
, a label that like Deutsche Grammophon was part of PolyGram
PolyGram N.V. was a multinational entertainment company and major music record label formerly based in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1962 as the Grammophon-Philips Group by Dutch corporation Philips and German corporation Siemens, to be a ...
at that time. Unlike his studio recordings for Columbia Masterworks, most of his later Deutsche Grammophon recordings were taken from live concerts (or edited together from several concerts with additional sessions to correct errors). Many replicate repertoire that he recorded in the 1950s and 60s.
In addition to his audio recordings, many of Bernstein's concerts from the 1970s onwards were recorded on motion picture film by the German film company Unitel. This included a complete cycle of the Mahler symphonies (with the Vienna Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestra), as well as complete cycles of the Beethoven, Brahms and Schumann symphonies recorded at the same series of concerts as the audio recordings by Deutsche Grammophon. Many of these films appeared on LaserDisc and are now on DVD.
In total Bernstein was awarded 16 Grammys for his recordings in various categories, including several for posthumously released recordings. He was also awarded a Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 1985.
Influence and characteristics as a composer
Bernstein was an eclectic composer whose music fused elements of jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
, Jewish music, theatre music, and the work of earlier composers like Aaron Copland, Igor Stravinsky, Darius Milhaud, George Gershwin
George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ' ...
, and Marc Blitzstein. Some of his works, especially his score for '' West Side Story'', helped bridge the gap between classical and popular music. His music was rooted in tonality but in some works like his '' Kaddish Symphony'' and the opera '' A Quiet Place'' he mixed in 12-tone elements. Bernstein himself said his main motivation for composing was "to communicate" and that all his pieces, including his symphonies and concert works, "could in some sense be thought of as 'theatre' pieces".[In the 1978 Peter Rosen documentary ''Leonard Bernstein: Reflections'', now available on a Medici Arts DVD.]
According to the League of American Orchestras, he was the second most frequently performed American composer by U.S. orchestras in 2008–09 behind Copland, and he was the 16th most frequently performed composer overall by U.S. orchestras. (Some performances were probably due to the 2008 90th anniversary of his birth.) His most popular pieces were the ''Overture to Candide'', the ''Symphonic Dances from West Side Story'', the ''Serenade after Plato's "Symposium"
The ''Serenade, after Plato's Symposium'', is a composition by Leonard Bernstein for solo violin, strings and percussion. He completed the serenade in five movements on August 7, 1954. For the serenade, the composer drew inspiration from Plato' ...
'' and the ''Three Dance Episodes from On the Town''. His shows '' West Side Story'', '' On the Town'', '' Wonderful Town'' and '' Candide'' are regularly performed, and his symphonies and concert works are programmed from time to time by orchestras around the world. Since his death many of his works have been commercially recorded by artists other than himself. The ''Serenade
In music, a serenade (; also sometimes called a serenata, from the Italian) is a musical composition or performance delivered in honor of someone or something. Serenades are typically calm, light pieces of music. The term comes from the Itali ...
'', which has been recorded more than 10 times, is probably his most recorded work not taken from an actual theatre piece.
Despite the fact that he was a popular success as a composer, Bernstein himself is reported to have been disillusioned that some of his more serious works were not rated more highly by critics, and that he himself had not been able to devote more time to composing because of his conducting and other activities.[ Professional criticism of Bernstein's music often involves discussing the degree to which he created something new as art versus simply skillfully borrowing and fusing together elements from others. In the late 1960s, Bernstein himself reflected that his ]eclecticism
Eclecticism is a conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles, or ideas to gain complementary insights into a subject, or applies different theories i ...
was in part due to his lack of lengthy periods devoted to composition, and that he was still seeking to enrich his own personal musical language in the manner of the great composers of the past, all of whom had borrowed elements from others. Perhaps the harshest criticism he received from some critics in his lifetime though was directed at works like his ''Kaddish Symphony'', his ''MASS'' and the opera ''A Quiet Place'', where they found the underlying message of the piece or the text as either mildly embarrassing, clichéd or offensive. Despite this, all these pieces have been performed, discussed and reconsidered since his death.
The ''Chichester Psalms'', and excerpts from his Third Symphony and ''MASS'' were performed for Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...
, including at World Youth Day 1993 in Denver on August 14, 1993, and at the Papal Concert to Commemorate the Shoah on April 7, 1994, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the Sala Nervi at the Vatican. Both performances were conducted by Gilbert Levine.
Bibliography
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Videography
* ''The Unanswered Question: Six Talks at Harvard''. West Long Branch, New Jersey: Kultur Video. VHS . DVD . (videotape of the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures given at Harvard in 1973.)
*''Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic''. West Long Branch, New Jersey: Kultur Video. DVD .
*''Bernstein on Beethoven: A Celebration in Vienna/Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1''. West Long Branch, Kultur Video. DVD
*''Leonard Bernstein: Omnibus – The Historic TV Broadcasts'', 2010, E1 Ent.
*''Bernstein: Reflections'' (1978), A rare personal portrait of Leonard Bernstein by Peter Rosen. Euroarts DVD
*''Bernstein/Beethoven'' (1982), Deutsche Grammophon, DVD
*'' The Metropolitan Opera Centennial Gala'' (1983), Deutsche Grammophon, DVD 00440-073-4538
*''Bernstein Conducts "West Side Story"'' (1985) (retitled ''The Making of West Side Story'' in re-releases) Deutsche Grammophon. DVD
*''"The Rite of Spring" in Rehearsal''
* Mozart's ''Great Mass in C minor'', ''Exsultate, jubilate'' & ''Ave verum corpus'' (1990), Deutsche Grammophon. DVD 00440-073-4240
*''"Leonard Bernstein: Reaching for the Note"'' (1998) Documentary on his life and music. Originally aired on PBS's American Masters series. DVD
Awards
* Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
, 1951
* Fellow at the MacDowell 1962, 1970, 1972
* Sonning Award (Denmark), 1965
* Ditson Conductor's Award, 1958
* George Peabody Medal – Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...
, 1980
* Ernst von Siemens Music Prize, 1987
* Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal (UK), 1987
* Edward MacDowell Medal, 1987
* Knight Grand Cross Order of Merit (Italy), 1989
* Grammy Award for Best Album for Children
* Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance
* Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance
* Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording
* Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Performance
* Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance
* Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition
* Grammy Award for Best Classical Album
* Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
The Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award is a special Grammy Award that is awarded by The Recording Academy
The Recording Academy (formally the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences; abbreviated NARAS) is an American learned academy of ...
* Tony Award for Best Musical
* Special Tony Award
* Japan Arts Association Lifetime Achievement Award
*Gramophone Hall of Fame entrant
* Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur
The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...
, 1986
Bernstein is also a member of both the American Theater Hall of Fame
The American Theater Hall of Fame in New York City was founded in 1972. Earl Blackwell was the first head of the organization's Executive Committee. In an announcement in 1972, he said that the new ''Theater Hall of Fame'' would be located in the ...
and the Television Hall of Fame
The Television Academy Hall of Fame honors individuals who have made extraordinary contributions to U.S. television. The hall of fame was founded by former Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS) president John H. Mitchell (1921–1988). ...
. In 2015, he was inducted into the Legacy Walk
The Legacy Walk is an outdoor public display on North Halsted Street in Chicago, Illinois, United States, which celebrates LGBT contributions to world history and culture. According to its website, it is "the world's only outdoor museum walk and y ...
.
References
Citations
Sources
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Doubleday edition
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Further reading
* Bernstein, Burton (1982). ''Family Matters: Sam, Jennie, and the Kids''. Simon & Schuster. .
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* Bernstein, Jamie (2018). ''Famous Father Girl: A Memoir of Growing Up Bernstein''. HarperCollins Publishers. .
* Bernstein, Shirley (1963). ''Making Music: Leonard Bernstein''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Press. .
* Briggs, John (1961). ''Leonard Bernstein: The Man, His Works and His World''. World Publishing Co. .
* Burton, William W. (1995)''. Conversations about Bernstein''. New York: Oxford University Press, New York. .
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* Cone, Molly and Robert Galster (1970). ''Leonard Bernstein''. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co.
* Ewen, David (1960). ''Leonard Bernstein, A Biography for Young People''. Philadelphia: Chilton Co.
* Fluegel, Jane (ed.) (1991). ''Bernstein: Remembered: a life in pictures''. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers. .
* Freedland, Michael (1987). ''Leonard Bernstein''. London, England: Harrap. Ltd. .
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* Gottlieb, Jack (2010). ''Working With Bernstein''. Amadeus Press. .
* Green, Diane Huss (1963). ''Lenny's Surprise Piano''. San Carlos, California: Golden Gate Junior Books. .
* Hurwitz, Johanna (1963). ''Leonard Bernstein: A Passion of Music''. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society. .
* Ledbetter, Steven (1988). ''Sennets & Tuckets, A Bernstein Celebration''. Boston: Boston Symphony Orchestra in association with David Godine Publisher. .
* Reidy, John P. & Norman Richards (1967). ''People of Destiny: Leonard Bernstein''. Chicago: Children's Press. .
* Robinson, Paul (1982). ''Bernstein (The Art of Conducting Series)''. New York: Vangard Press. .
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* Shawn, Allen (2014). ''Leonard Bernstein: An American Musician''. Yale University Press. .
* Wolfe, Tom (1987). ''Radical Chic and Mau Mauing the Flak Catchers''. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. .
External links
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Leonard Bernstein at Sony Classical
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Composer's entry
on IRCAM's database
;Archival records:
Leonard Bernstein collection, circa 1900–1995
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...
Bernstein Online Collection
Library of Congress
Mildred Spiegel Zucker collection of Leonard Bernstein correspondence and related materials, 1936–1991
Library of Congress
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