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Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein (/ˈbɜːrnstn/ BURN-styne;[1] 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, he was "one of the most prodigiously talented and successful musicians in American history".[2] Bernstein was the recipient of many honors, including seven Emmy Awards,[3] two Tony Awards,[4] sixteen Grammy Awards[5] including the Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Kennedy Center Honor.[6]

Leonard Bernstein
Bernstein in 1977, taken by Jack Mitchell
Born
Louis Bernstein

(1918-08-25)August 25, 1918
DiedOctober 14, 1990(1990-10-14) (aged 72)
New York City, U.S.
Resting placeGreen-Wood Cemetery
EducationHarvard University (AB)
Curtis Institute of Music
Occupations
  • Conductor
  • composer
  • pianist
  • lecturer
  • author
WorksList of compositions
Spouse
(m. 1951; died 1978)
Children3
AwardsList
Signature

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 and 2021) feature films. His works include three symphonies, Chichester Psalms, Serenade after Plato's "Symposium", the original score for the film On the Waterfront, and theater works including On the Town, Wonderful Town, Candide, and his MASS.

Bernstein was the first American-born conductor to lead a major American symphony orchestra.[7] 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.[8] He was also a critical figure in the modern revival of the music of Gustav Mahler, in whose music he was most passionately interested.[9] A skilled pianist,[10] he often conducted piano concertos from the keyboard. He was the first conductor to share and explore classical music on television with a mass audience. Through dozens of national and international broadcasts, including Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic, he sought to make music both intelligible and enjoyable to all. 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;[11] protested against the Vietnam War;[12] 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.[13]

Early life and education

1918–1934: Early life and family

Born Louis Bernstein in Lawrence, Massachusetts, 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 (now in Ukraine).[14][15][16] 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.[17] To his friends and many others he was simply known as "Lenny".[18]

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.[19]

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, 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 to Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance. He would often play entire operas or Beethoven symphonies with his younger sister Shirley. Leonard's youngest sibling, Burton, was born in 1932, thirteen years after Leonard.[20] 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.[citation needed]

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."[21] It was at this concert that Bernstein first heard Ravel's Boléro, which made a tremendous impression on him.[22]

Another strong musical influence was George Gershwin. 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.[citation needed]

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 with the Boston Public School Orchestra.[citation needed]

1935–1940: College years

Bernstein's first two education environments were both public schools: the William Lloyd Garrison School, followed by the prestigious Boston Latin School,[23] for which Bernstein and classmate Lawrence F. Ebb wrote the Class Song.[24]

Harvard University

In 1935, Bernstein enrolled at Harvard College, where he studied music with, among others, Edward Burlingame Hill and Walter Piston. His first extant composition, Psalm 148 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 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' 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.[25]

Bernstein mounted a student production of The Cradle Will Rock, 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.[26]

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.[27] 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.[28]

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".[29]

Bernstein graduated from Harvard in 1939 with a Bachelor of Arts cum laude.

Curtis Institute of Music

After graduating from Harvard, Bernstein enrolled at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. 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; orchestration with Randall Thompson; counterpoint with Richard Stöhr; and score reading with Renée Longy Miquelle.[30]

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.[31] Bernstein studied conducting with the BSO's music director, Serge Koussevitzky, who became a profound lifelong inspiration to Bernstein.[32] He became Koussevitzky's conducting assistant at Tanglewood[33] and later dedicated his Symphony No. 2: The Age of Anxiety to his beloved mentor.[34] 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

 
Leonard Bernstein and Benny Goodman in rehearsal, ca. 1940–1949

Soon after he left Curtis, Bernstein moved to New York City where he lived in various apartments in Manhattan. Bernstein supported himself by coaching singers, teaching piano,[35] 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" in German.)[36]

Bernstein briefly shared an apartment in 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.[37][38]

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.

 
Carnegie Hall playbill, November 14, 1943
Radio announcement:

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.[39] The challenging program included works by Robert Schumann, Miklós Rózsa, Richard Wagner, and Richard Strauss.[citation needed]

The next day, The New York Times 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."[citation needed]

Many newspapers throughout the country carried the story, which, in combination with the concert's live national CBS Radio Network broadcast, propelled Bernstein to instant fame.[40]

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.[41]

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 with Jennie Tourel as soloist.[citation needed]

In the fall of 1943, Bernstein and Jerome Robbins 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.[42]

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 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, who eventually took over as music director of the show.[43] 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.[44]

 
Photo of Bernstein by Carl Van Vechten (1944)

Rising conducting career

 
Bernstein conducting the New York City Symphony (1945)

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.[45]

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 in London.[citation needed]

In 1946, he conducted opera professionally for the first time at Tanglewood with the American premiere of Benjamin Britten'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.[46]

Israel Philharmonic Orchestra

In 1947, Bernstein conducted in Tel Aviv 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 in the middle of the desert during the Arab-Israeli war. 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, featuring Mahler's Symphony No. 2 and Mendelssohn's 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.[citation needed]

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, celebrated the first anniversary of the United Nations General Assembly's ratification of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and included the premiere of Aaron Copland's "Preamble" with Sir Laurence Olivier narrating text from the UN Charter. The concert was televised by NBC Television Network.[47]

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 Olivier Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie, 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

 
Bernstein, c. 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.[48] The production, which opened on Broadway on April 24, 1950, starred Jean Arthur as Peter Pan and Boris Karloff in the dual roles of George Darling and Captain Hook. The show ran for 321 performances.[49]

Trouble in Tahiti

In 1951, Bernstein composed Trouble in Tahiti, a one-act opera 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.[50] 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 from 1951 to 1956. In 1952, he created the Brandeis Festival of the Creative Arts, where he conducted the premiere of Trouble in Tahiti on June 12 of that year.[51]

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.[52]

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 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 in 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 as Robert Baker. It won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Actress.[53]

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's novella.[54] 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. Anxious about the parallels Hellman had deliberately drawn between Voltaire's story and the ongoing hearings conducted by the House Un-American Activities Committee, Guthrie persuaded the collaborators to cut their most incendiary sections prior to opening night.[55]

While the production was a box office disaster, running for only two months for a total of 73 performances,[56] 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 American 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
 
L-R: Elizabeth Taylor,[57] Carmen Gutierrez, Marilyn Cooper, and Carol Lawrence from the original Broadway cast sing "I Feel Pretty" (1957)

The other musical Bernstein was writing simultaneously with Candide was West Side Story. Bernstein collaborated with director and choreographer Jerome Robbins, book writer Arthur Laurents, and lyricist Stephen Sondheim.[58]

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.[59]

The original Broadway production opened at the Winter Garden Theatre on September 26, 1957, and ran 732 performances. Robbins won the Tony Award for Best Choreographer, and Oliver Smith won the Tony for Best Scenic Designer.[60]

Bernstein's score for West Side Story blends "jazz, Latin rhythms, symphonic sweep and musical-comedy conventions in groundbreaking ways for Broadway".[61] It was orchestrated by Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal 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 of orchestral music from the show, titled Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, which continues to be popular with orchestras worldwide.[62]

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, including Best Picture and a ground-breaking Best Supporting Actress award for Puerto Rican-born Rita Moreno playing the role of Anita.[63]

A new film adaptation directed by Steven Spielberg opened in 2021.[64]

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 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, 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.

 
Bernstein with members of the New York Philharmonic rehearsing for a television broadcast

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.[65]

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; and pianist André Watts. From 1958 until 1972, the 53 Young People's Concerts comprised the most influential series of music education programs ever produced on television.[66] They were highly acclaimed by critics and won numerous Emmy Awards.[67]

Some of Bernstein's scripts, all of which he wrote himself, were released in book form and on records.[68] A recording of Humor in Music was awarded a Grammy award for Best Documentary or Spoken Word Recording (other than comedy) in 1961.[69] 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.

 
Bernstein at the piano, making annotations to a musical score
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 sponsored the tour to improve the nation's relations with its southern neighbors.[28]

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, 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 to Alberto Ginastera to Luciano Berio.[70] He also conducted US premieres of 19 major works from around the globe, including works by Dmitri Shostakovich, Pierre Boulez, and György Ligeti.[71]

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, 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, 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.[72][73]

In one oft-reported incident, on April 6, 1962,[74] 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.[75] Bernstein questioned: "In a concerto, who is the boss: the soloist or the conductor?"[76] The incident created a stir that reverberated in the press for decades.

Bernstein and Mahler

In 1960, Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic marked the centennial of Gustav Mahler's birth with a series of performances. The composer's widow, Alma, attended some of Bernstein's rehearsals. 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 combination of concert performances, television talks, and recordings led to a renewed interest in Mahler, especially in the United States.[77] 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."[78][79]

 
Leonard Bernstein during a visit to Finland, 1959
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, 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's production of Verdi's Falstaff. In subsequent years, Bernstein returned to The Met to conduct Cavalleria Rusticana (1970) and Carmen (1972), as well as at the Centennial Gala in 1983.[80]

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.

 
Bernstein in Amsterdam, 1968

On November 23, 1963, the day after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, 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."[81]

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.[82]

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.[83]

In 1965, Bernstein took a sabbatical year from the New York Philharmonic in order to concentrate on composition, during which he composed Chichester Psalms. 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.[84] In 2018, Bernstein's Centennial year, Chichester Psalms was cited as the 5th-most performed concert work worldwide.[85]

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.[86]

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.

1970s

 
Leonard Bernstein by Allan Warren

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.[87]

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 commissioned Bernstein to compose a work for the inauguration of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Bernstein began writing Mass in 1969 as a large-scale theatrical work based on the Tridentine Mass of the Catholic Church, 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.[88]

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.[89]

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 requested a performance of Mass at the Vatican itself.)[90] President Richard Nixon declined to attend the premiere due to its anti-Vietnam War message.[91] Viewpoints on Mass continue to evolve over time, and Edward Seckerson 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."[92]

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, which explored such elements as tonality, harmony, and form through the lens of Noam Chomsky's linguistic theories. Bernstein provided musical examples from the piano, and pre-recorded musical works with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.[93] 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[94] and published as a book.[95]

Dybbuk

Bernstein collaborated with Jerome Robbins to create Dybbuk, a ballet based on S. Ansky'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 at the New York State Theater 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.[96]

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, Julia de Burgos, Walt Whitman, and Langston Hughes.[97]

On July 4, 1985, Bernstein conducted a nationally televised performance of Songfest as part of the National Symphony's annual A Capitol Fourth concert.[98]

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.[99]

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 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.[100]

In 1972, Bernstein recorded Bizet's Carmen, 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.[101] 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.[102]

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, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma della Rai, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and Orchestre National de France. 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.[103]

Among the many noteworthy Amberson productions with Unitel were Bernstein conducting Mahler's Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection" with the London Symphony Orchestra at Ely Cathedral in 1973 and Fidelio at the Vienna State Opera in 1978.[104] In 1970, Bernstein wrote and narrated "Bernstein on Beethoven: A Celebration in Vienna," an in-depth exploration of Beethoven on the composer's 200th birthday, filmed on location in and around Vienna.[105] It features excerpts of Bernstein's rehearsals and performance of Fidelio 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 among the soloists. The show, produced and directed by Humphrey Burton, was broadcast around the world and won an Emmy Award.[106]

Also recorded by Unitel, in October 1976, was Bernstein's concert in Munich with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and pianist Claudio Arrau to benefit Amnesty International.[107] To honor his late wife and to continue their joint support for human rights, Bernstein subsequently established the Felicia Montealegre Bernstein Fund of Amnesty International USA to provide aid for human rights activists.[108]

In 1979, Bernstein conducted the Berlin Philharmonic for the first and only time, in two charity concerts for Amnesty International featuring performances of Mahler's Ninth Symphony, recorded live on Deutsche Grammophon.[109] 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. The full reasons will probably never be known—they were on friendly terms, but sometimes practiced a little mutual one-upmanship.[110]

1980s

 
Bernstein visited Japan with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in 1985 and conducted Mahler's Symphony No. 9

In the 1980s Bernstein pursued a packed schedule, continuing to conduct, teach, compose, and produce several television documentaries. His most significant compositions of the decade were his opera A Quiet Place; Divertimento for Orchestra; Ḥalil for flute and orchestra; Concerto for Orchestra "Jubilee Games"; and the song cycle Arias and Barcarolles. Bernstein received the Kennedy Center Honors award in 1980, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1985, France's Legion of Honor (Commandeur) in 1985, and Japan's Praemium Imperiale in 1990, among others.[111] In the 1980s, Bernstein cemented his educational legacy by co-founding three music academies: Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival Orchestral Academy, and the Pacific Music Festival.[112]

A Quiet Place

In 1983, Bernstein wrote a new opera, A Quiet Place, with a libretto by Stephen Wadsworth. The opera premiered at the Houston Grand Opera on June 17, 1983, conducted by John DeMain.[113] The opera was a sequel to Bernstein's 1951 opera Trouble in Tahiti, which preceded the new opera at the premiere. In 1984, Bernstein and Wadsworth reconfigured A Quiet Place to include Trouble in Tahiti in its middle. This version was performed at La Scala and the Kennedy Center, with John Mauceri conducting. In 1986, Bernstein himself conducted and recorded the work at the Vienna State Opera.[114]

International fame

 
Bernstein with Maximilian Schell on PBS Beethoven TV series (1982)

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.[115] 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 in Munich, with whom he recorded Wagner's Tristan und Isolde; Haydn's Creation; Mozart's Requiem and Great Mass in C minor; and the orchestra of Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, with whom he recorded some Debussy and Puccini's La bohème.

 
Conducting the Concertgebouw Orchestra, 1985

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[who?] 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 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 mounted a Bernstein Festival in London with one concert that Bernstein himself conducted attended by the Queen. 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 at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau. He gave a masterclass inside the castle of Fontainebleau.[116]

In December 1989, Bernstein conducted live performances and recorded in the studio his operetta Candide with the London Symphony Orchestra. The recording starred Jerry Hadley, June Anderson, Adolph Green, and Christa Ludwig 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.

Educational Initiatives

Bernstein's nurturing experience at the Tanglewood Music Festival inspired him to use his international influence to recreate that environment for young musicians in the final years of his life.[117]

Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute

In 1982, Bernstein, with Los Angeles Philharmonic General Manager Ernest Fleischmann and University of Southern California professor Daniel Lewis, co-founded the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute, a summer training academy inspired by Tanglewood. Bernstein served as artistic co-director and taught conducting classes for two summers.[118] During that time, he performed and recorded American works, including some of his own, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for Deutsche Grammophon.[119]

Orchestra Academy of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival

In May 1986, Bernstein conducted the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus for the inaugural concert of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, in a performance of Haydn’s Die Schöpfung ("The Creation"). He returned the following year when he founded the Festival’s Orchestra Academy, once again recreating the nurturing atmosphere of Bernstein's Tanglewood experience.[120] Over three summers, Bernstein took the students on international tours to Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union.[121]

To commemorate Bernstein’s legacy as an educator and founder of the Orchestra Academy, the Festival created the Leonard Bernstein Award in 2002, which has honored young musicians including Lang Lang, Jonathan Biss, and Alisa Weilerstein, among many others.[122]

Founding of Pacific Music Festival

In 1990, Bernstein's final summer, he founded the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan with Michael Tilson Thomas and the London Symphony Orchestra.[123] The Festival's goal was to emphasize musical training for young students in the Pacific region.[124]

In his opening address, Bernstein said: "And my decision has been, without too much thought, to spend most of the remaining energy and time the Lord grants me in education and sharing, as much as possible, with younger people."[125] As Artistic Director, Bernstein worked with the students in that first summer, but had to cut his time short due to ill health.[126]

Bernstein Education Through the Arts (BETA) Fund

In 1990, 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.[127] He provided this grant to develop an arts-based education program. The Leonard Bernstein Center was posthumously established in April 1992, and initiated extensive school-based research, ultimately leading to the current Leonard Bernstein Artful Learning Program.[128]

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 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).[129] 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."[citation needed]

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, including at the Hiroshima Peace Ceremony to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the bombing.[130]

Final concert at Tanglewood

Bernstein conducted his last concert on August 19, 1990, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood. The program consisted of Benjamin Britten's Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes and Beethoven's Symphony No. 7.[131] 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.[132] The concert was later issued in edited form on CD as Leonard Bernstein – The Final Concert by Deutsche Grammophon.[133] 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.[134]

Personal life

 
Bernstein, 1968

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.[110] 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".[135][36][35] (Adolph Green asked Bernstein about the status of this idea in a letter five months later.[136]) 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?"[137] 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."[138] Shirley Rhoades Perle, another friend of Bernstein, said that she thought "he required men sexually and women emotionally".[139] 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.[140] There are reports, though, that Bernstein did sometimes have brief liaisons with young men, which his wife[139] and children[141] 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.[142] 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.[110] Bernstein is reported to have often spoken of feeling terrible guilt over his wife's death.[143] 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.[citation needed]

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 (Oxford University Press, 2019) goes into detail about their letters and relationship including interviews with Hashimoto. The book also includes other letters Bernstein received from Japanese fans.[144]

Bernstein had asthma, which kept him from serving in the military during World War II.[145]

Death and legacy

 
Bernstein's grave in Green-Wood Cemetery

Bernstein announced his retirement from conducting on October 9, 1990.[146] He died five days later, in his New York apartment at The Dakota, of a heart attack brought on by mesothelioma.[147] He was 72 years old.[2] A longtime heavy smoker, he had emphysema 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".[148] Bernstein is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York,[149] next to his wife and with a copy of Mahler's Fifth Symphony opened to the famous Adagietto lying across his heart.[150] On August 25, 2018 (his 100th birthday), he was honored with a Google Doodle.[151] Also for his centennial, the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles created an exhibition titled Leonard Bernstein at 100.[152][153][154]

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, by Marc Blitzstein, about the disparity between the working and upper class. His first opera, Trouble in Tahiti, 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.[155]

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.[156]

His political life received substantial press coverage though in 1970, due to a gathering hosted at his Manhattan apartment at 895 Park Avenue[157] 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 against a variety of charges, especially the case of the Panther 21.[158] The New York Times 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.[159][160]

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.[161] The article contrasted the Bernsteins' comfortable lifestyle in one of the world's most expensive neighborhoods with the anti-establishment politics of the Black Panthers. It led to the popularization of "radical chic" as a critical term.[162] 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.[163][164]

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, Artie Shaw and other prominent figures of the performing arts. Red Channels was issued by the right-wing journal Counterattack.[165]

Rostropovich

Bernstein played an instrumental role in the release of renowned cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich from the USSR 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 and his wife Joan, urged by Bernstein and others in the cultural sphere, mentioned Rostropovich's situation to Leonid Brezhnev, the Soviet Union Communist Party Leader. Two days later, Rostropovich was granted his exit visa.[166][167]

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,[168] 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".[169] The school opened shortly after Bernstein's death. This would eventually yield an initiative known as Artful Learning as part of the Leonard Bernstein Center.[170][171]

Influence and characteristics as a conductor

 
Leonard Bernstein in rehearsal of his "Mass", 1971

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, 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, 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, Berlioz, Schumann, Liszt, Nielsen, Sibelius, Stravinsky, Hindemith, and Shostakovich.[172] 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, 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, Herbert Blomstedt, 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

 
Audio recording for CBS of the Symphony No. 3 by Danish composer Carl Nielsen in Copenhagen, 1965
External audio
  Leonard Bernstein conducts the Columbia Symphony Orchestra with Glenn Gould in:
Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.2 in B Flat Major, Op. 19
Bach's Keyboard Concerto No. 1 in D Minor, BWV 1052 in 1957 Here on archive.org

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'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).[173] 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 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 (1966); Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique and Harold in Italy (1976) for EMI; and Wagner's Tristan und Isolde (1981) for Philips Records, a label that like Deutsche Grammophon was part of PolyGram 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, Jewish music, theatre music, and the work of earlier composers like Aaron Copland, Igor Stravinsky, Darius Milhaud, George Gershwin, and Marc Blitzstein. Some of his works, especially his score for West Side Story, helped bridge the gap between classical and popular music.[citation needed] 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".[174]

 
Place Léonard-Bernstein, a square in the 12th arrondissement of Paris

According to the League of American Orchestras,[175] 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" 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, which has been recorded more than 10 times, is probably his most recorded work not taken from an actual theatre piece.[citation needed]

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.[148] Professional criticism of Bernstein's music[by whom?] often involves discussing the degree to which he created something new as art versus simply skillfully borrowing and fusing together elements from others.[citation needed] In the late 1960s, Bernstein himself reflected that his eclecticism 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.[176] 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.[citation needed] 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, 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

  • Bernstein, Leonard (1993) [1982]. Findings. New York: Anchor Books. ISBN 978-0-385-42437-0.
  • — (1993) [1966]. The Infinite Variety of Music. New York: Anchor Books. ISBN 978-0-385-42438-7.
  • — (2004) [1959]. The Joy of Music. Pompton Plains, New Jersey: Amadeus Press. ISBN 978-1-57467-104-9.
  • — (2006) [1962]. Young People's Concerts. Milwaukee; Cambridge: Amadeus Press. ISBN 978-1-57467-102-5.
  • — (1976). The Unanswered Question: Six Talks at Harvard. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-92001-5.
  • — (2013). The Leonard Bernstein Letters (paperback). Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-20544-2.

Videography

  • The Unanswered Question: Six Talks at Harvard. West Long Branch, New Jersey: Kultur Video. VHS ISBN 1-56127-570-0. DVD ISBN 0-7697-1570-2. (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 ISBN 0-7697-1503-6.
  • 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

 
Leonard Bernstein receiving the Edison Classical Music Award in 1968

Bernstein is also a member of both the American Theater Hall of Fame[181] and the Television Hall of Fame.[182] In 2015, he was inducted into the Legacy Walk.[183]

References

Citations

  1. ^ Karlin, Fred (1994). Listening to Movies 8. New York: Schirmer. p. 264. Bernstein's pronunciation of his own name as he introduces his Peter and the Wolf.
  2. ^ a b Henahan, Donal (October 15, 1990). "Leonard Bernstein, 72, Music's Monarch, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved February 11, 2009.; also in "On this Day – 25 August".
  3. ^ "Leonard Bernstein". Television Academy. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
  4. ^ "Leonard Bernstein Tony Awards Info". BroadwayWorld. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
  5. ^ "Leonard Bernstein". GRAMMY.com. November 19, 2019. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
  6. ^ "Leonard Bernstein". Kennedy Center. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
  7. ^ "Leonard Bernstein Dies; Conductor, Composer: Music: Renaissance man of his art was 72. The longtime leader of the N.Y. Philharmonic carved a niche in history with 'West Side Story'". Los Angeles Times. October 15, 1990. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
  8. ^ "Discography | Leonard Bernstein". leonardbernstein.com. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
  9. ^ "The Man Who Mainstreamed Mahler" by David Schiff, The New York Times, November 4, 2001.
  10. ^ Laird 2002, p. 10.
  11. ^ "March 24, 1965: 'The Night the 'Stars' Came Out in Alabama'". Classical.org. March 24, 2018. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
  12. ^ "How Bernstein Came to 'MASS'". Brandeis University. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
  13. ^ "Upheaval in the East: Berlin; Near the Wall, Bernstein Leads an Ode to Freedom". The New York Times. Associated Press. December 26, 1989. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
  14. ^ Dougary, Ginny (March 13, 2010). "Leonard Bernstein: 'charismatic, pompous – and a great father'". The Times. UK. Retrieved March 17, 2020.(subscription required); also here August 3, 2020, at the Wayback Machine at ginnydougary.co.uk.
  15. ^ Oliver, Myrna (October 15, 1990). "Leonard Bernstein Dies; Conductor, Composer Music: Renaissance man of his art was 72. The longtime leader of the N.Y. Philharmonic carved a niche in history with West Side Story". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 17, 2020.
  16. ^ Rovner, Adam (November 2006). "So Easily Assimilated: The New Immigrant Chic". AJS Review. 30 (2): 313–324. doi:10.1017/S0364009406000158. S2CID 162547428.
  17. ^ Peyser 1987, pp. 22–24.
  18. ^ Edwina Pitman (August 12, 2018). "'Lenny changed my life': why Bernstein still inspires". The Guardian. Retrieved August 10, 2019.
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  22. ^ Simeone 2013, p. 8.
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  26. ^ Burton 1994, pp. 52–55.
  27. ^ Burton 1994, pp. 35–36.
  28. ^ a b Laird & Lin 2019, p. [page needed].
  29. ^ See for instance Bernstein's 1980 TV Documentary, Teachers and Teaching available on a Deutsche Grammophon DVD.
  30. ^ . www.curtis.edu. Archived from the original on January 24, 2021. Retrieved December 10, 2020.
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  36. ^ a b Burton 1994, p. 108.
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  116. ^ "Marion Kalter". www.marionkalter.com. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
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  123. ^ "What is PMF? | PMF Organizing Committee". PMF. Retrieved March 2, 2023.
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  138. ^ Charles Kaiser, The Gay Metropolis, New York City: 1940–1996, p.=[page needed]
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  140. ^ Peyser 1987, pp. 196, 204, 322.
  141. ^ "Alexander Bernstein: Papas Geheimnis" [Alexander Bernstein: Papa's Secret]. Der Spiegel (in German). July 1, 2022. ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved July 1, 2022.
  142. ^ "Leonard Bernstein a gay man who dabbled in the straight world". July 12, 2011. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
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  144. ^ Alberge, Dalya (August 17, 2019). "Passionate, tender, heartbreaking ... letters reveal Leonard Bernstein's 10-year secret affair". The Observer. Retrieved August 18, 2019.
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Sources

Further reading

  • Bernstein, Burton (1982). Family Matters: Sam, Jennie, and the Kids. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-595-13342-0.
  • Bernstein, Burton; Haws, Barbara, eds. (2008). Leonard Bernstein: American Original. Contains chapters by Alan Rich, Paul Boyer, Carol J. Oja, Tim Page, Burton Bernstein, Jonathan Rosenberg, Joseph Horowitz, Bill McGlaughlin, James M. Keller, and John Adams. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-153786-8.
  • Bernstein, Jamie (2018). Famous Father Girl: A Memoir of Growing Up Bernstein. HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 978-0-06-264135-9.
  • Bernstein, Shirley (1963). Making Music: Leonard Bernstein. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Press. ASIN B0007E073Y.
  • Briggs, John (1961). Leonard Bernstein: The Man, His Works and His World. World Publishing Co. ISBN 978-1-163-81079-8.
  • Burton, William W. (1995). Conversations about Bernstein. New York: Oxford University Press, New York. ISBN 978-0-19-507947-0.
  • Chapin, Schuyler (1992). Leonard Bernstein: Notes from a Friend. New York: Walker. ISBN 978-0-8027-1216-5.
  • Cone, Molly and Robert Galster (1970). Leonard Bernstein. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co. ISBN 978-0-690-48786-2
  • Ewen, David (1960). Leonard Bernstein, A Biography for Young People. Philadelphia: Chilton Co. ISBN 978-1-376-19065-6
  • Fluegel, Jane (ed.) (1991). Bernstein: Remembered: a life in pictures. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers. ISBN 978-0-88184-722-2.
  • Freedland, Michael (1987). Leonard Bernstein. London, England: Harrap. Ltd. ISBN 978-0-245-54499-6.
  • Gottlieb, Jack, ed. (1992). Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts (revised ed.). New York: Anchor Books. ISBN 978-0-385-42435-6.
  • Gottlieb, Jack (2010). Working With Bernstein. Amadeus Press. ISBN 978-1-57467-186-5.
  • Green, Diane Huss (1963). Lenny's Surprise Piano. San Carlos, California: Golden Gate Junior Books. ASIN B0006AYE10.
  • Hurwitz, Johanna (1963). Leonard Bernstein: A Passion of Music. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society. ISBN 978-0-8276-0501-5.
  • Ledbetter, Steven (1988). Sennets & Tuckets, A Bernstein Celebration. Boston: Boston Symphony Orchestra in association with David Godine Publisher. ISBN 978-0-87923-775-2.
  • Reidy, John P. & Norman Richards (1967). People of Destiny: Leonard Bernstein. Chicago: Children's Press. ASIN B0092UTPIW.
  • Robinson, Paul (1982). Bernstein (The Art of Conducting Series). New York: Vanguard Press. ASIN B01K92K1OI.
  • Rozen, Brian D. (1997). The Contributions of Leonard Bernstein to Music Education: An Analysis of his 53 Young People's Concerts. Thesis (PhD). Rochester, New York: University of Rochester. OCLC 48156751.
  • Shawn, Allen (2014). Leonard Bernstein: An American Musician. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-14428-4.
  • Wolfe, Tom (1987). Radical Chic and Mau Mauing the Flak Catchers. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. ASIN B01NAOARU3.

External links

Archival records
  • Leonard Bernstein collection, circa 1900–1995, Library of Congress
  • Bernstein Online Collection, Library of Congress
  • Mildred Spiegel Zucker collection of Leonard Bernstein correspondence and related materials, 1936–1991, Library of Congress

leonard, bernstein, this, article, needs, additional, citations, verification, please, help, improve, this, article, adding, citations, reliable, sources, unsourced, material, challenged, removed, find, sources, news, newspapers, books, scholar, jstor, august,. This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Leonard Bernstein news newspapers books scholar JSTOR August 2022 Learn how and when to remove this template message Leonard Bernstein ˈ b ɜːr n s t aɪ n BURN styne 1 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 he was one of the most prodigiously talented and successful musicians in American history 2 Bernstein was the recipient of many honors including seven Emmy Awards 3 two Tony Awards 4 sixteen Grammy Awards 5 including the Lifetime Achievement Award and the Kennedy Center Honor 6 Leonard BernsteinBernstein in 1977 taken by Jack MitchellBornLouis Bernstein 1918 08 25 August 25 1918Lawrence Massachusetts U S DiedOctober 14 1990 1990 10 14 aged 72 New York City U S Resting placeGreen Wood CemeteryEducationHarvard University AB Curtis Institute of MusicOccupationsConductor composer pianist lecturer authorWorksList of compositionsSpouseFelicia Montealegre m 1951 died 1978 wbr Children3AwardsListSignatureAs 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 and 2021 feature films His works include three symphonies Chichester Psalms Serenade after Plato s Symposium the original score for the film On the Waterfront and theater works including On the Town Wonderful Town Candide and his MASS Bernstein was the first American born conductor to lead a major American symphony orchestra 7 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 8 He was also a critical figure in the modern revival of the music of Gustav Mahler in whose music he was most passionately interested 9 A skilled pianist 10 he often conducted piano concertos from the keyboard He was the first conductor to share and explore classical music on television with a mass audience Through dozens of national and international broadcasts including Young People s Concerts with the New York Philharmonic he sought to make music both intelligible and enjoyable to all 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 11 protested against the Vietnam War 12 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 13 Contents 1 Early life and education 1 1 1918 1934 Early life and family 1 2 1935 1940 College years 1 2 1 Harvard University 1 2 2 Curtis Institute of Music 2 Life and career 2 1 1940s 2 1 1 New York Philharmonic conducting debut 2 1 2 Symphony No 1 Jeremiah Fancy Free and On the Town 2 1 3 Rising conducting career 2 1 4 Israel Philharmonic Orchestra 2 1 5 First television appearance 2 1 6 Summer at Tanglewood 2 2 1950s 2 2 1 Compositions in the 1950s 2 2 1 1 Theatrical works 2 2 1 1 1 Peter Pan 2 2 1 1 2 Trouble in Tahiti 2 2 1 1 3 Wonderful Town 2 2 1 1 4 Candide 2 2 1 1 5 West Side Story 2 2 1 2 Serenade Prelude Fugue and Riffs and On The Waterfront 2 2 2 First American to conduct at La Scala 2 2 3 Omnibus 2 2 4 Music director of the New York Philharmonic 2 2 4 1 Young People s Concerts with the New York Philharmonic 2 2 4 2 United States Department of State tours 2 3 1960s 2 3 1 New York Philharmonic Innovations 2 3 1 1 Bernstein and Mahler 2 3 1 2 Opening Lincoln Center 2 3 2 Metropolitan Opera debut 2 3 3 An Artist s Response to Violence 2 3 4 Kaddish and Chichester Psalms 2 3 4 1 Vienna Philharmonic debut 2 4 1970s 2 4 1 Mass A Theatre Piece for Singers Players and Dancers 2 4 2 The Unanswered Question Six Talks at Harvard 2 4 3 Dybbuk 2 4 4 Songfest A Cycle of American Poems for Six Singers and Orchestra 2 4 5 International conducting and recordings 2 5 1980s 2 5 1 A Quiet Place 2 5 2 International fame 2 5 3 Educational Initiatives 2 5 3 1 Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute 2 5 3 2 Orchestra Academy of the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival 2 5 3 3 Founding of Pacific Music Festival 2 5 3 4 Bernstein Education Through the Arts BETA Fund 2 5 4 Ode to Freedom 2 5 5 Final concert at Tanglewood 3 Personal life 4 Death and legacy 5 Social activism 5 1 Rostropovich 5 2 Philanthropy 6 Influence and characteristics as a conductor 7 Recordings 8 Influence and characteristics as a composer 9 Bibliography 10 Videography 11 Awards 12 References 12 1 Citations 12 2 Sources 13 Further reading 14 External linksEarly life and education EditThis section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Leonard Bernstein news newspapers books scholar JSTOR August 2022 Learn how and when to remove this template message 1918 1934 Early life and family Edit Born Louis Bernstein in Lawrence Massachusetts he was the son of Ukrainian Jewish parents Jennie nee Resnick and Samuel Joseph Bernstein both of whom immigrated to the United States from Rivne now in Ukraine 14 15 16 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 17 To his friends and many others he was simply known as Lenny 18 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 19 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 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 to Gilbert and Sullivan s The Pirates of Penzance He would often play entire operas or Beethoven symphonies with his younger sister Shirley Leonard s youngest sibling Burton was born in 1932 thirteen years after Leonard 20 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 citation needed 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 21 It was at this concert that Bernstein first heard Ravel s Bolero which made a tremendous impression on him 22 Another strong musical influence was George Gershwin 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 citation needed 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 with the Boston Public School Orchestra citation needed 1935 1940 College years Edit Bernstein s first two education environments were both public schools the William Lloyd Garrison School followed by the prestigious Boston Latin School 23 for which Bernstein and classmate Lawrence F Ebb wrote the Class Song 24 Harvard University Edit In 1935 Bernstein enrolled at Harvard College where he studied music with among others Edward Burlingame Hill and Walter Piston His first extant composition Psalm 148 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 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 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 25 Bernstein mounted a student production of The Cradle Will Rock 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 26 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 27 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 28 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 29 Bernstein graduated from Harvard in 1939 with a Bachelor of Arts cum laude Curtis Institute of Music Edit After graduating from Harvard Bernstein enrolled at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia 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 orchestration with Randall Thompson counterpoint with Richard Stohr and score reading with Renee Longy Miquelle 30 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 31 Bernstein studied conducting with the BSO s music director Serge Koussevitzky who became a profound lifelong inspiration to Bernstein 32 He became Koussevitzky s conducting assistant at Tanglewood 33 and later dedicated his Symphony No 2 The Age of Anxiety to his beloved mentor 34 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 Edit1940s Edit Leonard Bernstein and Benny Goodman in rehearsal ca 1940 1949 Soon after he left Curtis Bernstein moved to New York City where he lived in various apartments in Manhattan Bernstein supported himself by coaching singers teaching piano 35 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 in German 36 Bernstein briefly shared an apartment in 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 37 38 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 Carnegie Hall playbill November 14 1943Radio announcement source source New York Philharmonic conducting debut Edit On November 14 1943 having recently been appointed assistant conductor to Artur Rodzinski 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 39 The challenging program included works by Robert Schumann Miklos Rozsa Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss citation needed The next day The New York Times 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 citation needed Many newspapers throughout the country carried the story which in combination with the concert s live national CBS Radio Network broadcast propelled Bernstein to instant fame 40 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 41 Symphony No 1 Jeremiah Fancy Free and On the Town Edit On January 28 1944 he conducted the premiere of his Symphony No 1 Jeremiah with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra with Jennie Tourel as soloist citation needed In the fall of 1943 Bernstein and Jerome Robbins 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 42 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 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 who eventually took over as music director of the show 43 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 44 Photo of Bernstein by Carl Van Vechten 1944 Rising conducting career Edit Bernstein conducting the New York City Symphony 1945 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 45 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 in London citation needed In 1946 he conducted opera professionally for the first time at Tanglewood with the American premiere of Benjamin Britten 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 46 Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Edit In 1947 Bernstein conducted in Tel Aviv 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 in the middle of the desert during the Arab Israeli war 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 featuring Mahler s Symphony No 2 and Mendelssohn s 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 citation needed First television appearance Edit 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 celebrated the first anniversary of the United Nations General Assembly s ratification of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and included the premiere of Aaron Copland s Preamble with Sir Laurence Olivier narrating text from the UN Charter The concert was televised by NBC Television Network 47 Summer at Tanglewood Edit 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 Olivier Messiaen s Turangalila Symphonie 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 Edit Bernstein c 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 Edit Theatrical works Edit Peter Pan Edit In 1950 Bernstein composed incidental music for a Broadway production of J M Barrie s play Peter Pan 48 The production which opened on Broadway on April 24 1950 starred Jean Arthur as Peter Pan and Boris Karloff in the dual roles of George Darling and Captain Hook The show ran for 321 performances 49 Trouble in Tahiti Edit In 1951 Bernstein composed Trouble in Tahiti a one act opera 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 50 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 from 1951 to 1956 In 1952 he created the Brandeis Festival of the Creative Arts where he conducted the premiere of Trouble in Tahiti on June 12 of that year 51 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 52 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 Edit In 1953 Bernstein wrote the score for the musical Wonderful Town on very short notice with a book by Joseph A Fields 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 in 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 as Robert Baker It won five Tony Awards including Best Musical and Best Actress 53 Candide Edit 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 s novella 54 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 Anxious about the parallels Hellman had deliberately drawn between Voltaire s story and the ongoing hearings conducted by the House Un American Activities Committee Guthrie persuaded the collaborators to cut their most incendiary sections prior to opening night 55 While the production was a box office disaster running for only two months for a total of 73 performances 56 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 American 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 Edit L R Elizabeth Taylor 57 Carmen Gutierrez Marilyn Cooper and Carol Lawrence from the original Broadway cast sing I Feel Pretty 1957 The other musical Bernstein was writing simultaneously with Candide was West Side Story Bernstein collaborated with director and choreographer Jerome Robbins book writer Arthur Laurents and lyricist Stephen Sondheim 58 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 59 The original Broadway production opened at the Winter Garden Theatre on September 26 1957 and ran 732 performances Robbins won the Tony Award for Best Choreographer and Oliver Smith won the Tony for Best Scenic Designer 60 Bernstein s score for West Side Story blends jazz Latin rhythms symphonic sweep and musical comedy conventions in groundbreaking ways for Broadway 61 It was orchestrated by Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal 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 of orchestral music from the show titled Symphonic Dances from West Side Story which continues to be popular with orchestras worldwide 62 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 including Best Picture and a ground breaking Best Supporting Actress award for Puerto Rican born Rita Moreno playing the role of Anita 63 A new film adaptation directed by Steven Spielberg opened in 2021 64 Serenade Prelude Fugue and Riffs and On The Waterfront Edit In addition to Bernstein s compositional activity for the stage he wrote a symphonic work Serenade after Plato s Symposium 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 Edit In 1953 Bernstein became the first American conductor to appear at La Scala in Milan conducting Cherubini s Medea with Maria Callas in the title role Callas and Bernstein reunited at La Scala to perform Bellini s La sonnambula in 1955 Omnibus Edit 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 Bernstein with members of the New York Philharmonic rehearsing for a television broadcast Music director of the New York Philharmonic Edit 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 65 Young People s Concerts with the New York Philharmonic Edit 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 and pianist Andre Watts From 1958 until 1972 the 53 Young People s Concerts comprised the most influential series of music education programs ever produced on television 66 They were highly acclaimed by critics and won numerous Emmy Awards 67 Some of Bernstein s scripts all of which he wrote himself were released in book form and on records 68 A recording of Humor in Music was awarded a Grammy award for Best Documentary or Spoken Word Recording other than comedy in 1961 69 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 Bernstein at the piano making annotations to a musical score United States Department of State tours Edit 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 sponsored the tour to improve the nation s relations with its southern neighbors 28 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 Edit New York Philharmonic Innovations Edit 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 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 to Alberto Ginastera to Luciano Berio 70 He also conducted US premieres of 19 major works from around the globe including works by Dmitri Shostakovich Pierre Boulez and Gyorgy Ligeti 71 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 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 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 72 73 In one oft reported incident on April 6 1962 74 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 75 Bernstein questioned In a concerto who is the boss the soloist or the conductor 76 The incident created a stir that reverberated in the press for decades Bernstein and Mahler Edit In 1960 Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic marked the centennial of Gustav Mahler s birth with a series of performances The composer s widow Alma attended some of Bernstein s rehearsals 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 combination of concert performances television talks and recordings led to a renewed interest in Mahler especially in the United States 77 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 78 79 Leonard Bernstein during a visit to Finland 1959 Opening Lincoln Center Edit 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 and Vaughan Williams as well as the premiere of Aaron Copland s Connotations Metropolitan Opera debut Edit In 1964 Bernstein conducted at The Metropolitan Opera for the first time in Franco Zeffirelli s production of Verdi s Falstaff In subsequent years Bernstein returned to The Met to conduct Cavalleria Rusticana 1970 and Carmen 1972 as well as at the Centennial Gala in 1983 80 An Artist s Response to Violence Edit In 1961 Bernstein composed a fanfare for President John F Kennedy s pre inaugural gala at which Bernstein conducted Bernstein in Amsterdam 1968 On November 23 1963 the day after the assassination of President John F Kennedy 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 81 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 82 Kaddish and Chichester Psalms Edit 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 83 In 1965 Bernstein took a sabbatical year from the New York Philharmonic in order to concentrate on composition during which he composed Chichester Psalms 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 84 In 2018 Bernstein s Centennial year Chichester Psalms was cited as the 5th most performed concert work worldwide 85 Vienna Philharmonic debut Edit 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 86 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 1970s Edit Leonard Bernstein by Allan Warren 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 87 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 Edit In 1966 Jacqueline Kennedy commissioned Bernstein to compose a work for the inauguration of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D C Bernstein began writing Mass in 1969 as a large scale theatrical work based on the Tridentine Mass of the Catholic Church 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 88 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 89 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 requested a performance of Mass at the Vatican itself 90 President Richard Nixon declined to attend the premiere due to its anti Vietnam War message 91 Viewpoints on Mass continue to evolve over time and Edward Seckerson 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 92 The Unanswered Question Six Talks at Harvard Edit 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 which explored such elements as tonality harmony and form through the lens of Noam Chomsky s linguistic theories Bernstein provided musical examples from the piano and pre recorded musical works with the Boston Symphony Orchestra 93 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 94 and published as a book 95 Dybbuk Edit Bernstein collaborated with Jerome Robbins to create Dybbuk a ballet based on S Ansky 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 at the New York State Theater 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 96 Songfest A Cycle of American Poems for Six Singers and Orchestra Edit 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 Julia de Burgos Walt Whitman and Langston Hughes 97 On July 4 1985 Bernstein conducted a nationally televised performance of Songfest as part of the National Symphony s annual A Capitol Fourth concert 98 International conducting and recordings Edit 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 amp Co KG and Deutsche Grammophon 99 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 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 100 In 1972 Bernstein recorded Bizet s Carmen 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 101 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 102 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 Boston Symphony Orchestra Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma della Rai Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and Orchestre National de France 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 103 Among the many noteworthy Amberson productions with Unitel were Bernstein conducting Mahler s Symphony No 2 Resurrection with the London Symphony Orchestra at Ely Cathedral in 1973 and Fidelio at the Vienna State Opera in 1978 104 In 1970 Bernstein wrote and narrated Bernstein on Beethoven A Celebration in Vienna an in depth exploration of Beethoven on the composer s 200th birthday filmed on location in and around Vienna 105 It features excerpts of Bernstein s rehearsals and performance of Fidelio 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 Placido Domingo among the soloists The show produced and directed by Humphrey Burton was broadcast around the world and won an Emmy Award 106 Also recorded by Unitel in October 1976 was Bernstein s concert in Munich with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and pianist Claudio Arrau to benefit Amnesty International 107 To honor his late wife and to continue their joint support for human rights Bernstein subsequently established the Felicia Montealegre Bernstein Fund of Amnesty International USA to provide aid for human rights activists 108 In 1979 Bernstein conducted the Berlin Philharmonic for the first and only time in two charity concerts for Amnesty International featuring performances of Mahler s Ninth Symphony recorded live on Deutsche Grammophon 109 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 The full reasons will probably never be known they were on friendly terms but sometimes practiced a little mutual one upmanship 110 1980s Edit Bernstein visited Japan with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in 1985 and conducted Mahler s Symphony No 9 In the 1980s Bernstein pursued a packed schedule continuing to conduct teach compose and produce several television documentaries His most significant compositions of the decade were his opera A Quiet Place Divertimento for Orchestra Ḥalil for flute and orchestra Concerto for Orchestra Jubilee Games and the song cycle Arias and Barcarolles Bernstein received the Kennedy Center Honors award in 1980 a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1985 France s Legion of Honor Commandeur in 1985 and Japan s Praemium Imperiale in 1990 among others 111 In the 1980s Bernstein cemented his educational legacy by co founding three music academies Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival Orchestral Academy and the Pacific Music Festival 112 A Quiet Place Edit In 1983 Bernstein wrote a new opera A Quiet Place with a libretto by Stephen Wadsworth The opera premiered at the Houston Grand Opera on June 17 1983 conducted by John DeMain 113 The opera was a sequel to Bernstein s 1951 opera Trouble in Tahiti which preceded the new opera at the premiere In 1984 Bernstein and Wadsworth reconfigured A Quiet Place to include Trouble in Tahiti in its middle This version was performed at La Scala and the Kennedy Center with John Mauceri conducting In 1986 Bernstein himself conducted and recorded the work at the Vienna State Opera 114 International fame Edit Bernstein with Maximilian Schell on PBS Beethoven TV series 1982 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 115 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 in Munich with whom he recorded Wagner s Tristan und Isolde Haydn s Creation Mozart s Requiem and Great Mass in C minor and the orchestra of Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome with whom he recorded some Debussy and Puccini s La boheme Conducting the Concertgebouw Orchestra 1985 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 who felt were miscast opera singers such as Kiri Te Kanawa Jose Carreras and Tatiana Troyanos in the leading roles was nevertheless an international bestseller A TV documentary The Making of West Side Story 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 mounted a Bernstein Festival in London with one concert that Bernstein himself conducted attended by the Queen 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 at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau He gave a masterclass inside the castle of Fontainebleau 116 In December 1989 Bernstein conducted live performances and recorded in the studio his operetta Candide with the London Symphony Orchestra The recording starred Jerry Hadley June Anderson Adolph Green and Christa Ludwig 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 Educational Initiatives Edit Bernstein s nurturing experience at the Tanglewood Music Festival inspired him to use his international influence to recreate that environment for young musicians in the final years of his life 117 Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute Edit In 1982 Bernstein with Los Angeles Philharmonic General Manager Ernest Fleischmann and University of Southern California professor Daniel Lewis co founded the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute a summer training academy inspired by Tanglewood Bernstein served as artistic co director and taught conducting classes for two summers 118 During that time he performed and recorded American works including some of his own with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for Deutsche Grammophon 119 Orchestra Academy of the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival Edit In May 1986 Bernstein conducted the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus for the inaugural concert of the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival in a performance of Haydn s Die Schopfung The Creation He returned the following year when he founded the Festival s Orchestra Academy once again recreating the nurturing atmosphere of Bernstein s Tanglewood experience 120 Over three summers Bernstein took the students on international tours to Germany Italy and the Soviet Union 121 To commemorate Bernstein s legacy as an educator and founder of the Orchestra Academy the Festival created the Leonard Bernstein Award in 2002 which has honored young musicians including Lang Lang Jonathan Biss and Alisa Weilerstein among many others 122 Founding of Pacific Music Festival Edit In 1990 Bernstein s final summer he founded the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo Japan with Michael Tilson Thomas and the London Symphony Orchestra 123 The Festival s goal was to emphasize musical training for young students in the Pacific region 124 In his opening address Bernstein said And my decision has been without too much thought to spend most of the remaining energy and time the Lord grants me in education and sharing as much as possible with younger people 125 As Artistic Director Bernstein worked with the students in that first summer but had to cut his time short due to ill health 126 Bernstein Education Through the Arts BETA Fund Edit In 1990 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 127 He provided this grant to develop an arts based education program The Leonard Bernstein Center was posthumously established in April 1992 and initiated extensive school based research ultimately leading to the current Leonard Bernstein Artful Learning Program 128 Ode to Freedom Edit 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 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 129 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 citation needed 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 including at the Hiroshima Peace Ceremony to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the bombing 130 Final concert at Tanglewood Edit Bernstein conducted his last concert on August 19 1990 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood The program consisted of Benjamin Britten s Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes and Beethoven s Symphony No 7 131 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 132 The concert was later issued in edited form on CD as Leonard Bernstein The Final Concert by Deutsche Grammophon 133 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 134 Personal life Edit Bernstein 1968After 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 110 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 135 36 35 Adolph Green asked Bernstein about the status of this idea in a letter five months later 136 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 137 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 138 Shirley Rhoades Perle another friend of Bernstein said that she thought he required men sexually and women emotionally 139 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 140 There are reports though that Bernstein did sometimes have brief liaisons with young men which his wife 139 and children 141 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 142 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 110 Bernstein is reported to have often spoken of feeling terrible guilt over his wife s death 143 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 citation needed 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 Oxford University Press 2019 goes into detail about their letters and relationship including interviews with Hashimoto The book also includes other letters Bernstein received from Japanese fans 144 Bernstein had asthma which kept him from serving in the military during World War II 145 Death and legacy Edit Bernstein s grave in Green Wood Cemetery Bernstein announced his retirement from conducting on October 9 1990 146 He died five days later in his New York apartment at The Dakota of a heart attack brought on by mesothelioma 147 He was 72 years old 2 A longtime heavy smoker he had emphysema 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 148 Bernstein is buried in Green Wood Cemetery Brooklyn New York 149 next to his wife and with a copy of Mahler s Fifth Symphony opened to the famous Adagietto lying across his heart 150 On August 25 2018 his 100th birthday he was honored with a Google Doodle 151 Also for his centennial the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles created an exhibition titled Leonard Bernstein at 100 152 153 154 Social activism EditWhile 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 by Marc Blitzstein about the disparity between the working and upper class His first opera Trouble in Tahiti 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 155 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 156 His political life received substantial press coverage though in 1970 due to a gathering hosted at his Manhattan apartment at 895 Park Avenue 157 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 against a variety of charges especially the case of the Panther 21 158 The New York Times 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 159 160 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 161 The article contrasted the Bernsteins comfortable lifestyle in one of the world s most expensive neighborhoods with the anti establishment politics of the Black Panthers It led to the popularization of radical chic as a critical term 162 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 163 164 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 Artie Shaw and other prominent figures of the performing arts Red Channels was issued by the right wing journal Counterattack 165 Rostropovich Edit Bernstein played an instrumental role in the release of renowned cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich from the USSR 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 and his wife Joan urged by Bernstein and others in the cultural sphere mentioned Rostropovich s situation to Leonid Brezhnev the Soviet Union Communist Party Leader Two days later Rostropovich was granted his exit visa 166 167 Philanthropy Edit 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 168 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 169 The school opened shortly after Bernstein s death This would eventually yield an initiative known as Artful Learning as part of the Leonard Bernstein Center 170 171 Influence and characteristics as a conductor EditThis section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed March 2020 Learn how and when to remove this template message Leonard Bernstein in rehearsal of his Mass 1971 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 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 Pathetique 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 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 Berlioz Schumann Liszt Nielsen Sibelius Stravinsky Hindemith and Shostakovich 172 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 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 Herbert Blomstedt Edo de Waart Alexander Frey Paavo Jarvi 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 EditThis section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed May 2021 Learn how and when to remove this template message Audio recording for CBS of the Symphony No 3 by Danish composer Carl Nielsen in Copenhagen 1965 External audio Leonard Bernstein conducts the Columbia Symphony Orchestra with Glenn Gould in Beethoven s Piano Concerto No 2 in B Flat Major Op 19 Bach s Keyboard Concerto No 1 in D Minor BWV 1052 in 1957 Here on archive orgBernstein 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 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 173 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 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 1966 Berlioz s Symphonie fantastique and Harold in Italy 1976 for EMI and Wagner s Tristan und Isolde 1981 for Philips Records a label that like Deutsche Grammophon was part of PolyGram 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 EditFurther information List of compositions by Leonard Bernstein Bernstein was an eclectic composer whose music fused elements of jazz Jewish music theatre music and the work of earlier composers like Aaron Copland Igor Stravinsky Darius Milhaud George Gershwin and Marc Blitzstein Some of his works especially his score for West Side Story helped bridge the gap between classical and popular music citation needed 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 174 Place Leonard Bernstein a square in the 12th arrondissement of Paris According to the League of American Orchestras 175 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 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 which has been recorded more than 10 times is probably his most recorded work not taken from an actual theatre piece citation needed 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 148 Professional criticism of Bernstein s music by whom often involves discussing the degree to which he created something new as art versus simply skillfully borrowing and fusing together elements from others citation needed In the late 1960s Bernstein himself reflected that his eclecticism 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 176 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 cliched or offensive citation needed 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 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 EditBernstein Leonard 1993 1982 Findings New York Anchor Books ISBN 978 0 385 42437 0 1993 1966 The Infinite Variety of Music New York Anchor Books ISBN 978 0 385 42438 7 2004 1959 The Joy of Music Pompton Plains New Jersey Amadeus Press ISBN 978 1 57467 104 9 2006 1962 Young People s Concerts Milwaukee Cambridge Amadeus Press ISBN 978 1 57467 102 5 1976 The Unanswered Question Six Talks at Harvard Harvard University Press ISBN 0 674 92001 5 2013 The Leonard Bernstein Letters paperback Yale University Press ISBN 978 0 300 20544 2 Videography EditThe Unanswered Question Six Talks at Harvard West Long Branch New Jersey Kultur Video VHS ISBN 1 56127 570 0 DVD ISBN 0 7697 1570 2 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 ISBN 0 7697 1503 6 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 amp 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 DVDAwards Edit Leonard Bernstein receiving the Edison Classical Music Award in 1968 Main article List of awards and nominations received by Leonard Bernstein Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 1951 177 Fellow at the MacDowell 1962 1970 1972 178 Sonning Award Denmark 1965 Ditson Conductor s Award 1958 George Peabody Medal Johns Hopkins University 1980 Ernst von Siemens Music Prize 1987 Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal UK 1987 Edward MacDowell Medal 1987 179 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 Tony Award for Best Musical Special Tony Award Japan Arts Association Lifetime Achievement Award Gramophone Hall of Fame entrant 180 Commandeur de la Legion d honneur 1986Bernstein is also a member of both the American Theater Hall of Fame 181 and the Television Hall of Fame 182 In 2015 he was inducted into the Legacy Walk 183 References EditCitations Edit Karlin Fred 1994 Listening to Movies 8 New York Schirmer p 264 Bernstein s pronunciation of his own name as he introduces his Peter and the Wolf a b Henahan Donal October 15 1990 Leonard Bernstein 72 Music s Monarch Dies The New York Times Retrieved February 11 2009 also in On this Day 25 August Leonard Bernstein Television Academy Retrieved July 15 2020 Leonard Bernstein Tony Awards Info BroadwayWorld Retrieved July 15 2020 Leonard Bernstein GRAMMY com November 19 2019 Retrieved July 15 2020 Leonard Bernstein Kennedy Center Retrieved July 15 2020 Leonard Bernstein Dies Conductor Composer Music Renaissance man of his art was 72 The longtime leader of the N Y Philharmonic carved a niche in history with West Side Story Los Angeles Times October 15 1990 Retrieved July 15 2020 Discography Leonard Bernstein leonardbernstein com Retrieved July 15 2020 The Man Who Mainstreamed Mahler by David Schiff The New York Times November 4 2001 Laird 2002 p 10 March 24 1965 The Night the Stars Came Out in Alabama Classical org March 24 2018 Retrieved July 15 2020 How Bernstein Came to MASS Brandeis University Retrieved July 15 2020 Upheaval in the East Berlin Near the Wall Bernstein Leads an Ode to Freedom The New York Times Associated Press December 26 1989 ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved July 15 2020 Dougary Ginny March 13 2010 Leonard Bernstein charismatic pompous and a great father The Times UK Retrieved March 17 2020 subscription required also here Archived August 3 2020 at the Wayback Machine at ginnydougary co uk Oliver Myrna October 15 1990 Leonard Bernstein Dies Conductor Composer Music Renaissance man of his art was 72 The longtime leader of the N Y Philharmonic carved a niche in history with West Side Story Los Angeles Times Retrieved March 17 2020 Rovner Adam November 2006 So Easily Assimilated The New Immigrant Chic AJS Review 30 2 313 324 doi 10 1017 S0364009406000158 S2CID 162547428 Peyser 1987 pp 22 24 Edwina Pitman August 12 2018 Lenny changed my life why Bernstein still inspires The Guardian Retrieved August 10 2019 Campbell Corinna Harvard Bernstein Festival Program Book Archived April 13 2020 at the Wayback Machine Burton Bernstein Obituary The New York Times August 29 2017 Schwartz Penny April 26 2018 Boston Pops to celebrate the magic of Leonard Bernstein Jewish Journal Simeone 2013 p 8 Leonard Bernstein at the Encyclopaedia Britannica Peyser 1987 p 34 Swan Claudia 1999 Leonard Bernstein the Harvard years 1935 1939 New York Eos Orchestra ISBN 0 9648083 4 X OCLC 41502300 Burton 1994 pp 52 55 Burton 1994 pp 35 36 a b Laird amp Lin 2019 p page needed See for instance Bernstein s 1980 TV Documentary Teachers and Teaching available on a Deutsche Grammophon DVD Bernstein www curtis edu Archived from the original on January 24 2021 Retrieved December 10 2020 Summer 1940 Celebrate Bernstein Retrieved December 10 2020 Tanglewood Educator About Leonard Bernstein leonardbernstein com Retrieved July 1 2020 About Bernstein Leonard Bernstein official site Retrieved January 15 2007 Leonard Bernstein Biography Sony Classical Archived from the original on October 13 2005 Retrieved January 15 2007 a b Witemeyer Barbara Dentist to the Stars comment row 4 box 1 Leonard Bernstein Memories Leonard Bernstein Office Retrieved January 30 2022 a b Burton 1994 p 108 Sargeant Winthrop Judy Holliday Life Magazine April 2 1951 The Revuers 1940 Night Life in New York 78rpm 12 in Set Musicraft Records N 2 Popsike com Retrieved January 30 2022 Program and recording Archived September 17 2016 at the Wayback Machine except Wagner s Prelude to Die Meistersinger New York Philharmonic Digital Archives 75 Years Ago Today Bernstein s Famed Philharmonic Debut nyphil org Retrieved February 17 2021 Burton 1994 p 142 Fancy Free New York City Ballet Oja Carol J 2014 Bernstein Meets Broadway Collaborative Art in a Time of War New York Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 986209 2 OCLC 862780844 On the Town 1949 at IMDb Leonard Bernstein Conducts the New York City Symphony at City Center WNYC New York Public Radio Podcasts Live Streaming Radio News WNYC Retrieved February 17 2021 Arturo Toscanini the NBC years Amadeus Press 2002 ISBN 978 1 57467 069 1 Bradley Mark Philip September 12 2016 The World Reimagined Americans and Human Rights in the Twentieth Century New York p 13 ISBN 978 0 521 82975 5 OCLC 946031535 Peter Pan music and lyrics by Leonard Bernstein Playbill April 24 1950 Peter Pan Broadway Revival Imperial Theatre Playbill Retrieved May 31 2022 Leonard Bernstein Trouble in Tahiti original orchestral version Opera www boosey com Retrieved September 24 2021 Leonard Bernstein www leonardbernstein com Trouble in Tahiti Broadway Playhouse Theatre 1955 Playbill Retrieved January 20 2022 Wonderful Town Broadway Original Winter Garden Theatre Playbill Retrieved May 31 2022 Simeone 2013 p 311 Burton 1994 p 260 Candide 1956 57 at the Internet Broadway Database Dancer and actress Frances Taylor Davis was billed as Elizabeth Taylor Authors West Side Story Retrieved November 15 2021 West Side Story Music Theatre International September 16 2015 Retrieved November 15 2021 West Side Story 1957 at the Internet Broadway Database 60 plus years later West Side Story endures and thrives including a new production at 5th Avenue Theatre The Seattle Times May 24 2019 Retrieved November 15 2021 Classical Music in 2018 The year in statistics PDF Bachtrack 2019 Archived from the original PDF on March 29 2019 Retrieved November 15 2021 Rita Moreno winning Best Supporting Actress on YouTube West Side Story 2021 About the Movie Amblin Entertainment Retrieved November 15 2021 New York Philharmonic Leonard Bernstein Young People s Concerts Leonard Bernstein Retrieved September 20 2010 Young People s Concerts with the New York Philharmonic Television Academy Retrieved September 24 2021 Bernstein Leonard 2005 Leonard Bernstein s Young People s Concerts Hal Leonard ISBN 978 1 57467 102 5 Honors A Selected List Grammy Awards The Leonard Bernstein Office Inc Retrieved November 12 2015 New York Philharmonic World Premieres New York Philharmonic United States Premieres Thursday Evening Previews Performing Arts Encyclopedia Library of Congress memory loc gov Retrieved February 24 2022 Robin William May 31 2013 Looking Back at Lenny s Playlist The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved February 24 2022 Leonard Bernstein The Truth About a Legend leonardbernstein com Retrieved February 24 2022 Who is the Boss of a Concerto Bernstein on Gould s Historic Brahms Performance Classical org September 25 2018 Retrieved February 24 2022 Transcription of Bernstein s Glenn Gould Introduction Archived October 31 2000 at the Wayback Machine from a Rutgers University webpage Keller James Bernstein and Mahler Channeling a Prophet PDF Archived PDF from the original on October 10 2022 Leonard Bernstein February 7 1960 Who is Gustav Mahler leonardbernstein com episode transcript of Young People s Concert Retrieved February 24 2022 Mahler His Time Has Come Leonard Bernstein The Library of Congress BiblioTech PRO V3 2b 69 18 170 204 Retrieved February 24 2022 An Artist s Response to Violence Humanitarian About Leonard Bernstein leonardbernstein com Retrieved March 30 2022 June 6 amp 8 1968 Bernstein Mahler and Remembering Robert F Kennedy June 5 2018 Leonard Bernstein s Kaddish Symphony A Crisis Of Faith NPR Retrieved March 30 2022 Chichester Psalms Leonard Bernstein LA Phil Retrieved March 30 2022 Classical Music in 2018 the year in statistics PDF Archived from the original PDF on March 29 2019 Retrieved November 15 2021 6th Subscription Concert Vienna Philharmonic www wienerphilharmoniker at Retrieved May 3 2022 Chapin Schuyler 1992 Leonard Bernstein notes from a friend New York Walker ISBN 0 8027 1216 9 OCLC 25787112 Harold C Schonberg September 9 1971 Bernstein s New Work Reflects His Background on Broadway The New York Times Retrieved September 1 2021 Leonard Bernstein Mass full version www boosey com Retrieved September 1 2021 Review Leonard Bernstein s liturgy for the world America Magazine July 20 2018 Retrieved August 24 2022 Things Get Broken Commonweal Magazine www commonwealmagazine org Retrieved August 24 2022 Maggie Stapleton July 30 2021 Aug 27 Sony Classical Releases Leonard Bernstein s MASS at 50 Celebrating the Anniversary of its Premiere at the Kennedy Center press release Jensen Artists Musical America Retrieved January 31 2022 failed verification Burton Humphrey 1995 Leonard Bernstein London Faber and Faber p 410 ISBN 0 571 17368 3 OCLC 32510075 The Unanswered Question Six Talks at Harvard Music January 11 1976 retrieved August 24 2022 The Unanswered Question Leonard Bernstein www hup harvard edu Retrieved August 24 2022 Dybbuk New York City Ballet www nycballet com Retrieved May 3 2022 Schonberg Harold C December 16 1977 Music A Songfest The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved August 24 2022 Holland Bernard July 9 1985 MUSIC BERNSTEIN AT JONES BEACH The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved August 24 2022 Burton Humphrey 1995 Leonard Bernstein London Faber and Faber ISBN 0 571 17368 3 OCLC 32510075 Bernstein in London Verdi s Requiem 1970 IMDb retrieved October 20 2022 Schonberg Harold C September 20 1972 Opera A New Carmen Daring and Provocative The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved October 20 2022 BIZET Carmen Bernstein www deutschegrammophon com Retrieved October 20 2022 Catalogue www deutschegrammophon com Retrieved February 2 2023 Leonard Bernstein Unitel Catalogue PDF Unitel de Retrieved October 20 2022 Burton Humphrey December 24 1971 Beethoven s Birthday A Celebration in Vienna with Leonard Bernstein Documentary Music Amberson Productions Inc retrieved October 20 2022 Outstanding Musical Program Nominees Winners 1972 Television Academy Retrieved October 20 2022 Classical Net Review Beethoven The Amnesty International Concert Classical Net Retrieved February 2 2023 Barbara Hendricks June 1 2014 Lifting My Voice A Memoir Chicago ISBN 978 1 61374 852 7 OCLC 879372080 Mahler Symphony No 9 Gramophone Retrieved February 2 2023 a b c Burton 1994 pp 158 160 Accolades About Leonard Bernstein www leonardbernstein com Retrieved February 2 2023 Leonard Bernstein August 25 1918 October 14 1990 a complete catalog of his works celebrating his 80th birthday year 1998 99 Jack Gottlieb 3rd edition ed New York 1998 ISBN 0 913932 82 5 OCLC 40803989 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint others link Leonard Bernstein Quiet Place Opera www boosey com Retrieved February 2 2023 Burton Humphrey January 14 2011 Bernstein s A Quiet Place silence is golden The Guardian ISSN 0261 3077 Retrieved February 2 2023 Leonard Bernstein and Maximilian Schell discussing Beethoven s 6th and 7th Symphony on YouTube video clip 9 minutes Marion Kalter www marionkalter com Retrieved April 7 2021 Educator About Leonard Bernstein leonardbernstein com Retrieved March 2 2023 A Constructive Force in Practical Music Education LA Phil Retrieved March 2 2023 Bernstein Conducts Gershwin Barber and Copland CD www laphilstore com Retrieved March 2 2023 About the Festival Orchestra Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival www shmf de Retrieved March 2 2023 Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival Educator About Leonard Bernstein leonardbernstein com Retrieved March 2 2023 Sparkassen und Giroverband fur Schleswig Holstein Leonard Bernstein Award www sgvsh de Retrieved March 2 2023 What is PMF PMF Organizing Committee PMF Retrieved March 2 2023 1990 1999 Archive PMF Retrieved March 2 2023 Bernstein Legacy Persists In Music Education Video Christian Science Monitor ISSN 0882 7729 Retrieved March 2 2023 Burton Humphrey 1995 Leonard Bernstein London Faber and Faber ISBN 0 571 17368 3 OCLC 32510075 Prelude Fugue amp Riffs Fall Winter 2005 PDF The Leonard Bernstein Society Archived PDF from the original on June 1 2013 History of the Leonard Bernstein Center for Learning Archived from the original on January 2 2015 Retrieved January 2 2015 Ode to Freedom Beethoven Symphony No 9 NTSC Classical Music Catalogue Naxos Records 2006 EuroArts 2072038 Archived from the original on November 22 2006 Retrieved November 26 2006 failed verification Burton Humphrey 1995 Leonard Bernstein London Faber and Faber p 480 ISBN 0 571 17368 3 OCLC 32510075 Garrison Keillor August 25 2003 The Writer s Almanac American Public Media Archived from the original on March 11 2007 Retrieved January 17 2007 Kozinn Allan October 10 1990 Bernstein Retires From Performing Citing Poor Health The New York Times Retrieved October 12 2015 Clark Sedgewick June 13 1993 Recording View Bernstein Yet More Surprises The New York Times Retrieved October 20 2015 Mangan Timothy March 26 2018 Carl St Clair Remembers Leonard Bernstein The Bernstein Experience on Classical org Retrieved October 15 2020 Simeone 2013 p 120 Simeone 2013 p 143 Simeone 2013 p 294 Charles Kaiser The Gay Metropolis New York City 1940 1996 p page needed a b Secrest 1994 p page needed Peyser 1987 pp 196 204 322 Alexander Bernstein Papas Geheimnis Alexander Bernstein Papa s Secret Der Spiegel in German July 1 2022 ISSN 2195 1349 Retrieved July 1 2022 Leonard Bernstein a gay man who dabbled in the straight world July 12 2011 Retrieved November 20 2015 Burton 1994 pp 446 447 Alberge Dalya August 17 2019 Passionate tender heartbreaking letters reveal Leonard Bernstein s 10 year secret affair The Observer Retrieved August 18 2019 Leonard Bernstein A Total Embrace of Music Classical Notes Peter Gutmann www classicalnotes net Died On This Date October 14 1990 Leonard Bernstein World Renowned Composer The Music s Over October 14 2009 Retrieved May 3 2012 Stanton Scott September 1 2003 The Tombstone Tourist Musicians Simon amp Schuster ISBN 978 0 7434 6330 0 via Google Books a b 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 Wilson Scott Resting Places The Burial Sites of More Than 14 000 Famous Persons 3rd ed 2 Kindle Locations 3707 3708 McFarland amp Company Kindle Edition Davis Peter G May 17 2011 When Mahler Took Manhattan The New York Times Retrieved August 28 2018 Small wonder that Bernstein is buried with the score of Mahler s Fifth Symphony placed over his heart Google Doodle Celebrates Leonard Bernstein s 100th Birthday with West Side Story Video by Annabel Gutterman Time August 25 2018 Leonard Bernstein s 100th Birthday Google August 25 2018 Leonard Bernstein at 100 August 17 2017 Leonard Bernstein at 100 Exhibition Comes to Skirball Cultural Center April 26 2018 Skirball Cultural Center Celebrates Leonard Bernstein at 100 The Hollywood Reporter April 27 2018 Bernstein The Best of All Possible Worlds Causes and Effecting Change Archived from the original on December 24 2010 Seldes 2009 p page needed Leonard Bernstein s New York by Barbara Hoffman New York Post October 18 2014 Radical Chic Hope for America Performers Politics and Pop Culture Library of Congress Archived from the original on July 25 2012 Retrieved December 12 2010 False Note on Black Panthers The New York Times January 16 1970 Wolfe Tom Radical Chic That Party at Lenny s New York Tom Wolfe on Radical Chic and Leonard Bernstein s Party for the Black Panthers Retrieved December 11 2010 Wolfe Tom June 8 1970 Radical Chic that Party at Lenny s PDF New York Archived PDF from the original on October 10 2022 Retrieved March 1 2010 Leonard Bernstein A political life The Economist May 28 2009 Retrieved December 12 2010 Bernstein Felicia M January 21 1970 Letters to the Editor of The Times Panthers Legal Aid The New York Times The Social Activist Bernstein The Best of All Possible Worlds Carnegie Hall Corporation Archived from the original on December 23 2010 Retrieved December 12 2010 Andrew Glass June 22 2012 Counterattack publishes Red Channels June 22 1950 Politico originally as Bernstein Copland Seeger and others are named as Communists at history com Kennedy Joan September 1 1994 The Joy of Classical Music A Guide for You and Your Family Reissue ed New York Main Street Books ISBN 978 0 385 41263 6 Kennedy Edward M 2009 True Compass A Memoir 1st ed New York Twelve ISBN 978 0 446 53925 8 OCLC 434905205 Temple Emanuel Archived from the original on November 25 2018 Retrieved October 12 2011 Harrison Eric August 9 1993 The maestro s legacy reverberates in Nashville Leonard Bernstein s dream of creating a center that integrates the arts and the classroom is in full swing Los Angeles Times Retrieved October 11 2011 Leonard Bernstein s Arts Based Education Revolution HuffPost June 12 2013 Retrieved June 12 2013 Artful Learning Model The Leonard Bernstein Center Retrieved February 7 2015 Holmes John L 1982 Conductors on Record UK Greenwood Press ISBN 978 0 313 22990 9 Audio recording Leonard Bernstein Glenn Gould and the Columbia Symphony Orchestra on archive org In the 1978 Peter Rosen documentary Leonard Bernstein Reflections now available on a Medici Arts DVD 2008 2009 Season Orchestra Repertoire Report PDF League of American Orchestras Retrieved January 21 2011 permanent dead link Gruen 1968 p page needed Book of Members 1780 2010 Chapter B PDF American Academy of Arts and Sciences Archived PDF from the original on June 18 2006 Retrieved June 24 2011 Leonard Bernstein MacDowell Colony MacDowell Medal winners 1960 2011 The Telegraph April 13 2011 Archived from the original on January 11 2022 Leonard Bernstein composer conductor and pianist Gramophone Members Theater Hall of Fame Honorees Television Academy Melissa Wasserman October 14 2015 Legacy Walk unveils five new bronze memorial plaques Windy City Times Sources Edit Simeone Nigel ed 2013 The Leonard Bernstein Letters Yale University Press ISBN 978 0 300 17909 5 OCLC 861692638 Burton Humphrey 1994 Leonard Bernstein London Faber and Faber ISBN 978 0 571 17368 6 OCLC 32510075 Doubleday edition Gruen John 1968 The Private World of Leonard Bernstein Photographs by Ken Heyman New York Viking Press ISBN 978 0 670 57855 9 Laird Paul R 2002 Leonard Bernstein A Guide to Research New York Routledge ISBN 978 0 8153 3517 7 Laird Paul R Lin Hsun 2019 Historical Dictionary of Leonard Bernstein Lanham Maryland Rowman amp Littlefield ISBN 978 1 5381 1344 8 OCLC 1084631326 Peyser Joan 1987 Bernstein a Biography New York Beech Tree Books William Morrow ISBN 978 0 688 04918 8 Secrest Meryle 1994 Leonard Bernstein A Life Alfred A Knopf ISBN 0 679 40731 6 Seldes Barry 2009 Leonard Bernstein The Political Life of an American Musician University of California Press ISBN 978 0 520 25764 1 Further reading EditBernstein Burton 1982 Family Matters Sam Jennie and the Kids Simon amp Schuster ISBN 978 0 595 13342 0 Bernstein Burton Haws Barbara eds 2008 Leonard Bernstein American Original Contains chapters by Alan Rich Paul Boyer Carol J Oja Tim Page Burton Bernstein Jonathan Rosenberg Joseph Horowitz Bill McGlaughlin James M Keller and John Adams New York HarperCollins ISBN 978 0 06 153786 8 Bernstein Jamie 2018 Famous Father Girl A Memoir of Growing Up Bernstein HarperCollins Publishers ISBN 978 0 06 264135 9 Bernstein Shirley 1963 Making Music Leonard Bernstein Chicago Encyclopaedia Britannica Press ASIN B0007E073Y Briggs John 1961 Leonard Bernstein The Man His Works and His World World Publishing Co ISBN 978 1 163 81079 8 Burton William W 1995 Conversations about Bernstein New York Oxford University Press New York ISBN 978 0 19 507947 0 Chapin Schuyler 1992 Leonard Bernstein Notes from a Friend New York Walker ISBN 978 0 8027 1216 5 Cone Molly and Robert Galster 1970 Leonard Bernstein New York Thomas Y Crowell Co ISBN 978 0 690 48786 2 Ewen David 1960 Leonard Bernstein A Biography for Young People Philadelphia Chilton Co ISBN 978 1 376 19065 6 Fluegel Jane ed 1991 Bernstein Remembered a life in pictures New York Carroll amp Graf Publishers ISBN 978 0 88184 722 2 Freedland Michael 1987 Leonard Bernstein London England Harrap Ltd ISBN 978 0 245 54499 6 Gottlieb Jack ed 1992 Leonard Bernstein s Young People s Concerts revised ed New York Anchor Books ISBN 978 0 385 42435 6 Gottlieb Jack 2010 Working With Bernstein Amadeus Press ISBN 978 1 57467 186 5 Green Diane Huss 1963 Lenny s Surprise Piano San Carlos California Golden Gate Junior Books ASIN B0006AYE10 Hurwitz Johanna 1963 Leonard Bernstein A Passion of Music Philadelphia The Jewish Publication Society ISBN 978 0 8276 0501 5 Ledbetter Steven 1988 Sennets amp Tuckets A Bernstein Celebration Boston Boston Symphony Orchestra in association with David Godine Publisher ISBN 978 0 87923 775 2 Reidy John P amp Norman Richards 1967 People of Destiny Leonard Bernstein Chicago Children s Press ASIN B0092UTPIW Robinson Paul 1982 Bernstein The Art of Conducting Series New York Vanguard Press ASIN B01K92K1OI Rozen Brian D 1997 The Contributions of Leonard Bernstein to Music Education An Analysis of his 53 Young People s Concerts Thesis PhD Rochester New York University of Rochester OCLC 48156751 Shawn Allen 2014 Leonard Bernstein An American Musician Yale University Press ISBN 978 0 300 14428 4 Wolfe Tom 1987 Radical Chic and Mau Mauing the Flak Catchers New York Farrar Straus amp Giroux ASIN B01NAOARU3 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Leonard Bernstein Wikiquote has quotations related to Leonard Bernstein Official website Leonard Bernstein at Sony Classical Leonard Bernstein at IMDb Leonard Bernstein at the Internet Broadway Database Leonard Bernstein at the Internet Off Broadway Database Leonard Bernstein at Playbill Vault Talking About Leonard Bernstein at The Interviews An Oral History of Television Composer s entry on IRCAM s databaseArchival recordsLeonard Bernstein collection circa 1900 1995 Library of Congress Bernstein Online Collection Library of Congress Mildred Spiegel Zucker collection of Leonard Bernstein correspondence and related materials 1936 1991 Library of Congress Portals Classical music Opera Biography Music Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Leonard Bernstein amp oldid 1144521018, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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