Posted on 08/25/2018 10:23:26 AM PDT by EveningStar
Today marks what would have been the 100th birthday of the great musician, Leonard Bernstein.
From Wikipedia:
Leonard Bernstein (August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American composer, conductor, author, music lecturer, and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the US to receive worldwide acclaim. According to music critic Donal Henahan, he was "one of the most prodigiously talented and successful musicians in American history."Other articles:
His fame derived from his long tenure as the music director of the New York Philharmonic, from his conducting of concerts with most of the world's leading orchestras, and from his music for West Side Story, Peter Pan, Candide, Wonderful Town, On the Town, On the Waterfront, his Mass, and a range of other compositions, including three symphonies and many shorter chamber and solo works.
Bernstein was the first conductor to give a series of television lectures on classical music, starting in 1954 and continuing until his death. He was a skilled pianist, often conducting piano concertos from the keyboard. He was also a critical figure in the modern revival of the music of Gustav Mahler, the composer he was most passionately interested in.
As a composer he wrote in many styles encompassing symphonic and orchestral music, ballet, film and theatre music, choral works, opera, chamber music and pieces for the piano. Many of his works are regularly performed around the world, although none has matched the tremendous popular and critical success of West Side Story.
At 100, West Side Story composer Leonard Bernstein is still brilliant
Beyond West Side Story: 5 of Leonard Bernstein’s musical masterpieces
Life With Leonard Bernstein: The composer's daughter talks frankly about her new memoir
Google Doodle Celebrates Leonard Bernstein's 100th Birthday: Watch
Leonard Bernstein at 100: The Week in Classical Music
I saw his West Side Story in NYC with the original cast——marvelous.
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My husband has been talking it up - about his centennial, I mean.
In Barbara Cook’s memoir (she played the original Cundegonde in Candide) she talks about her proudest moment in life was when she suggested a small vocal change in Glitter and Be Gay that was easier on the voice and yet emotionally sound. Bernstein sighed heavily and said “Why didn’t I think of that?”
He might have been a Communist himself.
ping
Pretty good summation. Tom Wolfe’s famous article on the party at Lenny’s in support of the Black Panthers shows what a flake he was. Even though Lenny was a bit too much of an exhibitionist on the podium, he made great music through the years. I loved his Young People’s Concerts. He did a lot to educate the masses about classical music.
Love it!
He did wonderful work in music and music appreciation. And nobody ever said that musicians were great political minds! That was just the nonsense of the 60s and 70s, when suddenly every performer thought being able to sing, dance, act or whatever somehow made him a political and moral authority in everything.
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