Leonard Bernstein

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Image:Leonard Bernstein 1971.jpg Leonard Bernstein (August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American composer, pianist and conductor. He was the first conductor born in the United States of America to receive world-wide acclaim, and is known for both his conducting of the New York Philharmonic, including the acclaimed Young People's Concerts series, and his multiple compositions, including West Side Story and Candide.

1 Biography
2 Awards and recognitions
3 Principal works with first performance dates
4 See related composers
5 External links

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Biography

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Childhood

Bernstein was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1918 to a Jewish family from Rovno, Ukraine. His grandmother insisted his first name to be Louis, but his parents always called him Leonard, as they liked the name better. He had his name changed to Leonard officially when he was sixteen. His father, Sam Bernstein, was a businessman, and initially opposed Bernstein's interest in music. Despite this, the elder Bernstein frequently took him to orchestra concerts. One time, Bernstein heard a piano performance and was immediately captivated; he subsequently began learning the piano at a young age. As a child, Bernstein attended the Garrison and Boston Latin School.

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College

After graduation from Boston Latin School in 1935, Bernstein attended Harvard University, where he studied music with Walter Piston, and then the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where his teacher of conducting was Fritz Reiner. During his time at Curtis, Bernstein also studied piano with Isabella Vengerova and Heinrich Gebhard.

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Legacy

He was highly regarded as a conductor, composer, pianist, and educator, and probably best known to the public as long-time music director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, for conducting concerts by many of the world's leading orchestras, and for writing the music for West Side Story. All told, he wrote three symphonies, two operas, five musicals, and numerous other pieces.

Image:Bernstein, Leonard (1918-1990) - 1944 - foto van Vechten2.jpg In November 1943, having recently been appointed assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, he made his conducting debut when Bruno Walter was ill; he was an immediate success and became instantly famous, since the concert was nationally broadcast. In 1947 he conducted in Tel Aviv (then in Palestine), for the first time, beginning a life-long association with Israel. After World War II Bernstein's career on the international stage begain to flourish. In 1949 he conducted the world première of the Turangalîla-Symphonie by Olivier Messiaen. In 1957, he conducted the inaugural concert of the Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv; he subsequently made many recordings there. In 1958, Bernstein was named Music Director of the New York City Philharmonic Orchestra, a post he held until 1969. During the 1960s, he became a well-known figure in the US through his series of "Young People's Concerts" for US public television.

On Christmas Day, December 25, 1989, Bernstein conducted Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 as part of a celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall. 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 Ode to Joy, substituting the word "freedom" (Freiheit) for "joy" (Freude). "I'm sure that Beethoven would have given us his blessing", said Bernstein.

Bernstein was a highly-regarded conductor among many musicians, in particular the members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, of which he was a regular guest conductor. He was considered especially accomplished with the works of Gustav Mahler, Aaron Copland, Johannes Brahms, Dmitri Shostakovich and of course his own. He had a gift for rehearsing an entire Mahler symphony by acting out every phrase for the orchestra to convey the precise meaning, and of emitting a vocal manifestation of the effect required, with a subtly professional ear that missed nothing.

Bernstein married Felicia Montealegre, a Chilean actress, in 1951 and with her had three children. Montealegre participated in the performance of Bernstein's third symphony, "Kaddish", with the New York Philharmonic in the 1960's, as the speaker (a role originally performed by the legendary Israeli actress Hanna Robina.)

Bernstein died just five days after retiring. He conducted his final performance at Tanglewood, in the Berkshires in western Massachusetts, on August 19, 1990. It was the Boston Symphony playing Britten's "Four Sea Interludes" and Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. [1]

On the day of his funeral procession through the streets of Manhattan, construction workers removed their hats and waved and yelled "Goodbye Lenny."

Leonard Bernstein is buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York.

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Awards and recognitions

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Principal works with first performance dates

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Works for the theater

Fancy Free (ballet), 1944
On the Town (Musical), 1944
Facsimile (ballet), 1946
Peter Pan (songs, incidental music), 1950
Trouble in Tahiti (opera in one act), 1952
Wonderful Town (musical), 1953
On the Waterfront (film score), 1954
The Lark (incidental music), 1955
Candide (operetta), 1956
West Side Story (musical), 1957
The Firstborn (incidental music), 1958
Mass (theatre piece for singers, players and dancers), 1971
Dybbuk (ballet), 1974
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, 1976
A Quiet Place (opera in two acts), 1983
The Race to Urga (musical), 1987

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Orchestral works for the concert hall

Symphony No. 1, Jeremiah, 1944
Fancy Free and Three Dance Variations from "Fancy Free,", concert premiere 1946
Three Dance Episodes from "On the Town," concert premiere 1947
Symphony No. 2, The Age of Anxiety, (after W. H. Auden) for Piano and Orchestra, 1949
Serenade (after Plato's "Symposium") for Solo Violin, Strings, Harp and Percussion, 1954
Prelude, Fugue and Riffs for Solo Clarinet and Jazz Ensemble, 1955
Symphonic Suite from "On the Waterfront", 1955
Symphonic Dances from "West Side Story", 1961
Symphony No. 3, Kaddish, for Orchestra, Mixed Chorus, Boys' Choir, Speaker and Soprano Solo, 1963
Dybbuk, Suites No. 1 and 2 for Orchestra, concert premieres 1975
Songfest: A Cycle of American Poems for Six Singers and Orchestra, 1977
Three Meditations from "Mass" for Violoncello and Orchestra, 1977
Slava!: A Political Overture for Orchestra, 1977
Divertimento for Orchestra, 1980
Halil, nocturne for Solo Flute, Piccolo, Alto Flute, Percussion, Harp and Strings, 1981
Concerto for Orchestra, 1989

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Choral music for church or synagogue

Hashkiveinu for Solo Tenor, Mixed Chorus and Organ, 1945
Missa Brevis for Mixed Chorus and Countertenor Solo, with Percussion, 1988
Chichester Psalms for Countertenor, Mixed Chorus, Organ, Harp and Percussion, 1965

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Chamber music

Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, 1942
Brass Music, 1959
Dance Suite, 1988

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Vocal music

I Hate Music: A cycle of Five Kids Songs for Soprano and Piano, 1943
La Bonne Cuisine: Four Recipes for Voice and Piano, 1948
Arias and Barcarolles for Mezzo-Soprano, Baritone and Piano four-hands, 1988
A Song Album, 1988

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Other music

Various Piano pieces
Other occasional works, written as gifts and other forms of memorial and tribute

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Books

Books by Bernstein:

Findings. Originally published by New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982. New edition, New York: Anchor Books, 1993 has ISBN 038542437X.
The Infinite Variety of Music. Originally published by Simon and Schuster, 1966. New York: Anchor Books, 1993. ISBN 0385424388.
The Joy of Music, originally c 1959. Pompton Plains, New Jersey: Amadeus Press edition, c 2004, ISBN 1574671049.
The Unanswered Question. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1976. ISBN 0674920007.

Books about or dealing with Bernstein:

Gottlieb, Jack, editor. Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts. Printed by New York: Anchor Books in 1962, reissued by them in a revised edition in 1992 with ISBN 0385424353.
Burton, Humphrey. Leonard Bernstein. Doubleday. 1994. Hardcover: ISBN 0385423454, Softcover: ISBN 0385423527. (Excellent and comprehensive biography of Bernstein)

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