Leonard Bernstein

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Leonard Bernstein in 1971
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Leonard Bernstein in 1971

Leonard Bernstein (August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American composer and orchestra 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.

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Biography

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Childhood

Bernstein was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1918 to a Jewish family from Rovno, Russia. His father, Sam Bernstein, was a businessman, and initially opposed Bernstein's interest in music. Despite this, the elder Bernstein frequently took Louis, as his son was called, to orchestra concerts. One time, Bernstein heard a piano performance and was immediately captivated; he subsequently began learning the piano at a young age. During this time, Bernstein attended Boston Latin School.

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College

After graduation from Boston Latin School, 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 Helen Coates and Heinrich Gebhard.

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Legacy

He was highly regarded as a conductor, composer, pianist, and educator. He is 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 the musical West Side Story. All told, he wrote three symphonies, two operas, five musicals, and numerous other pieces. Bernstein's politics were decidedly left wing, but unlike some of his contemporaries, he was not blacklisted in the 1950s. In the late 1960s or early 1970s he threw a benefit for the Black Panthers, and publicly opposed the Vietnam War.

In November 1943, he made his debut as a conductor when Bruno Walter was ill, and was an immediate success. 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. During the 1960s, he became a well-known figure in the US through his series of "Young People's Concerts" for US public television.

His compositions were heavily influenced by Jewish liturgical music (notably his symphonies 1 and 3 and the Chichester Psalms) and by Gustav Mahler, George Gershwin and his friend Aaron Copland.

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 "joy" (Freude) for "freedom" (Freiheit). "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 good in the works of Gustav Mahler, Aaron Copland, Johannes Brahms, Dmitri Shostakovich and of course his own. However, some people found his conducting style to be histrionic, irritating and distracting; he danced and went into fits of exultation as he conducted. Bernstein's personal life was marked by anguish over the trade-off between a conductor's glory and a composer's productivity, and the criticism invited by his impassioned political activism. It has been alleged that Bernstein also felt a conflict between his devotion to his family and his bisexuality, but Arthur Laurents (Bernstein's collaborator in West Side Story), told Charles Kaiser (author of The Gay Metropolis) that Bernstein was simply "a gay man who got married. He wasn't conflicted about it at all. He was just gay." Another friend of Bernstein, Shelly Rhoades Perle, told Bernstein's biographer, Meryl Secrest, that she thought "he required men sexually and women emotionally."

Bernstein suffered bouts of depression in his later years.

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 originaly performed by the Israeli legendary actress Hanna Robina.) Although a loving father, Bernstein was notorious in the musical world for his promiscuity. The couple separated in the mid-1970s when she discovered that Bernstein had had several homosexual relationships. After the separation with his wife, Bernstein lived with Tom Cochran, his partner since 1971. He returned to care for his wife when she became terminally ill.

Samuel Byck, a psychopath who attempted to assassinate President Nixon, had sent details of his plan to Bernstein whom he admired both as a person and as a composer.

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


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Awards and recognitions

Main article: List of Grammy and Tony Awards for Leonard Bernstein
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Principal works with first performance dates

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Works for the theater

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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
  • 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:

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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See related composers

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External links

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