Leonard Bernstein: An American Life Links:

Program Descriptions

Leonard Bernstein: The Early Years (1917-1939)
Thursday, October 7 at 9pm
The series begins with an overview and introduction to the career of Leonard Bernstein. Listeners are then taken back to the beginning, to the sub-culture of Eastern European immigrant American Jews in the first decades of this century as reflected in the life and worldview of Leonard Bernstein’s father Sam. The program examines the hopes, ambitions and ethos of the immigrant Jews and how their culture and music resonated with and influenced the young Bernstein.

The hour follows Bernstein through his early years, through his Harvard years and finally to his meeting with Aaron Copland, and Copland’s key influence on Bernstein’s development.

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12 Gates to the City - Meeting the Mentors (1939-1943)
Thursday, October 14 at 9pm
This episode takes listeners through Bernstein’s years at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia under Fritz Reiner, his first summer at Tanglewood, his friendship with the great conductor Dmitri Mitropolous and the beginning of his life changing apprenticeship with Boston Symphony Orchestra Maestro, Serge Koussevitsky. After Curtis, Bernstein moves to New York where we meet his show business friends: Adolph Green, Betty Comden, and Judy Holliday, then performing as the Revuers, with Bernstein as an occasional accompanist.

While working as a transcriber and arranger for Harms Music Publishing, Bernstein gets his first miraculous break, an appointment as assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic. The assistantship culminates in 1943 with Bernstein filling in for the sick Bruno Walter and becoming the first American born conductor to lead a New York Philharmonic subscription concert. The Sunday afternoon concert is broadcast on national radio and the 25-year-old Bernstein is suddenly a star.

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New York, New York (1944-1951)
Thursday, October 21 at 9pm
A look at the peripatetic world of the young Leonard Bernstein as he establishes himself as the wunderkind of American culture. The program follows him from the creation of the groundbreaking musical comedy “On The Town” with Jerome Robbins, Adolph Green and Betty Comden, to his emergence as a force in the world “serious music” with the composition of his first two symphonies, “Jeremiah” and “Age of Anxiety.”

The program follows Bernstein as he takes the baton of The New York City Center Orchestra and examines some of the other personalities who were significant in his development, including the composer Mark Blitzstein. Also discussed is Bernstein’s role in the Israeli War of Independence and the establishment of the Israel Philharmonic. Listeners also glimpse Bernstein’s role as both agent and representative of the change in American culture during the immediate post war era.

The hour ends with Bernstein’s marriage to the Chilean actress, Felicia Montealegre.

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Tonight (1951-1958)
Thursday, October 28 at 9pm
In hour 4, the series explores Bernstein’s role in the development of Tanglewood, the newly established Brandeis University, his first opera, “Trouble in Tahiti,” the death of Serge Koussevitsky and the birth of Bernstein’s first two children Jamie and Alexander. Listeners follow his triumphant conducting debut with Maria Callas at La Scala in Milan, his return to Broadway with the show “Wonderful Town,” his film scoring “On the Waterfront” and his compositional work of the period “Serenade.”

The mid 1950’s find Bernstein at the height of his public reputation with TV music specials for Robert Saudek, the CBS series “Omnibus,” and finally Bernstein’s landmark works in the musical theatre, “Candide” and “West Side Story.”

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A New Frontier -The Philharmonic Years (1959-68)
Thursday, November 4 at 9pm
Three months after Bernstein’s triumph with “West Side Story,” Bernstein assumes the role of conductor and music director for the New York Philharmonic, arguably America’s flagship orchestra. This hour finds Bernstein, enthroned as “star conductor.” He is considered the heir to the tradition of Koussevitsky, Stokowski and Toscanini and the living embodiment of the Television age in serious music.

The program examines Bernstein as a key cultural component of the ideology and mythos of the Kennedy Years. In this era, Bernstein also composes and performs his 3rd and 4th symphonies “Kaddish” and “Chichester Psalms.” We hear the music and examine the mixed critical response to Bernstein’s compositional work in these years. Finally, this episode explores the influence of the New York Philharmonic’s televised “Young People’s Concerts.”

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Bernstein: The Conductor
Thursday, November 11 & 18 at 9pm
In these two hours, the program discusses Bernstein’s evolution as a conductor - from his apprenticeship with Serge Koussevitsky, Fritz Reiner, and Dmitri Mitropoulos, to his Philharmonic debut and his subsequent career leading the Philharmonic. Touching on his early work with the Israel Philharmonic and his guest-conducting career in Europe and in Israel in the latter part of his life, the program explores Bernstein’s historic role as the first important American born conductor. The program also delves in to a discussion about the role of a conductor. What does a conductor do and how does he/she do it? What is the relationship between a conductor’s interpretation of a work and the score itself?

”Bernstein: The Conductor” also examines Bernstein’s role as a teacher, which was both central to his idea of himself, and perhaps also central to the development of a generation of American conductors.

Covering first how Bernstein's interpretations of the classics differ from those of other great conductors, the program also looks at the many examples of what music Bernstein best liked to conduct and discuss his role in the introduction of 20th Century works into the classical repertoire. Also examined is Bernstein’s central role in the revival of interest in the work of composer and conductor, Gustav Mahler.

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Crossroads (1968-1978)
Thursday, November 25 at 9pm
Bernstein leaves the Philharmonic in 1968 to concentrate more on composition. This hour covers the creation of Bernstein’s Mass in 1971, his Norton lectures on music and language at Harvard in 1973, and his signing of a new record contract with Deutsche Grammophon in 1972, ending his 25 year relationship with Columbia records. This move to the German based record company was accompanied by a steady tilt of Bernstein away from his American base and toward Europe where he now did most of his conducting.

This hour will also touch on Bernstein’s Songfest of 1977, his collaboration on the ballet Dybbuk with Jerome Robbins in 1974, and the colossal failure of his 1976 Bicentennial musical collaboration with lyricist Alan Jay Lerner on the ill fated musical 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

In 1976 Bernstein publicly separated with wife Felicia and moved in with his longtime lover, Tommy Cochran. Four months later Bernstein moved back in with Felicia, just before she was diagnosed with lung cancer. She died in 1978 and Bernstein blamed himself for her death. He never completely recovered -- either from her loss or his sense of guilt.

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Bernstein: The Composer
Thursday, December 2 & 9 at 9pm
Bernstein’s role as a composer is often overshadowed by his roles as conductor and teacher. These two hours will feature an examination of Bernstein’s body of composed music. By viewing Bernstein’s musical theatre work and his concert composition as part of a whole, the program discusses both Bernstein’s popular and obscure works and re-evaluates his work as a composer.

This program traces the evolution of Bernstein's own works, including his three Symphonies: “Jeremiah,” “Age of Anxiety” and “Kaddish”; and many of his other works, including: “Facsimile,” “Fancy Free,” “Chichester Psalms,” “Mass,” “On the Town,” “Wonderful Town,” “West Side Story,” ”On The Waterfront,” “Trouble in Tahiti,” “1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,” “Songfest,” “A Quiet Place,” “Candide,” “Dybbuk,” “Halil,” “Jubilee Games,” “Arias” and “Barcarolles,” and other piano, vocal and symphonic works.

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A Candle Burned At Both Ends (1979-1990)
Thursday, December 16 at 9pm
Bernstein continues his moves toward Europe in the 80’s. His work in this period includes the opera “A Quiet Place,” and the film “Love of 3 Orchestras” which documents Bernstein’s work with the Vienna Philharmonic, The New York Philharmonic and the Israel Philharmonic. The program examines Bernstein’s role in the launching of the Mahler mania of the last 20 years as well as his last compositional work Concerto for Orchestra. “A Candle Burned at Both Ends” follows Bernstein to his heroic Freedom Concert at the fall of the Berlin Wall, to his last performance in Tanglewood, to the events surrounding his death in 1990.

Finally, the program examines Bernstein’s legacy. In his last stages of his life, he seems to be racing against the clock to finish major compositional works that he hopes will help gain him the reputation as a major composer; the one attainment he feels has somehow eluded him. While his major compositions of his last period - the opera “A Quiet Place,” and his “Concerto for Orchestra” - do not bring him the desired acclaim, Bernstein remains the most celebrated conductor in the world right up to his death.

His final days are colored by his own sense of failure. Only after his passing does it become clear the immensity of Bernstein’s place in the music of the 20th century.

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