1999
Search results
People also ask
What did Leonard Bernstein do?
How did Bernstein become famous?
What did Bernstein do for a living?
What is Leonard Bernstein Award?
- West Side Story. With two film adaptations and many successful stage runs, West Side Story is Bernstein’s best-known work by far. A collaboration with lyricist Stephen Sondheim and director-choreographer Jerome Robbins, it’s considered by many to be one of the greatest musicals of all time.
- Candide. Originally intended as a play, Candide was transformed into an operetta when an enthusiastic Bernstein convinced librettist Lillian Hellman of his vision.
- Chichester Psalms. Epic and jovial, serene and pure, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms is a large choral work written for choir and orchestra, and boy treble or countertenor soloist.
- MASS: A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players, and Dancers. The full title gives you a giant clue as to what’s happening here. With his trademark flair for the eclectic, Bernstein takes the traditional Catholic mass and transforms it into a Broadway-infused showpiece, complete with orchestra, dancers, rock band, and a marching band for good measure.
Leonard Bernstein (/ ˈ b ɜːr n s t aɪ n / BURN-styne; [1] born Louis Bernstein; 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-born conductor to receive international ...
Aug 21, 2024 · Leonard Bernstein was an American conductor, composer, and pianist noted for his accomplishments in both classical and popular music, for his flamboyant conducting style, and for his pedagogic flair, especially in concerts for young people.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Dec 20, 2023 · Best known for composing the Broadway musical West Side Story, his inspired and voracious conducting style led to his big break conducting the New York Philharmonic in 1943. He was...
- Symphony No. 1 “Jeremiah”
- Prelude, Fugue and Riffs
- Candide
- Fancy Free
- On The Town
- Symphony No. 2 “The Age of Anxiety”
- Mass – A Theatre Piece For Singers, Players and Dancers
- On The Waterfront – Symphonic Suite
- Chichester Psalms
- West Side Story
It was this work that established Leonard Bernstein as an important American symphonist – and indeed sealed his position as a leading American musician – for the premiere of the “Jeremiah” Symphony in January 1944 came just a few months after Bernstein’s legendary conducting debut with the New York Philharmonic when he became the last-minute stand-...
This is one of Leonard Bernstein’s most frequently performed shorter concert works, a great favourite with wind ensembles. Here, he attempts to marry classical Baroque forms (prelude, fugue) with jazz, though the latter style very much dominates proceedings. Its original line-up was a standard dance-band instrumentation of solo clarinet, five saxop...
The Overture to Candide is, West Side Storyexcepted, probably Leonard Bernstein’s best-known and certainly most instantly-recognisable piece. It’s a firecracker of an opener, setting the scene for this operetta, a direct descendant of those by Offenbach and Gilbert & Sullivan. The Overture is widely played – but the operetta is a different matter. ...
This ballet is the work that launched the long-standing collaboration between Leonard Bernstein and famed choreographer Jerome Robbins. It was commissioned by the New York Ballet Theatre and first performed on 18th April 1944. The composer described the ballet’s plot as follows: “The action begins with the sound of a juke box wailing behind the cur...
Fancy Free, one of Bernstein’s best works, was the direct inspiration for his biggest popular success before West Side Story. The idea came from Oliver Smith, the 25 year-old designer of the sets for Fancy Free (it’s worth remembering that Bernstein was only 26 when Fancy Freeopened). He and his friend Paul Feigay set out to produce the show with B...
All three of Leonard Bernstein’s symphonies are about what he called “the struggle that is born of our century, a crisis of faith”. Thus Symphony No. 1 “Jeremiah” ends with a mezzo-soprano singing the Hebrew prophet’s lamentation over the fall of the temple (the text is from the Book of Lamentations); Symphony No. 3 “Kaddish” has choirs singing Jew...
This mammoth work – its running time is around 110 minutes – was written at the request of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis for the 1971 inauguration of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in Washington, D.C. Leonard Bernstein had dedicated his “Kaddish” Symphony to the memory of the assassinated president and had also conducted the funer...
We’ve seen Leonard Bernstein the operetta composer, ballet composer, musical composer, chamber music and choral composer – now here is Bernstein the film composer. On the Waterfront, one of Bernstein’s best works, is his only original film score not adapted from a stage production with songs. It opened in New York City on July 28, 1954. Directed by...
In early December 1963, Leonard Bernstein received a letter from the Very Reverend Walter Hussey, Dean of the Cathedral of Chichester in Sussex, England, requesting a piece for the Cathedral’s 1965 music festival: “The Chichester Organist and Choirmaster, John Birch, and I, are very anxious to have written some piece of music which the combined cho...
Many believe that Leonard Bernstein wrote his best music when he was young. Others believe, in addition, that the best of his music was written when he was under pressure, or in a short period. He was 39 when his masterpiece was premiered. Whether or not he would be happy about it is a moot point, but it is his ground-breaking musical, West Side St...
- Jeremy Nicholas
Jan 5, 2024 · 'Maestro' is the movie — and man — on many people's lips, thanks to the awards buzz around Bradley Cooper's biopic of the legendary American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein.
Dec 15, 2017 · Bernstein was a prolific composer, best known for musicals such as “West Side Story.” He also conducted the New York Philharmonic Symphony from 1957 until his death, and was primarily responsible for bringing the music of Gustav Mahler to a greater public audience in the United States.
