Leonard Bernstein Photo: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
Leonard Bernstein became an overnight sensation when he stepped in at the last minute for an ailing Bruno Walter, to conduct the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall in November 1943. It was a dramatic debut for the twenty-five year old conductor with a nationally broadcast concert.
The instant fame he received as a conductor translated into interest in him as a composer, and within months of his debut with the New York Philharmonic he won the New York Music Critics’ Circle award for the best American work of the year with his first symphony.
Bernstein’s career was nothing if not diverse. He conducted the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra on many occasions, and he became the first American to conduct at La Scala. He also began teaching, first at Brandeis University and, on Koussevitsky’s death in 1951, as head of the orchestra and conducting departments at Tanglewood. In the same year he married the Chilean actress Felicia Montealegre, with whom he had three children. And in 1954 he made his first appearance on television with ‘Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony’, as part of the programme Omnibus.
In 1958, Bernstein was appointed music director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the first American-born conductor to hold the position. Over the next eleven years with the orchestra he introduced many innovations, including thematic programming and televised Young People’s Concerts. He launched a survey of Mahler’s symphonies, inaugurated the new Philharmonic Hall at the Lincoln Center, and built a reputation for being a communicator of the highest order. His international standing as a conductor soared, but his composing became ever more sporadic.
Music Details:
BERNSTEIN: Profanation, from Symphony No1 ‘Jeremiah’ - Naxos 8.559100
BERNSTEIN: I Can Cook Too, from On The Town - Sony SM3k 47154
BERNSTEIN: Masque, from The Age of Anxiety (Symphony No2) - Chandos CHAN 9889
BERNSTEIN: Prelude, from Trouble in Tahiti - Sony SM3k 47154
BERNSTEIN: Aria: Glitter and be Gay, from Candide - Sony SK 48017
BERNSTEIN: America, from West Side Story - Sony SK 48211
BERNSTEIN: Mvt II, from Chichester Psalms - DG 415 965
BERNSTEIN: A Simple Song, from Mass - Sony SM3K 47158
BERNSTEIN: To What You Said …, from Songfest - DG 415 965
BERNSTEIN: West Side Story Symphonic Dances - Sony SM3k 47154
