Leonard Bernstein was the most popular conductor-composer
of the 20th century, writing everything from musicals to
symphonies, and leading orchestras around the world.
Leonard Bernstein—conductor, composer, teacher, and pianist—is a colossus of 20th-century music, straddling the worlds of the concert hall and the Broadway musical theatre. Paradoxical as this might appear, Bernstein, like Aaron COPLAND before him, wanted to work in an American idiom and was able to use the language of American jazz and popular music in his serious works and to compose expressive light music that retained all the subtlety and craftsmanship of his concert works.
Bernstein was born near Boston in Lawrence, Massachusetts, on August 25, 1918, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants. At the age of nine, he began piano lessons and went on to study both piano and composition at Harvard University, where his composition teachers included the celebrated composer and theorist, Walter Piston (1894–1976). Bernstein, who remained uneasy with academic music throughout his long career, owes a greater debt, however, to the works of two men, composers Copland and Mark Blitzstein (1905–64), with whom he formed close friendships while an undergraduate at Harvard. Copland’s notion of forging a uniquely American music is already discernible in Bernstein’s undergraduate thesis in which he vaunted jazz as the most important American musical form. At the same time, Blitzstein’s appeal for a politically committed musical theatre (as in his own The Cradle Will Rock, 1937, which deals with industrial relations) contributed to Bernstein’s own engagement with the issues of the day and the unusual seriousness of his musical theatre. It was in this period, too, that he met conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos (1896–1960), who helped Bernstein apply to the renowned Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, where Bernstein studied composition under Randall Thompson (1899’1984) and conducting under Fritz Reiner (1888–1963). During the summers of 1940 and 1941, he furthered his studies of conducting under the tutelage of the revered Sergey Koussevitzky at Tangle wood. By 1944, he had been hired as assistant conductor with the New York Philharmonic, where he made his conducting debut as a last-minute substitute for an ailing Bruno WALTER. The concert was broadcast nationally on radio, launching Bernstein’s career as a celebrity conductor.
Leonard Bernstein was the most popular conductor-composer
of the 20th century, writing everything from musicals to
symphonies, and leading orchestras around the world.
Meanwhile, Bernstein was also pursuing his parallel career as a composer. There were some purely concert works: his Symphony No. 1 (“Jeremiah”) won the New York Music Critics Award for 1944. Its theme—the loss and renewal of religious faith—was to resurface in two other orchestral works, Symphony No. 2 (“The Age of Anxiety,” 1949, modelled on a W. H. Auden poem) and Symphony No. 3 (“Kaddish,” 1963, which drew its name from a Jewish prayer for the dead).
His most widely acclaimed work, however, was for the musical theatre. In 1944, his ballet, Fancy Free, created in collaboration with choreographer Jerome Robbins, was a hit, as was his musical On the Town, which ran for 463 performances on Broadway. During the 1950s he composed mainly for the stage and screen. In 1954, he wrote the film score for On the Waterfront, and in 1956 finished Candide, a musical version of Voltaire’s famous philosophical tale. Although the musical was a flop when it first opened, a revived and reworked version in 1974 revealed it as a witty and important piece of opéra bouffe.
It was West Side Story (1957), however, that brought Bernstein his most popular success. He collaborated on the musical with the young Stephen SONDHEIM as lyricist and Arthur Laurents as librettist. By setting Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in a contemporary Manhattan ghetto, Bernstein found the perfect subject to blend his commitment to exploring American social themes and musical forms.
West Side Story is now recognised as one of the masterpieces of musical theatre. It is a virtuoso mixture of Latin American dance rhythms, big band jazz, and jive, and many of its songs have became favourites, including the enchanting “Maria,” the melancholy “Somewhere,” and the exhilarating “America.”
In 1958, Bernstein became musical director and principal conductor of the New York Philharmonic— posts that he held until 1969, when he was named conductor laureate. He strengthened the New York Philharmonic both musically and financially, popularised its Young People’s Concerts—53 of which were filmed for television between 1958 and 1972—and promoted the works of new composers.
Bernstein was noted, and sometimes criticised, for his sweeping, dancelike conducting gestures and idiosyncratic tempos. But he brought fresh interpretive ideas even to works he had led frequently. His performances often had a great emotional effect on his audiences, and Bernstein stated that his goal in conducting was to “feel like the composer at the moment of creation.” He felt a particular kinship with Beethoven and MAHLER, and from 1966 developed a long-lasting working relationship with the Vienna Philharmonic—surprisingly, perhaps, given that Vienna was noted for its anti-Semitism.
Bernstein once pointed out that the better a conductor he became, the harder it was to compose, and indeed few of his later compositions can compare with those of the late 1940s and 1950s. The 1960s saw two major concert works, the Symphony No. 3 and the Chichester Psalms, which was commissioned for the Chichester Festival (U.K.) of 1965. The 1976 musical 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was a flop, while his only opera, A Quiet Place, was a distinctly minor work. His conducting career, however, went from strength to strength. He often appeared at high-profile commemorative concerts such as the 40th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and the dismantling of the Berlin Wall in December 1989. In the latter concert, he conducted a multinational orchestra and chorus in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9.
Around the world, Bernstein received outstanding honours, including Tony, Emmy, and Grammy awards, membership of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and awards from the Beethoven Society, Mahler Gesellschaft, UNESCO, France, Germany, Italy, Israel, Austria, Mexico, Denmark and the Japan Art Association.
In his personal life, Bernstein had three children by the Chilean actress Felicia Montealegre, whom he married in 1951. He was known for his strong political views and embraced many left-wing causes, gaining notoriety in Tom Wolfe’s Radical Chic for his support of the Black Panthers. He died on October 14, 1990, leaving music without one of its most colourful and talented personalities.
Richard Conviser
SEE ALSO:
FILM MUSIC; FILM MUSICALS; MUSICALS; ORCHESTRAL MUSIC
Burton, Humphrey. Leonard Bernstein
(New York: Doubleday, 1994);
Peyser, Joan. Leonard Bernstein
(London: Bantam, 1987);
Secrest, Meryle.
Leonard Bernstein: A Life
(New York: Vintage Books, 1995).
As composer
Film score: On the Waterfront.
Musical theatre: Candide; Fancy Free (ballet);
On the Town; West Side Story.
Orchestral and choral works: Chichester Psalms;
Mass; A Quiet Place; Serenade for Solo Violin,
String Orchestra, Harp, and Percussion;
Songfest; Symphony No. 1, “Jeremiah”;
Symphony No. 2, “The Age of Anxiety”;
Symphony No. 3, “Kaddish.”
As conductor
Copland: Appalachian Spring; Billy the Kid; Rodeo;
Haydn: Symphonies Nos. 88, 92, and 94;
Mahler: Ten Symphonies.