Leonard Bernstein, who had been a unique source of creative energy in America???s music throughout his entire adult lifetime, was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, on August 25, 1918. He was given piano lessons as a boy and had his pre-college education at the Garrison and Boston Latin schools. Going on to Harvard University, he worked with Walter Piston, Edward Burlingame Hill, and A. Tillman Merritt, among others. By the time of his graduation, in 1939, he had made an unofficial conducting debut (his own incidental music to The Birds), and directed and performed in Marc Blitzstein???s The Cradle Will Rock. Later, at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, he studied piano with Isabella Vengerova, conducting with Fritz Reiner, and composition with Randall Thompson. In 1949 he became a student of the Boston Symphony???s reigning conductor, Serge Koussevitzky, at Tanglewood, and he was subsequently named his conducting assistant. Mr. Bernstein???s first permanent conducting post, however, was as Assistant Conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, to which he was named in 1943. That was an important year for him both as a composer and as a conductor. Not only did he win the New York Music Critic??? Award for his first symphony, Jeremiah, but he also made his sudden and now famous debut with the Philharmonic, substituting on just a few hours??? notice for the indisposed Bruno Walter at a concert at Carnegie Hall. He won extraordinary praise, and was soon being sought as guest conductor by leading orchestras all over the world. In the years following he served as music director of the New York City Symphony Orchestra for three seasons, from 1945 to 1947, and was head of the conducting faculty at Brandeis University from 1951 to 1956. Serge Koussevitzky had died in 1951, and Mr. Bernstein took over the orchestral and conducting departments at Tanglewood, where he continued to teach in the summer from time to time. Of gre
1 | Songe d'une nuit du Sabbat | Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique |
2 | Marche au supplice | Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique |
3 | Ralph Vaughan Williams / Fantasia On "Greensleeves | Romantic Favorites For Strings |
4 | Tchaikovsky / String Quartet No. 1, Op. 11 Andante | Romantic Favorites For Strings |
5 | Scene aux champs | Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique |
6 | Un bal | Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique |
7 | Ralph Vaughan Williams / Fantasia On a Theme of Th | Romantic Favorites For Strings |
8 | Samuel Barber / Adagio For Strings, Op. 11 | Romantic Favorites For Strings |
9 | Gustav Mahler / Symphony No. 5 in C sharp minor Ad | Romantic Favorites For Strings |
10 | Reveries - Passions | Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique |
11 | Berlioz Takes a Trip | Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique |