Leonard Bernstein

For the better part of eight decades, composers have lionized, critics have analyzed, and biographers have summarized Leonard Bernstein’s extraordinary talents and the sweeping, in some ways unparalleled, scope of his influence on both orchestral and popular music. But what often goes unmentioned in such discussions, debates and deliberations is that New England served as the bookends of his life.

From his childhood in Lawrence, Massachusetts, high-school days at Boston Latin and college years at Harvard to his directorships at Tanglewood, professorship at Harvard and conducting of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in his final concert, Bernstein was as deeply rooted in the six-state region as Boston clam chowder, Maine lobster, Vermont maple syrup and Dunkin’ Donuts.

The quintessential Renaissance man who was a composer, conductor, performer, educator and public personality in virtually equal measure, Bernstein’s fusion of traditional songs, jazz and theatre elements with classical compositions, especially those by of Gustav Mahler, Aaron Copland and Igor Stravinsky, revolutionized each genre like virtually nothing before. He conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic and the New York Symphony at various points in his nearly 60-year career, composed a remarkable number of Broadway classics and became a musical icon across the globe, working with the Czech Philharmonic, the Palestine Symphony Orchestra and the Vienna State Opera. For these and myriad other reasons, it’s extremely difficult, perhaps impossible, to overstate Bernstein’s impact on modern music.

MUSICAL BEGINNINGS

Born Louis Bernstein on August 25, 1918, his parents immigrated to the US from modern-day Ukraine. Though his grandmother insisted that he be named Louis, his parents always called him Leonard and Bernstein took that name legally at age 18, shortly after his grandmother’s death and his graduation from Boston Latin School. To his friends and associates, he was always “Lenny.” His earliest exposure to music was on the household radio and on Friday nights at synagogue.

When Bernstein was 10 years old, his aunt left her upright piano in his family’s house. He began teaching himself the basics shortly thereafter, and soon he was clamoring to take lessons, but his father refused until two years later, by which time his son’s interest in music had become even more intense. Bernstein had a variety of piano teachers from age 12, including Helen Coates, who became his secretary some 20 years later. By his mid-teens, he was staging performances ranging from Bizet’s “Carmen” to Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Pirates of Penzance” at the family’s summer home in Sharon, Massachusetts, casting and directing neighborhood kids.

In 1932, 14-year-old Bernstein attended his first orchestral concert – the Boston Pops Orchestra conducted by Arthur Fiedler, an experience he later called “heaven itself” – and played piano in public for the first time, at New England Conservatory. He debuted with the Boston Public School Orchestra in 1934, and in the fall of 1935 he enrolled at Harvard, where he majored in music and wrote his first known original composition, “Psalm 148.” He accompanied the Harvard Glee Club, was a pianist for silent-film presentations and graduated with a BA cum laude in 1939. His final-year thesis was titled “The Absorption of Race Elements into American Music.”

TANGLEWOOD, NEW YORK SYMPHONY, OVERSEAS, CARNEGIE HALL DEBUTS

In 1940, after spending a year studying conducting at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Bernstein attended the inaugural year of Tanglewood (then called the Berkshire Music Center), the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer home. There he studied with its music director, Serge Koussevitzky, later becoming his conducting assistant. He first performed at Tanglewood in 1949 as a piano soloist with the BSO in the world premiere of his “Symphony No. 2: The Age of Anxiety,” which he dedicated to (and was conducted by) Koussevitzky. Throughout his life, Bernstein returned to Tanglewood almost every summer to conduct and teach.

During the ‘40s, Bernstein was busy both domestically and internationally, first as assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic and then, from 1945 to 1947, music director of the New York City Symphony. During that time, he made his debuts conducting the Czech Philharmonic and the Palestine Symphony Orchestra and conducted opera professionally for the first time at Tanglewood. In 1949, he made his first television appearance as the BSO’s conductor, filmed at Carnegie Hall.

BROADWAY, FILM SCORES, NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC, OMNIBUS LECTURES

The 1950s became some of Bernstein’s most active years professionally, starting in 1951 when, following Koussevitzky’s death in June that year, the then 42-year old took charge of Tanglewood’s orchestra and conducting departments. A number of his songs were essential elements of major Broadway productions such as “West Side Story,” “Candide,” “On the Town” and “Wonderful Town,” and he composed a variety of symphonies in addition to the iconic score for the film On the Waterfront, for which he received an Oscar nomination.

In 1958, Bernstein was appointed music director of the New York Philharmonic, a position he held until 1969, when he became laureate conductor. During his tenure, he conducted the orchestra’s performances in 144 cities in 38 countries, including their first in Japan and others in Soviet-Bloc countries. Always keen to reach as large an audience as possible, he hosted the nationally televised lecture series Omnibus on CBS from 1955 to 1961; topics included jazz, conducting, musical comedy, modern music and grand opera.

In 1962, Bernstein expanded the reach of the New York Philharmonic’s Young People’s Concerts series dramatically when they became the first concerts televised from the recently opened Lincoln Center. An inspiration to musicians and music lovers alike, the series went on to be syndicated in over 40 countries and won multiple Emmy Awards. Bernstein was the host until 1972.

OPERA COMPANIES, HARVARD PROFESSORSHIP, AWARDS, ACADEMIES

In 1964, he began conducting the Metropolitan Opera in New York City (followed by the Vienna State Opera in 1966), and he became an equal-rights champion by hiring the New York Philharmonic’s first Black musician and its second female one. In 1965, Bernstein spearheaded the Concerts in the Parks program, substantially boosting the Philharmonic’s popularity in the city and across the greater US.

Bernstein joined the Harvard faculty in 1973, as a professor of poetry, not of music. In 1976, he delivered a six-part series of lectures on music, using examples played by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, that were televised as The Unanswered Question (named after a Charles Ives composition); in each one, he analyzed and compared musical construction to language while noting input he’d received from renowned linguists including MIT’s Noam Chomsky.

In 1980, he received a Kennedy Center Honors Award, followed in 1985 by a Grammy for Lifetime Achievement. Using Tanglewood as his model, he co-founded the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute as a summertime training academy in 1982, then another, the Pacific Music Festival in Japan, in 1990.

FINAL CONCERT, RETIREMENT, DEATH, LEGACY

Bernstein conducted his final concert on August 19, 1990, at Tanglewood with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He suffered a coughing fit near the end, during the third movement of a Beethoven symphony, but continued until its conclusion, visibly exhausted and in pain while leaving the stage during the standing ovation. In 1992, Deutsche Grammophon released a recording of the performance, Leonard Bernstein – The Final Concert, after editing it to remove the coughing fit.

Seven weeks later, on October 9, 1990, the creative genius, global citizen and deep-rooted New Englander announced his retirement, dying just five days later at age 72. According to the League of American Orchestras, he’s the second most frequently performed US-born composer among American orchestras – Aaron Copland being the first – and the 16th most frequently performed composer overall.

(by D.S. Monahan)