"All music is creation. It is the most mysterious and deeply moving experience you can have." - Leonard Bernstein
Probably the most influential all-round musician of the 20th century, Leonard Bernstein was certainly the most acclaimed in the popular mind. At once conductor, composer, performer, venerated teacher and master showman, he did more than any other to reconcile the new with the old, tackling Jazz one day, the newest avant-garde piece the next, and the huge masterpieces of the Classical repertory just after that. Bernstein ate, slept, and breathed music. The people who knew him say he positively exuded it. Then again, considering the above summarisation of his musical activities, there's no real surprise there – he couldn’t possibly have had TIME for anything else!
He was the son of extremely poor Russian-Jewish immigrants, and went on to become probably the most successful musician of his generation. His 'big break' is still talked about in musical circles, for Bernstein was one of that rare breed: a true overnight success. One fateful night in 1943, the then-obscure young conductor had to fill in at extremely short notice for the legendary Bruno Walter, and a star was born. His immense charisma, phenomenal musical ability, profound gift for interpretation and communication, and decidedly naughty good-looks insured that he was catapulted into the stratosphere and remained locked in orbit. Contrary to the way things usually tend to go for overnight successes, he stayed successful right up until his final bow in 1990.
It was via this base as a conductor that his own compositions became popular. His theatrical works will always be his best known; 'West Side Story' (1957) is probably the ultimate musical in the history of the world, ever. A modernised version of 'Romeo and Juliet' updated to 20th century New York and set to Bernstein’s ridiculously catchy music, which can be as tender and moving as it is funky and upbeat. Drop the names 'Maria' and 'Cool Fugue' and everyone who is any way familiar with music will know exactly what you're talking about. You might also note that before Bernstein nobody would ever have even thought of putting the words 'cool' and 'fugue' together, as the fugue was thought of as possibly the most academic and rigid of all musical forms. He managed it though, and even got to base it on Beethoven's 'Grosse Fugue' while he was at it.
Among his other compositions are 'On The Town', another very well known musical; 'Fancy Free' (a ballet); 'Candide', which is now remembered for its 'Overture'; and his non-stage works such as the 'Chichester Psalms', and his three symphonies which reflect his Jewish heritage – 'Jeremiah', 'The Age of Anxiety', and the (justly) most famous 'Khaddish', based on the Jewish prayer for the dead. (You can hear a lot of Hebrew chant based melodies in 'Khaddish' especially). In spite of these and others, Bernstein tended to regret that often the snobbish tunewrights of the day did not regard him as a 'serious' composer. He once said, with a touch of pathos; "(I have a) deep suspicion that everything I write, for whatever medium, is really theatre music in some way." It was the incessant criticism of the disciples of Stockhausen, Schoenberg, and others which wore away at his compositional self-confidence as a composer through the 1960s and led to his concentrating more on conducting and teaching, both of which he accomplished, not just with aplomb, but with genius.
He was also the most prolific and influential musical pedagogue of his day, and his 53 televised Young People’s Concerts which ran between 1958 and 1972 not only brought him into the hearts and minds of a whole new generation of young musicians, but netted him no less than 4 Emmy awards on the way. Also in the 1970s he gave a series of lectures at Harvard under the title of 'The Unanswered Question'; these are available both as a book and as a set of records/CDs.
After a life of intense activity and unrivalled fame his health deteriorated rapidly towards the end of the 1980s, and he died on 14 October 1990 happy in the knowledge that he had done exactly what he had wanted – "My life is dedicated to communication, to sharing the wonder of experience with other people," he said. Through his teaching, conducting, performance, composition and even poetry he did all that and more.
Recommended Recordings: 'The Essential Bernstein', Sony Classics. S2K51339. A great selection of his music and his conducting.
Lorcan MacMuiris
