Leonard Bernstein

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Leonard Bernstein (BURN-styne, 1918–90) was an American composer, conductor, composer, concert historian, and pianist.

He was one of the first conductors to be recognized internationally. He was one of the first conductors to be born and educated in the United States.

Donal Henahan, a music critic, said he was "one of the most versatile and influential musicians in American history." "His fame stemmed from his long time as the music director of the New York Philharmonic, as well as his appearances with most of the world's top orchestras, Peter Pan, Candide, Wonderful Town, On the Waterfront, his Mass, and a number of other works, including three symphonies and several shorter chamber and solo works." Bernstein was the first conductor to host a series of television lectures on classical music, beginning in 1954 and continuing until his death.

He was a natural pianist, often conducting piano concertos from the keyboard.

In addition, he was a key figure in Gustav Mahler's recent revival of musical performance, ballet, film, and theatre, choral works, opera, chamber music, and piano pieces.

Many of his shows are regularly performed around the world, but no one has matched West Side Story's enduring and critical success.

Early life and education

Louis Bernstein was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, son of Ukrainian-Jewish parents Jennie (née Resnick) and Samuel Joseph Bernstein, both of whom immigrated to the United States from Rivne (now Ukraine). His grandmother insisted that his first name be Louis, but his parents raised him Leonard. When he was eighteen, he legally changed his name to Leonard, just after his grandmother's funeral. He was simply "Lenny" to his acquaintances and others.

His father, The Samuel Bernstein Hair and Beauty Supply Company, was the owner. It was the permanent wave machine of Frederick Frederick, whose enduring success helped Sam save his family from The Great Depression.

The household radio and music on Friday nights at Congregation Mishkan Tefila in Roxbury, Massachusetts, was Leonard's first exposure to music in his youth. Clara, Samuel's sister, deposited her upright piano at her brother's house when Leonard was ten years old. Bernstein began teaching piano and music theory, and people were clamoring for lessons. In his youth, he had a variety of piano teachers, including Helen Coates, who later became his secretary. The Bernstein family will return to Sharon, Massachusetts, where young Leonard summoned all the neighborhood children to perform shows ranging from Bizet's Carmen to Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance. With his younger sister Shirley, he would often perform complete operas or Beethoven symphonies. Burton, Leonard's younger sibling, was born in 1932, thirteen years after Leonard. Despite the lengthy span of age, the three children remained close their entire lives.

Sam was initially dismissive of teenage Leonard's interest in music, attempting to discredit his son's interest by refusing to pay for his piano lessons. Leonard began teaching young people in his neighborhood. Sid Ramin, one of Bernstein's most devoted orchestrator and lifelong friend.

In his teenage years, Sam introduced his son to orchestral concerts and then financed his music education. Leonard performed his first orchestral concert with the Boston Pops Orchestra conducted by Arthur Fiedler in May 1932. "To me, in those days, the Pops was heaven itself," Bernstein said. It was the greatest achievement of the human race, according to me. Bernstein first heard Ravel's Boléro at this festival, which made a good impression on him.

George Gershwin was another name with a strong musical presence. Bernstein, a counselor at a summer camp, was the first to know about Gershwin's death on radio. A stunned Bernstein demanded a moment of silence and then played Gershwin's second Prelude as a monument in the mess hall.

Bernstein's Rhapsody in G minor at his first public piano recital at the New England Conservatory on March 30, 1932. In Grieg's Piano Concerto in A minor with the Boston Public School Orchestra, two years later, he made his solo debut with orchestra in Grieg's Piano Concerto in A minor.

Both public and private schools were involved in Bernstein's early education experiences, including the prestigious Boston Latin School, for which Bernstein and classmate Lawrence F. Ebb wrote the Class Song.

Bernstein entered Harvard College in 1935, where he studied music with Edward Burlingame Hill and Walter Piston, among others. Psalm 148 set for voice and piano, his first extant composition, was released in 1935. "The Absorption of Race Elements Into American Music," his final-year thesis, which was reproduced in his book Findings. Among Bernstein's academic influences was aesthetics Professor David Prall, whose multidisciplinary approach on the arts inspired Bernstein for the remainder of his life.

Future philosopher Donald Davidson, with whom Bernstein performed piano duets, was one of his colleagues at Harvard. Bernstein wrote and conducted the musical score for the production of The Birds by Aristophanes, which was performed in the original Greek. Bernstein used some of the songs in future performances.

He appeared as an accompanist for the Harvard Glee Club for a brief period as a student as well as an unpaid pianist for Harvard Film Society's silent film performances.

Bernstein produced The Cradle Will Rock, a student production of Bernstein, directing its performance from the piano as the composer Marc Blitzstein had done at the infamous premiere. Blitzstein, who attended the premiere, became Bernstein's close friend and mentor.

Bernstein met conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos while a sophomore at Harvard. Bernstein's eventual choice to become a conductor was influenced by Mitropoulos' charisma and fame as a singer. Mitropoulos invited Bernstein to Minneapolis for the 1940-41 season to be his assistant, but the scheme fell through due to unions.

In 1937, Bernstein met Aaron Copland for the second time; the elder composer was sitting near Bernstein at a dance recital at Town Hall in New York City. Bernstein was invited to Bernstein's birthday party later today, where Bernstein impressed the guests by performing Copland's controversial Piano Variations, a work Bernstein adored. Bernstein would regularly seek his guidance, often referring to him as his "only true composition instructor" even though he was never a formal student of Copland's.

Bernstein graduated from Harvard in 1939 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, which was lauded.

Bernstein, a Harvard graduate, enrolled at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Bernstein received his only "A" grade at Curtis; piano with Isabelle Vengerova; orchestration with Richard Stöhr; and score reading with Renée Longy Miquelle.

Bernstein appeared at the Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer home in 1940 during the inaugural year of the Tanglewood Music Center (then called the Berkshire Music Center). Bernstein studied under Bernstein's BSO's music director, Serge Koussevitzky, who became Bernstein's primary inspiration. He was Koussevitzky's conducting assistant at Tanglewood and later dedicated his Symphony No. 2nd. The Age of Anxiety to his beloved mentor. Lukas Foss, a lifelong acquaintance and colleague, was one of Bernstein's classmates, both at Curtis and Tanglewood. Bernstein returned to Tanglewood nearly every summer to teach and conduct young music students.

Personal life

Bernstein married actress Felicia Cohn Montealegre on September 10, 1951, after a long personal struggle and a turbulent on-off engagement. Following advice from his mentor Dimitri Mitropoulos regarding the conservative nature of orchestra boards, one suggestion is that he married partially to dispel rumors of his personal life in order to help with a significant conducting appointment. Bernstein had referred to the same internal turmoil in April 1943 and hoped for similar assistance from Aaron Copland, claiming that he could be able to resolve it by marrying his then "girlfriend... my dentist's daughter." In a letter five months later, Adolph Green asked Bernstein about the status of this theory.) Bernstein's wife admitted to homosexuality within a year of their marriage in a private letter that was later published. Felicia wrote to him: "You are a homosexual and cannot change; you don't admit to a double life; but what can you do if your happiness, your health, and your whole nervous system are dependent on a specific sexual pattern?" Bernstein, according to Arthur Laurents (Bernstein's co-author in West Side Story), he was "a gay man who got married." He wasn't bothered with it at all. He was just gay." Shirley Rhoades Perle, a Bernstein friend, said she felt "he needed both sexually and women emotionally." Bernstein's wife did not love each other in the early years of his marriage, and no one has suggested that they do not agree with each other. Jamie, Alexander, and Nina had three children. Bernstein does have brief extramarital affairs with young men, though his wife and children were unaware of it.

Bernstein's personal life began in 1976, when he realized that he could no longer mask his homosexuality. He left Felicia for a period of time to be with the musical director of the classical music radio station KKHI in San Francisco, Tom Cothran. Felicia was diagnosed with lung cancer next year, and Bernstein followed her and cared for her until she died on June 16, 1978. Bernstein is reported to have often expressed anxiety over his wife's death. Since Felicia's death, the majority of Bernstein's biographies state that his diet became more extensive and his personal behavior became more impulsive and crude. Nevertheless, his public image and several of his closest friends seem to have remained unchanged, and he has resumed his regular schedule of musical pursuits.

Kunihiko Hashimoto, a Tokyo insurance executive, had a ten-year relationship with him. Both of them met in Tokyo when the New York Philharmonic was in Tokyo. Hashimoto returnedstage and the pair ended up staying the night together. It was a long distance affair, but letters revealed that they both cared for each other dearly. Dearest Lenny: Letters from Japan and the Making of the World Maestro by Mari Yoshihara (Oxford University Press, 2019) goes into more detail about their letters and friendship, as well as interviews with Hashimoto. Other letters from Japanese readers were also included in the book.

Bernstein had asthma, which prevented him from serving in the military during WWII.

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Life and career

Bernstein left Curtis and moved to New York City, where he lived in many apartments in Manhattan. Bernstein supported himself by teaching piano, teaching piano, and playing the piano for dance lessons in Carnegie Hall. He found work with Harms-Witmark, transcribing jazz and pop music, and releasing his work under the name "Lenny Amber." (In German, Bornstein means "amber")

Bernstein and his pal Adolph Green briefly shared an apartment in Greenwich Village. Green appeared on Betty Comden and Judy Holliday's role as part of a satirical music troupe called The Revuers. The Revuers appeared frequently at the Village Vanguard, with Bernstein sometimes providing piano accompaniment.

Bernstein performed Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, his first published work, on April 21, 1942, with clarinetist David Glazer at the Institute of Modern Art in Boston.

Bernstein made his major conducting debut on November 14, 1943, after guest conductor Bruno Walter came down with the flu. Robert Schumann, Miklós Rózsa, Richard Wagner, and Richard Strauss were among the challenging projects on display.

The next day, The New York Times carried the story on its front page and announced in an editorial, "It's a good American success tale." Its warm, friendly triumph crowded Carnegie Hall and then swept far beyond the airwaves.

Many newspapers around the country carried the story, which, in conjunction with the concert's live national CBS Radio Network broadcast, pushed Bernstein to instant success.

Bernstein performed debuts with ten orchestras in the United States and Canada over the past two years, greatly expanding his repertoire and beginning a lifelong tradition of conducting concertos from the piano.

He conducted the premiere of his Symphony No. 8 on January 28, 1944. 1: Jeremiah with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, with Jennie Tourel as soloist.

Bernstein and Jerome Robbins began collaborating on Fancy Free, a ballet involving three young sailors on leave in wartime New York City in the fall of 1943. On April 18, 1944, Fancy Free premiered with the Ballet Theatre (now the American Ballet Theatre) at the old Metropolitan Opera House, with scenery by Oliver Smith and costumes by Kermit Love.

Bernstein and Robbins decided to make the ballet company a musical and hired Comden and Green to write the book and lyrics. On December 28, 1944, the town of Adelphi Theatre in Broadway opened on Broadway's Adelphi Theatre. The performance resonated with audiences on Broadway, and it defied color boundaries: Sono Osato, a Japanese-American dancer, a multiracial cast performing as mixed race couples; and Everett Lee, the show's music director, remained a leading figure. Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Jules Munshin were the three sailors on the Town when MGM's motion picture was released in 1949. Bernstein's score was only used in the film, and Roger Edens added songs.

Bernstein was the music director of the New York City Symphony from 1945 to 1947, the orchestra's first year was founded by conductor Leopold Stokowski. The orchestra, which had assistance from Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, had modern facilities and inexpensive tickets.

He made his overseas debut with the Czech Philharmonic in Prague in 1946. He performed Ravel's Piano Concerto in G as both soloist and conductor with the Philharmonia Orchestra. Bernstein conducted the European premiere of Fancy Free with the Ballet Theatre at the Royal Opera House in London on July 4, 1946.

He conducted opera for the first time at Tanglewood in 1946, with Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes' American premiere, which was commissioned by Koussevitzky. Bernstein was invited to play two concerts with the NBC Symphony Orchestra in Ravel's Piano Concerto in G. that same year.

Bernstein performed in Tel Aviv for the first time in 1947, marking the beginning of his lifelong connection with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, now known as the Palestine Symphony Orchestra. During the Arab-Israeli war, he held an open-air concert for Israeli troops at Beersheba in the middle of the desert. He conducted the inaugural concert of the Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv in 1957. In 1967, he held a concert on Mount Scopus to celebrate Reunification of Jerusalem, which featured Mahler's Symphony No. 1 No. Soloist Isaac Stern will perform in the Mendelsohn Violin Concerto on February 2 and Mendelsohn Violin Concerto. In the center of Tel Aviv, the city's capital, Habima Square (Orchestra Plaza).

He made his first television appearance with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall on December 10, 1949. Eleanor Roosevelt's address on the one-year anniversary of the United Nations General Assembly's ratification of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as the premiere of Aaron Copland's "Preamble" with Sir Laurence Olivier narrating text from the UN Charter. NBC Television Network televised the performance.

Bernstein performed piano soloist in the world premiere of his Symphony No. 189 in April 1949. 2: The Age of Anxiety with Koussevitz conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Bernstein conducted the world premiere of the Turangalîla-Symphonie by Olivier Messiaen with the Boston Symphony Orchestra later this year. The orchestra held part of the concert rehearsal. Bernstein, the orchestra's conductor and the conducting staff at Tanglewood, died in 1951 after Koussevitzky died.

The 1950s were one of Bernstein's most active years. He created five new works for the Broadway stage, as well as several symphonic works and an iconic film score; he was named music director of the New York Philharmonic, assuaging the international recognition of television; and he married and started a family.

Bernstein composed incidental music for J. M. Barrie's play Peter Pan in 1950. Jean Arthur appeared in the dual roles of George Darling and Captain Hook on Broadway, beginning on April 24, 1950. The performance ran for 321 performances.

Bernstein composed Trouble in Tahiti, a one-act opera in seven scenes with an English libretto by the composer. The opera depicts a couple's difficult marriage in the midst of their inner turmoil. Bernstein wrote most of the opera while on his honeymoon in Mexico with his wife, Felicia Montealegre.

Bernstein, a visiting music professor at Brandeis University, from 1951 to 1956, was a visiting music professor. He founded the Brandeis Festival of the Creative Arts in 1952, where he directed the premiere of Trouble in Tahiti on June 12 of that year.

In November 1952, the NBC Opera Theatre revived the opera on television. On April 19, 1955, it opened on Broadway at the Playhouse Theatre in New York and lasted for six weeks.

Bernstein wrote A Quiet Place, which picked up the story and characters of Trouble in Tahiti in a later period.

Bernstein wrote the score for the musical Wonderful Town on very short notice in 1953, with a book by Joseph A. Betty Comden and Adolph Green's Fields and Jerome Chodorov. The musical tells the tale of two sisters from Ohio who immigrated to New York City and seek happiness from their squalid basement apartment in Greenwich Village.

Wonderful Town opened on Broadway on February 25, 1953, starring Rosalind Russell in the role of Ruth Sherwood, Edie Adams as Eileen Sherwood, and George Gaynes as Robert Baker. It received five Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Actress.

Bernstein was also working on the scores for two Broadway shows in the three years leading up to Bernstein's appointment as music director of the New York Philharmonic. Candide, the operetta-style musical, was the first of the two. Lillian Hellman had the idea of adapting Voltaire's novella from the start. John Latouche and Richard Wilbur, the show's original collaborators, were book writer John Latouche and lyricist Richard Wilbur.

Candide opened at the Martin Beck Theatre on December 1, 1956, as part of Tyrone Guthrie's production. Guthrie advised the collaborators to trim their most incendiary sections before the opening night after being anxious about the parallels.

Although the production was a box office disaster with only two months for a total of 73 shows, Bernstein's score stayed alive. Several revivals have occurred, with improvements to improve the book. The Overture, which has quickly became one of the most often performed orchestral compositions by a twentieth-century American composer; the coloratura aria "Glitter and Be Gay," which Barbara Cook performed in the original production; and "Make Our Garden Grow."

Bernstein's other musical Bernstein was writing simultaneously with Candide on West Side Story. Bernstein worked with writer and editor Jerome Robbins, book editor Arthur Laurents, and lyricist Stephen Sondheim.

The story is an updated retelling of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet set in the slums of New York City's Upper West Side in the mid-1950s. Tony, the Romeo character, is a member of the Jets, who are of white Northern European descent. Maria, who is connected to the Sharks, has arrived in Puerto Rico and is the subject of a Juliet story.

On September 26, 1957, the first Broadway production opened at the Winter Garden Theatre in the Winter Garden Theatre, where it sold 732 times. Robbins received the Tony Award for Best Choreographer, and Oliver Smith received the award for Best Scenic Designer.

Bernstein's score for West Side Story blends "jazz, Latin rhythms, symphonic sweep, and musical-comedy conventions in a new way for Broadway." Following Bernstein's detailed instructions, Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal orchestrated it. A turning point in musical theatre was the dark theme, sophisticated music, extending dance scenes, and a strong emphasis on social issues.

Bernstein developed a series of orchestral songs from the show, titled Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, which is still popular with orchestral concerts around the world.

Maria and Richard Beymer played Maria and Richard Beymer as Tony in a 1961 United Artists film starring Robert Wise and starring Natalie Wood as Maria and Richard Beymer. Rita Moreno, a Puerto Rican-born actress who plays Anita, received ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture and a ground-breaking Best Supporting Actress award.

In 2021, Steven Spielberg's first film adaptation opened.

Serenade, Plato's "Symposium" composer Bernstein's composition for the stage; the score to Oscar-winning film On The Waterfront; and Prelude, Fugue and Riffs, composed for jazz big band and solo clarinet;

Bernstein was the first American conductor to perform at La Scala in Milan in 1953, with Cherubini's Medea under Leo Varadkar playing Maria Callas in the title role. In 1955, Callas and Bernstein reunited in La Scala to appear in Bellini's La sonnambula.

Bernstein delivered the first of his television lectures for the CBS Television Network arts program Omnibus on November 14, 1954. Bernstein was involved in "Beethoven's Fifth Symphony" during the live lecture, which included a symphony's first voyage as well as musicians from the "Symphony of the Air" (formerly NBC Symphony Orchestra). The collection included manuscripts from Beethoven's own hand as well as a huge painting of the first page of the score covering the studio floor. Six more Omnibus lectures were broadcast from 1955 to 1961 (later on ABC and then NBC), covering a variety of topics, including jazz, conducting, American musical comedy, and modern music, J.S. Bach and the grand opera.

Bernstein was appointed as the music director of the New York Philharmonic in 1957, exchanging the position with Dimitri Mitropoulos until he assumed sole responsibility in 1958. Bernstein played "Laureate Conductor" until 1969, when he was appointed "Laureate Conductor." For the remainder of his life, he continued to perform and make recordings with the orchestra.

Bernstein's television performance took a quantum leap when he took over the orchestra's traditional Saturday afternoon Young People's Concerts on the CBS Television Network as the orchestra's new music director. Bernstein's enthralling performances of classical music attracted millions of viewers from all around the world. On the radio, Bernstein often featured outstanding young talent. Several of them, including conductor Claudio Abbado and Seiji Ozawa; flutist Paula Robison; and pianist André Watts were among them who were recognized in their own right. The fifty-three Young People's Concerts were the most influential series of music education ever created on television from 1958 to 1972. They were well-received by reviewers and have received numerous Emmy Awards.

In book form and on paper, some of Bernstein's scripts, all of which he wrote himself, were published. In 1961, Humor in Music received a Grammy Award for Best Documentary or Spoken Word Recording (other than comedy). The concerts were televised in many countries around the world, often with Bernstein dubbed into other languages, and Kultur Video later announced the concerts on home video.

Bernstein and Mitropoulos conducted the New York Philharmonic on its first tour south of the border, visiting 12 countries in Central and South America. The United States Department of State sponsored the trip to strengthen the country's relations with its southern neighbors.

Bernstein and the Philharmonic were also sponsored by the Department of State on a 50-concert tour around Europe and the Soviet Union in 1959, parts of which were shot by CBS Television Network. Bernstein's performance of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony in the presence of the composer, who appeared on stage at the end to honor Bernstein and the musicians, was a highlight of the tour.

Bernstein's innovative approach to themed programming included introducing audiences to less well-known composers of the time, such as Gustav Mahler, Carl Nielsen, Jean Sibelius, and Charles Ives (including the world premiere of his Symphony No. 2). 2). Bernstein has lobbied for the commissioning and presentation of works by contemporary composers, presenting a diverse lineup of composers, from John Cage to Alberto Berio. He also hosted premieres of 19 major works from around the world, including works by Dmitri Shostakovich, Pierre Boulez, and György Ligeti.

Bernstein adored American composers, especially those with whom he shared a close friendship, such as Aaron Copland, William Schuman, and David Diamond. Bernstein and the Philharmonic's relationship with Columbia Records soared this decade, with over 400 compositions totaling a wide swath of the classical music canon.

Bernstein applauded the Philharmonic's additions of Sanford Allen, the city's first Black singer, and Orin O'Brien, the company's second female performer. Bernstein also spoke out about the Philharmonic's pledge to working with as many New Yorkers as possible. With the launching of the Concerts in the Parks in 1965, Bernstein's dream became a reality.

In 1961, Bernstein conducted renowned Philharmonic concerts and participated in cultural exchange, marking another milestone. He accompanied the Orchestra on tours to 144 cities in 38 countries over the years.

Bernstein's talk from the stage opened the Philharmonic's informal Thursday Evening Preview Concerts, which also included Bernstein's performances from the stage, an event that was unheard of at the time.

Bernstein appeared on stage before a performance of the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 on April 6, 1962, in one of the few reported incidents. Glenn Gould, a soloist, had chosen an idiosyncratic approach to the job, according to a D minor. Bernstein said that although he did not entirely agree with it, Gould's interpretation was an artistically worthy inquiry. "Who is the boss: the soloist or the conductor," Bernstein wondered during a concert. The event sparked a stir in the media for decades.

Beginning with a festival honoring the composer's centennial of the composer's birth in 1960, Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic introduced American audiences to Gustav Mahler's music. Alma Bernstein's widow attended one of Bernstein's rehearsals. Bernstein's first commercial recording of a Mahler symphony was released in the same year (the Fourth). He completed the Mahler symphony cycle with the New York Philharmonic over the next seven years (except for the 8th Symphony, which was performed with the London Symphony Orchestra).

The combination of live performances, television interviews, and recordings sparked renewed interest in Mahler, particularly in the United States. Bernstein said he identified with the composer on a personal basis, and he wrote of Mahler: "I'm so sympathetic to him. I think I'm so sympathetic to him." It's like being two separate males in the same body; one man is a conductor and the other a composer. It's like being a double man.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower broke ground for the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on May 14, 1959. The New York Philharmonic migrated from Carnegie Hall to its new home, Philharmonic Hall, on September 23, 1962 (now David Geffen Hall). Bernstein conducted the gala opening concert starring Mahler, Beethoven, and Vaughan Williams, as well as Aaron Copland's Connotations.

Bernstein appeared at the Metropolitan Opera for the first time in Franco Zeffirelli's production of Verdi's Falstaff in 1964. Bernstein also appeared at The Met in 1976 and 1979 to conduct Cavalleria Rusticana (1970) and Carmen (1972), as well as the Centennial Gala in 1983.

Bernstein created a fanfare for President John F. Kennedy's pre-inaugural gala in 1961, which Bernstein directed.

Bernstein conducted the New York Philharmonic and the Schola Cantorum of New York in a nationally broadcast memorial commemorating Mahler's Symphony No. 59, the day after President John F. Kennedy's assassination of his mother in New York. 2: "Resurrection" returns. Bernstein said this week in a letter to the United Jewish Appeal, "this will be our response to violence: to play music more intensely, more sincerely, and more deeply than ever before."

Bernstein attended President Robert F. Kennedy's funeral service, which featured the "Adagietto" movement from Mahler's Symphony No. 6 in 1968. 5.

Bernstein had no time for composition during the 1960s due to his dedication to the New York Philharmonic and other commitments. Nonetheless, he was able to produce two major works.

Bernstein's Symphony No. 2 is a No. 1 in Bernstein's repertoire. 3: Kaddish was written in 1963; Bernstein dedicated the work to John F.'s Beloved Memory" "Keira Kennedy" is a Kennedy. A large orchestra, a complete choir, a boys' choir, a soprano soloist, and a narrator are among the work's characters. The Jewish prayer recited for the dead's is "kaddish." Bernstein narrated the narration himself; his wife, Felicia Montealegre, narrated the US premiere of the film.

Bernstein took a year off from the New York Philharmonic in 1965 to concentrate on composition, which included the composition of Chichester Psalms. Walter Hussey, the Dean of Chichester Cathedral, was commissioned by the work, which began on July 15, 1965, directed by Bernstein himself and then by John Birch at Chichester Cathedral. Bernstein used excerpts from the Book of Psalms for his text. Chichester Psalms was named as the fifth-most performed concert work worldwide in Bernstein's Centennial Year.

Bernstein began a lifelong friendship with the Vienna Philharmonic in 1966, as well as debuting at the Vienna State Opera in Luchino Visconti's production of Falstaff with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in the title role. Bernstein was largely responsible for restoring Mahler's compositions to the Vienna Philharmonic's core repertoire. Bernstein performed Mahler's Symphonies with the orchestra several times.

In 1968 for Der Rosenkavalier's production, he returned to the State Opera, and in 1970 for Otto Schenk's production of Beethoven's Fidelio.

Bernstein's company, Amberson, in partnership with Unitel, produced and coordinated films of his symphonic concerts around the world during the 1970s. Bernstein continued to derive his audio recordings from live performances for the remainder of his life. Bernstein's live recording partner, Deutsche Grammophon, made over 80% of Bernstein's recordings.

Bernstein's most popular compositions in the 1970s were his Mass: A Theatre Piece for Singers, Actors, and Dancers; his orchestral vocal work Songfest; and his U.S. bicentennial musical 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, which was his last Broadway performance and his only theatrical flop; his ballet Piece for Singers, Players, and Dancers.

Bernstein commissioned Bernstein to compose a piece for the opening of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., in 1966, Bernstein invited young composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz, who had recently opened the musical Godspell off-Broadway, to perform as co-lyricist. On September 8, 1971, Maurice Peress, directed by Gordon Davidson, and choreographed by Alvin Ailey, took place.

Bernstein's score incorporates elements of musical theatre, jazz, blues, folk, rock, and symphonic music, and the libretto includes Latin and English liturgy, Hebrew prayer, and additional lyrics by Bernstein and Schwartz.

Both enthusiastic and critical reactions were received at Mass, both in audiences and music critics alike. Although some members of the Catholic Church applauded the piece's presentation of current crises of faith, others branded it blasphemy. (Pope John Paul II, a Roman Catholic ensignia, wanted a Mass at the Vatican's Vatican Center in 2000.) President Richard Nixon did not attend the premiere due to the fact that the anti-Vietnam War was broadcast. Viewpoints on Mass continue to evolve, and Edward Seckerson wrote in 2021, 50 years since its premiere: "Put simply, no other work of Bernstein's encapsulates fully who he was as a man or a performer," says Seckerson.

Bernstein was appointed Professor of Poetry at Harvard University in 1972-73 as a scholar of Poetry. Bernstein conceived and delivered six lectures titled The Unanswered Question. Through the lens of Noam Chomsky's linguistic theories, the interdisciplinary lectures explored topics such as tonality, harmony, and form. Bernstein gave musical examples from the piano as well as pre-recorded musical performances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Amberson arranged for the lectures to be streamed at Boston's WGBH studios. The six lectures were first broadcast on PBS in 1976, and then became available on home video and published as a book.

Bernstein partnered with Jerome Robbins to produce Dybbuk, a ballet based on S. Ansky's performance of the same name. The ballet portrays Ansky's story of a teenage woman possessed by a nefarious spirit, also known as a "dybbuk" in Jewish folklore. The New York City Ballet premiered Dybbuk at the New York State Theatre on May 16, 1974, with Bernstein conducting. Later that year, Dybbuk Variations, a revision of the choreography and the score, was published. Its premiere was held in November 1974.

Bernstein's Songfest: A Cycle of American Poems for Six Singers and Orchestra premiered in Washington, D.C., on October 11, 1977, with the composer conducting the National Symphony Orchestra. The work was intended as a salute to the 1976 American Bicentennial, but it wasn't completed in time.

The collection includes texts by thirteen American poets dating back three centuries. Bernstein deliberately selected the most representative of the nation's rich variety; poets include June Jordan, Julia de Burgos, Walt Whitman, and Langston Hughes.

Bernstein conducted a nationally televised version of Songfest on July 4, 1985, as part of the National Symphony's annual A Capitol Fourth concert.

Bernstein, the conductor Laureate of the New York Philharmonic in 1969, used his free time to travel the world, performing twenty-nine orchestras in Europe, Asia, and the Americas, and recording live recordings with them for both Unitel GmbH & Co.KG and Deutsche Grammophon.

In 1969, Bernstein founded Amberson Productions. Amberson created many video performances of concert appearances, beginning with Verdi's Requiem Mass in St. Paul's Cathedral, which was produced and directed by Humphrey Burton in 1970, which was part of Unitel. Burton will continue to collaborate with Bernstein on his music video projects for the remainder of Bernstein's life.

After appearing in numerous stage performances of the opera at The Metropolitan Opera, Bernstein recorded Carmen Bizet's Carmen with Marilyn Horne in the title role and James McCracken as Don Jose. The recording was one of the first stereo recordings to use the original spoken dialogue between the opera's sung portions. Bernstein's first record for Deutsche Grammophon was a Grammy Award winning a Grammy.

Bernstein made a number of video and audio recordings with orchestras including Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma della Rai, and Orchestre National de France, among others. Bernstein's Symphony No. 1 was one of many notable Amberson performances with Unitel, including Bernstein's. 2 The London Symphony Orchestra performed at Ely Cathedral in 1973, and Fidelio at the Vienna State Opera in 1978.

"Bernstein on Beethoven: A Celebration in Vienna" was one of Bernstein's most popular films, which was written and narrated in 1970. The film, which was shot on location in and around Vienna, is an in-depth look at Beethoven's 200th birthday. Bernstein's rehearsals and performance of Fidelio at the Vienna State Opera, directed by Otto Schenk (which was later revived and filmed in 1978), are included in this series; Bernstein is the piano concerto No. of Bernstein. 1 and conducting from the piano; and a Symphony No. eps. The young Plácido Domingo was among the soloists on the Vienna Philharmonic on September 9, featuring the young composer Plácido Domingo. Humphrey Burton's show, which was produced and directed by Humphrey Burton, was broadcast around the world and received an Emmy Award.

Bernstein's symphonies and other performances with the Israel Philharmonic on Deutsche Grammophon in the 1970s. The Israel Philharmonic performed two concerts in the United States under his direction in May 1978 to commemorate the Orchestra's founding under that name. The Orchestra with the Choral Arts Society of Washington performed Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Bernstein's Chichester Psalms at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and Carnegie Hall in New York on a night.

Bernstein conducted a complete Beethoven symphony cycle with the Vienna Philharmonic in the 1970s, and Brahms and Schumann's cycles were to follow in the 1980s. The Israel Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de France, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra were among the orchestras he conducted on several occasions in the 1970s.

In a Berlin Amnesty International Benefit Concert, Bernstein conducted the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and pianist Claudio Arrau in October 1976. Bernstein established the Felicia Montealegre Bernstein Fund of Amnesty International USA to help human rights campaigners with limited funds to honor his late wife and continue their joint work for human rights.

Bernstein conducted the Berlin Philharmonic for the first time in two charity concerts for Amnesty International involving performances of Mahler's Ninth Symphony. The orchestra's invitation to the concerts had not originated from the orchestra's principal conductor Herbert von Karajan, rather than its principal conductor Herbert von Karajan. Bernstein was never invited to conduct Karajan's orchestra, but rumors have arose as to why he did not invite him to conduct his orchestra. During Bernstein's tenure, Karajan conducted the New York Philharmonic.) The full reasons would not be revealed until reports reveal they were on friendly terms when they met, but they may have enjoyed a little bit of mutual one-upmanship. One of the concerts was broadcast on radio and was posthumously issued on CD by Deutsche Grammophon. One strange part of the recording is that the trombone section does not reach the conclusion of the finale as a result of an audience member fainting just behind the trombones a few seconds earlier.

In 1980, Bernstein was named the Kennedy Center Honors award. He continued to write, compose, compose, and produce the occasional TV show for the remainder of the 1980s. His decade's finest compositions were his opera A Quiet Place, which premiered in Houston in 1983; his Divertimento for Orchestra; his Ensemble "Jubilee Games"; and his song cycle Arias and Barcarolles, which was named after a request made by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1960.

PBS aired an 11-part series of Bernstein's late 1970s films for Unitel of the Vienna Philharmonic, starring all nine Beethoven symphonies and other Beethoven works in 1982. Bernstein delivered a spoken introduction and actor Maximilian Schell was also included on the programme, as well as reading from Beethoven's letters. Deutsche Grammophon has since released the original films on DVD. Bernstein, besides appearing in New York, Vienna, and Israel, served as a regular guest conductor of other orchestras in the 1980s. They included the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, with whom he recorded Mahler's First, Fourth, and Ninth Symphonies among other works; the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Munich; and Mozart's Requiem and Grand Mass in C minor; and the orchestra of Accademia Nazionale di Monte Cecilia in Rome, with whom he performed some Debussy and Puccini's La bohème.

Ernest Fleischmann and Herbert Fleischmann established the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute as a summer training academy along the lines of Tanglewood in 1982. Bernstein served as the artistic director and taught there until 1984. He performed and recorded some of his own compositions with Deutsche Grammophon at the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Bernstein was also a committed supporter of nuclear disarmament at the time. In 1985, he was with the European Community Youth Orchestra on a "Journey for Peace" tour through Europe and Japan.

He made an audio recording of West Side Story in 1984, the first time he had conducted the entire project. The album, which featured what some observers felt were miscast opera singers like Kiri Te Kanawa, José Carreras, and Tatiana Troyanos in the leading roles, was also a worldwide bestseller. The Making of the West Side Story about the recording was made at the same time and is available as a DVD. Bernstein continued to produce his own television documentaries in the 1980s, including The Little Drummer Boy, in which he discussed Gustav Mahler's music, perhaps the composer he was most interested in, and The Love of Three Orchestras, in which he discussed his work in New York, Vienna, and Israel.

Bernstein's life and work were celebrated around the world in his later years (as they have been since his death). In 1977, the Israel Philharmonic celebrated his participation with them at festivals in Israel and Austria. Bernstein's Festival in London in 1986 held a Bernstein Festival in London, with one performance that Bernstein himself attended by the Queen. Bernstein's 70th birthday was commemorated in 1988 by a lavish televised gala at Tanglewood, starring many performers who had worked with him over the years.

He commemorated Nadia Boulanger's 100th anniversary at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau in summer 1987. He led a masterclass inside the castle of Fontainebleau.

Bernstein performed live and recorded in the London Symphony Orchestra's studio in December 1989. Jerry Hadley, June Anderson, Adolph Green, and Christa Ludwig appeared in the leading roles on the recording. Opera singers in certain roles may have complemented operetta's style in a way that some commentators had anticipated for in the case of West Side Story, and the posthumously released album was universally lauded. On DVD, one of the live concerts at the Barbican Centre in London is available. Candide's past was turbulent, with many rewrites and writers involved. Bernstein's concert and recording were based on a final version that had been first performed by Scottish Opera in 1988. John Mauceri, Bernstein's ex student, conducted the opening night in Glasgow.

Bernstein conducted Beethoven's Symphony No. 1 on December 25, 1989. As part of the Berlin Wall's fall, there are 9 people in East Berlin's Schauspielhaus. The previous day, he had been doing the same job in West Berlin. The concert attracted a massive audience of 100 million people in more than 20 nations. Bernstein reworded Friedrich Schiller's text of Ode to Joy, instead of the original Joy (joy). Bernstein said in his spoken introduction that they had "taken the liberty" of doing this because of a "most likely phony" tale, according to some quarters, that Schiller wrote an "Ode to Freedom" that is now presumed lost. "I'm positive that Beethoven would have given us his blessing," Bernstein said.

Bernstein and Michael Tilson Thomas founded the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan, in the summer of 1990. This summer training center for musicians modeled on Tanglewood and is still in existence, much like his earlier Los Angeles work. Bernstein was already suffering from the lung disease that would lead to his death at this time. Bernstein said in his opening address that he had decided to devote whatever time he had left to education. Bernstein's first Festival video showing him speaking and rehearsing at the first Festival is available in Japan on DVD.

Bernstein was given the Praemium Imperiale, the Japan Arts Association's highest award for lifetime achievement in the arts, in the same year. Bernstein founded The Bernstein Education Through the Arts Fund in 1999, which was used to create the BETA Fund. He awarded this grant to develop an arts-based education program. The Leonard Bernstein Center was established in April 1992 and began extensive school-based studies, which culminated in the Bernstein Model, the Leonard Bernstein Artful Learning Program.

Bernstein appeared at Tanglewood's Boston Symphony Orchestra on August 19, 1990. Benjamin Britten's Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes and Beethoven's Symphony No. 1 were included in the program. 7. During the third movement of the Beethoven symphony, he had a coughing fit but continued to perform the piece until its conclusion, leaving the audience drained and in pain during the ovation. Leonard Bernstein – The Last Concert by Deutsche Grammophon — was later released on CD as Leonard Bernstein. In an orchestration by Bright Sheng, Bernstein's own Arias and Barcarolles were also included. Bernstein, on the other hand, was unable to do it due to poor health. Carl St. Clair was hired to do it in his absence.

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