San Antonio College Library

Leonard Bernstein was arguably the most highly esteemed, influential, and charismatic American classical music personality of the twentieth century. Conductor, composer, pianist, writer, educator, and human rights activist, Bernstein truly led a life of Byronic intensity--passionate, risk-taking, and convention-breaking. In November 1989, just a year before his death, Bernstein invited writer Jonathan Cott to his country home in Fairfield, Connecticut...

Explores the career of the conductor and composer, disclosing the controversial nature of his life.

Leonard Bernstein introduces young conductors and performers. The program opens with cellist David Domb playing Dvorák Concerto in B Minor, conducted by Kenneth Schermerhorn. Stefan Mengelberg conducts the final movement of the Wieniawski Violin Concerto in D Minor with Barry Finclair on the violin. Finally, Leonard Bernstein conducts Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf with nine year old Alexandra Wager narrating.

Bernstein pays tribute to many of his teachers by conducting works important to his mentors, or written by them. The program closes with a tribute to the man who is, for Bernstein, "the greatest conductor alive today," Fritz Reiner. Pieces include Mussorgsky's Prelude to Khovanshchina, Randall Thompson's Symphony No. 2 (3rd movement), Walter Piston's The Incredible Flutist, and Brahms' Academic Festival Overture.

How does a show become a major hit? What special magic goes into a production on and off Broadway that sets it above all others in instant popularity and lasting entertainment? What is it like to write for the theater?

Anecdotal accounts of the lives and times of thirty-nine musical superstars since the eighteenth century.