Last Sunday was the anniversary of Leonard Bernstein’s birth. Bernstein was a triple-threat musician — pianist, composer, and conductor — who was also a great teacher. He is at the center of the American classical music tradition because he understood it so well and was such a powerful advocate for it as music director of the New York Philharmonic (1957-1968). The series of recordings he made with the Philharmonic are still touchstones, and the conductors who he taught or coached is an extraordinary legacy all by itself.
As a composer, he is, of course, most famous for his series of American musicals — landmarks all, including On the Town, Wonderful Town, Candide, and, of course, West Side Story. At the same time, he wrote an entertaining but penetrating slice-of-life, the one act opera, Trouble in Tahiti (1952). It was later expanded into the full-length opera A Quiet Place (1983).
Mainly a theater composer, Bernstein’s work-list as a composer does include a number of other important works. Chief among these is the choral work Chichester Psalms, written for the Chichester Festival in 1965. His Symphony No. 2, “The Age of Anxiety” is probably his most often-performed orchestral work, aside from excerpts from the music theater works.
Read more about Bernstein, watch videos, listen to music, discover links to cool sites and more at SFCV’s Composer Gallery page.