Wartime success

Donald Macleod explores Bernstein’s meteoric rise to fame as a conductor and a composer as America goes to war.

Donald Macleod explores the life and music of Leonard Bernstein - one of the most iconic personalities in the musical life of America, and a key figure in the formation of the cultural identity of the United States. Over the course of this week, Donald discovers how Bernstein rose to conquer both the concert hall and the Broadway stage, and succeed both as conductor, and, more importantly for him personally, as composer.

We will explore Bernstein’s whirlwind life. A journey from a cocksure teenager giving piano lessons in his local neighbourhood to his studies at Harvard, where the connections he made – with the composer Aaron Copland and the conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos - prepared him, not as his father hoped, for a career in business, but instead for a life in music.

Donald also explores Bernstein’s friendship with the conductor Serge Koussevitsky and the events that led to his headline-grabbing success as a stand-in conductor for Bruno Walter in his mid-twenties. We'll also hear about his rise to prominence as a composer during the days of the Second World War with a pair of Broadway scores.

Donald also details Bernstein’s conflicted personal life – from his marriage to the actress and TV star Felicia Montealegre to his own TV career and his social life mixing with the celebrity set of New York City. And we’ll find out how his marriage hit the rocks as he underwent a difficult period in his personal life, like his hero Mahler, “like being two different men locked up in the same body”.

In Tuesday’s programme, Donald explores Bernstein’s reaction as America joined World War II. We’ll discover the ailment which meant that he received a medical discharge and track his remarkable rise to fame – as conductor when deputising for the stricken Bruno Walter, and as composer on Broadway with the dual success of his ballet Fancy Free and the musical On the Town.

On the Town - New York New York
Thomas Hampson, baritone (Gabey)
Kurt Ollman, baritone (Chip)
David Garrison, vocalist (Ozzie)
London Symphony Orchestra
Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor

Symphony No 1 “Jeremiah”
Marie-Nicole Lemieux, mezzo-soprano
Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
Antonio Pappano, conductor

Three Dance Episodes from On the Town
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Marin Alsop, conductor

Fancy Free – Finale
New York Philharmonic
Leonard Bernstein, conductor

Slava! A Political Overture
Israel Philharmonic
Leonard Bernstein, conductor

Producer: Sam Phillips