title: The Carpenters

text: Their next album, "Now & Then", was named by the duo's mother, Agnes. It contained "Sesame Street's" signature song "Sing", featuring the Jimmy Joice Children's Choir, which was released as a single, reaching No. 3 on the Hot 100. The album also included a Leon Russell composition, "This Masquerade", and the ambitious "Yesterday Once More", a side-long tribute to oldies radio which incorporated renditions of eight hit songs from previous decades into a faux oldies radio program. The single version of the latter became their biggest hit in the United Kingdom, holding the No. 2 spot for two weeks, and became the Carpenters' biggest worldwide hit.


title: The Carpenters

text: In 1974, the Carpenters achieved a significant international hit with an up-tempo remake of Hank Williams's "Jambalaya (On the Bayou)". While the song was not released as a single in the US, it reached the top 30 in Japan, No. 12 in the United Kingdom (as part of a double A-side with "Mr. Guder"), and No. 3 in the Netherlands. At Christmas that year, the duo released a jazz-influenced rendition of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" and appeared on Perry Como's Christmas show.


title: The Carpenters

text: The Carpenters did not record a new album in 1974. They had been touring extensively and were exhausted; Richard later said, "there was simply no time to make one. Nor was I in the mood." Tensions had erupted in the family unit; Richard had started dating the group's hairdresser but neither Agnes nor Karen took kindly to her and she ultimately ended the relationship and quit the band's services. Agnes had always praised Richard's musical talents, which Karen resented. The duo ultimately moved out of their parents' house; at first the siblings shared a home. In May, the Carpenters undertook their first tour of Japan, playing to 85,000 fans. They later likened the scenes when they first touched down at Tokyo Airport to Beatlemania.


title: The Carpenters

text: During this period, the pair released just one single, "I Won't Last a Day Without You" from "A Song for You". The Carpenters finally decided to release their original two years after its original album release and some months after Maureen McGovern's 1973 cover. In March 1974, the single version became the fifth and final selection from the album to chart in the Top 20, reaching No. 11 on the Hot 100 in May.


title: The Carpenters

text: In place of a new album, their first greatest hits package was released, featuring remixes of their singles, and newly recorded leads and bridges that allowed each side of the album to play through with no breaks. Richard later regretted this decision. This compilation was entitled "", and topped the charts in the US for one week, on January 5, 1974. It also topped the UK chart for 17 weeks (non-consecutive) and became one of the best-selling albums of the decade, ultimately selling more than seven million copies in the US alone.


title: The Carpenters

text: In 1975, the Carpenters had a hit with a remake of the Marvelettes' chart-topping 1961 single, "Please Mr. Postman". The song topped the "Billboard" Hot 100 in January and became the duo's third and final No. 1 pop single. It also earned Karen and Richard their record-setting twelfth million-selling gold single in the US. The follow-up, a Carpenter / Bettis composition "Only Yesterday", was the duo's last Hot 100 top 10 hit, reaching No. 4. The sound on the track was intended to emulate Phil Spector's famous Wall of Sound production technique.


title: The Carpenters

text: Both singles appeared on their 1975 LP "Horizon", which also included covers of the Eagles' "Desperado" and Neil Sedaka's "Solitaire", which became a moderate hit later that year. "Horizon" was certified gold after two weeks, but missed the top ten in the US, peaking at No. 13. The album still had a positive critical reception.


title: The Carpenters

text: The Carpenters toured with Sedaka during 1975, but critics found the latter's performances to be more professional and entertaining. Richard became particularly cross at how Sedaka was getting more attention, and ultimately fired him from the tour. Karen struggled to cope with the demands of live shows, and a planned tour of the UK and Japan was cancelled. The duo began to produce music videos to promote their records; in early 1975, they filmed a performance of "Please Mr. Postman" at Disneyland and "Only Yesterday" at the Huntington Gardens.


title: The Carpenters

text: Their next album, "A Kind of Hush", was released on June 11, 1976, and was certified gold. However, it was the first Carpenters' album not to become platinum-certified since "Ticket to Ride" seven years earlier. The duo had several hits that year, but by this time the public had become over-familiar with them, and sales fell. Their biggest single that year was a cover of Herman's Hermits' "There's a Kind of Hush (All Over the World)", which peaked at No. 12 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. "I Need to Be in Love" (Karen's favorite song by the Carpenters) charted at No. 25 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. However, it followed "There's a Kind of Hush" to the top spot on the Adult Contemporary charts and became the duo's 14th No. 1 Adult Contemporary hit, more than any other act in the history of the chart.


title: The Carpenters

text: "The Carpenters' Very First Television Special" aired on December 8, 1976, and included guests John Denver and Victor Borge. It was the duo's first headlining television variety show in the US. A follow-up special, "The Carpenters at Christmas", aired on December 9, 1977, featuring Kristy McNichol.


title: The Carpenters

text: The 1977 album, "Passage", marked an attempt to venture into other musical genres. It featured an unlikely mix of jazz fusion ("B'wana She No Home"), calypso ("Man Smart, Woman Smarter"), and orchestrated balladry ("I Just Fall in Love Again", "Two Sides"), and included the hits, "All You Get from Love Is a Love Song" and "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft". "Calling Occupants" was supported with the TV special "Space Encounters", which aired May 17, 1978, with guest stars Suzanne Somers and John Davidson. Although the single release of "Calling Occupants" became a significant Top 10 hit in the UK and reached No. 1 in Ireland, it only peaked at number 32 on the Hot 100, and for the first time a Carpenters album did not reach the gold threshold of 500,000 copies shipped in the US. In early 1978, they had a surprise Top 10 country hit with the up-tempo, fiddle-sweetened "Sweet, Sweet Smile", written by country-pop singer Juice Newton and her long-time musical partner Otha Young.


title: The Carpenters

text: In place of a new album for 1978, a second compilation, "", was released in the UK where it reached No. 2 in the charts. In the US, their first Christmas album, "Christmas Portrait", became a seasonal favorite, and was certified platinum. Richard later said that the album should have been released as Karen's first solo album. It was shortly followed by the television special "The Carpenters: A Christmas Portrait". During the sessions, several non-Christmas songs were recorded such as "Where Do I Go from Here", which was not released until after Karen's death.


title: The Carpenters

text: By 1978, Richard had become addicted to Quaaludes, which he had been taking on prescription in increasing doses since the 1971 tours. On September 4, during an engagement at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, he decided to quit touring, and the concerts there were curtailed. On December 3, the Carpenters were scheduled to play at the Pacific Terrace Theatre, Long Beach Convention Center, which turned out to be the last live concert that Karen and Richard played together. Richard refused to fly to the UK for an appearance on ITV's "Bruce Forsyth's Big Night", realizing he had a serious problem, so Karen performed without him and denied rumors that the duo were to split.


title: The Carpenters

text: Richard began treatment for his addiction at a facility in Topeka, Kansas, for six weeks in January 1979. He decided to take the rest of the year off to relax and rehabilitate. Richard was now sure that Karen was battling with anorexia nervosa, but she denied it, saying she simply had colitis. Karen did not want to take a break from singing nor seek professional medical help for her own condition, so she decided to pursue a solo album project with producer Phil Ramone in New York. The choice of Ramone and more adult-oriented and disco / dance-tempo material represented an effort to retool her image. Heatwave keyboardist and songwriter (and future Michael Jackson collaborator) Rod Temperton was asked by Ramone to help with songwriting and arranging, and Billy Joel's backing band were used for the album. She decided not to record Temperton's "Off the Wall" and "Rock with You", which later became hits for Jackson. The album was finished by early 1980, but drew a negative reception from A&M. Her mother Agnes did not like Karen working without Richard, while Richard felt that Karen was not well enough to have worked on the album. The total cost of recording was $500,000 of which $400,000 came from the Carpenters' own funds. The album was not released and although the press announced it was canceled at Karen's request, its rejection devastated her; she felt she had just wasted months of work. It was finally issued in 1996, 13 years after Karen's death.


title: The Carpenters

text: Following the cancellation of her solo album and her marriage to Tom Burris on August 31, 1980, Karen decided to record a new album with Richard, who had now recovered from his addiction and was ready to continue their career. The Carpenters produced their final television special in 1980, called "", with guest stars Ella Fitzgerald and John Davidson. Karen's outfit for the show was designed by Bill Belew, who was nominated for an Emmy Award for best costume design. He had also designed her wedding dress. Around the time of "Music, Music, Music", Karen briefly returned to a healthier weight; in Spring 1980 she went on a retreat with Olivia Newton-John to the Golden Door health spa in San Diego and also worked with a Beverly Hills internist to improve her eating and restore some lost previously.


title: The Carpenters

text: On June 16, 1981, the Carpenters released what would become their final LP as a duo, "Made in America". The album sold around 200,000 copies and spawned the hit, "Touch Me When We're Dancing", which reached No. 16 on the Hot 100. It also became their fifteenth and final number one Adult Contemporary hit. The album also produced three other singles, including "(Want You) Back in My Life Again", "Those Good Old Dreams", and a remake of the Motown hit "Beechwood 4-5789". The singles fared well on the adult contemporary charts. "Beechwood 4-5789" was the last single by the Carpenters to be released in Karen's lifetime, on her 32nd birthday. The album concluded with "Because We Are in Love (The Wedding Song)", referring to Karen's marriage. Promotion for the album included a whistle-stop tour of America, Brazil and Europe, including an appearance on "America's Top Ten". The band mimed to the studio recordings for most performances, singing live for some European performances.


title: The Carpenters

text: After moving to New York City in January 1982, Karen sought therapy for her eating disorder with psychotherapist Steven Levenkron. In April, she briefly returned to Los Angeles for recording, including a Carpenter / Bettis tune "You're Enough" and a Roger Nichols / Dean Pitchford song, "Now". Richard noticed that while Karen's interpretation of the songs was as strong as ever, he felt the timbre was weak owing to her poor health. He was unimpressed with Levenkron's treatment of Karen, considering it worthless. In September 1982, Karen called Levenkron to say her heart was "beating funny" and she felt dizzy and confused. Admitting herself into the hospital later that month, she was hooked up to an intravenous drip; she ended up gaining in eight weeks. On November 8, she left the hospital and despite pleas from family and friends, she announced that she was returning home to California and that she was cured. Karen maintained this weight of thereafter, for the rest of her life. Her last public appearance was on January 11, 1983, for a photo session celebrating 25 years of the Grammy Awards.


title: The Carpenters

text: On February 1, 1983, Karen and Richard met for dinner and discussed future plans for the Carpenters, including a return to touring. On February 3, Karen visited her parents and discussed finalizing her divorce from Burris. The following morning, her mother found her lying unresponsive on the floor of a walk-in closet, and she was rushed to the hospital. After Richard and his parents spent 20 minutes in a waiting room, a doctor entered and told them Karen had died. The autopsy stated that her death was caused by "emetine cardiotoxicity due to or as a consequence of anorexia nervosa." Under the anatomical summary, the first item was heart failure, followed by anorexia. The third finding was cachexia, which is extremely low weight and weakness and general body decline associated with chronic disease. Emetine cardiotoxicity implied that Karen abused ipecac syrup, although there was no other evidence to suggest that she did as her brother and family never found ipecac vials in her apartment, even after her death.


title: The Carpenters

text: Karen's funeral was at the Downey United Methodist Church on February 8, 1983. More than a thousand mourners attended, among them were her friends Dorothy Hamill, Olivia Newton-John, Petula Clark, Dionne Warwick and Herb Alpert.


title: The Carpenters

text: On October 12, 1983, the Carpenters received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Richard, Harold, and Agnes Carpenter attended the inauguration, as did many fans. Karen's death brought media attention to anorexia nervosa and related conditions such as bulimia nervosa, which were little known about at the time.


title: The Carpenters

text: Following Karen's death, Richard has continued to produce recordings of the duo's music, including several albums of previously unreleased material and numerous compilations. The posthumous "Voice of the Heart" was released in late 1983 and included some tracks left off "Made in America" and earlier albums. It peaked at No. 46 and was certified gold. Two singles were released, "Make Believe It's Your First Time", a second version of a song Karen had recorded for her solo album, and "Your Baby Doesn't Love You Anymore".


title: The Carpenters

text: For the second Christmas season following Karen's death, Richard constructed a new Carpenters' Christmas album entitled "An Old-Fashioned Christmas", using outtakes from "Christmas Portrait" and recording new material around it. Richard released his first solo album, "Time", in 1987, sharing vocals between himself, Dionne Warwick, and Dusty Springfield. The track "When Time Was All We Had" was a tribute to Karen. The same year, Todd Haynes released the short film "", which featured Barbie dolls playing the main cast. Richard objected to music being used in the film without his consent, and served an injunction in 1990 that prevented it from being shown. On January 1, 1989, the television special "The Karen Carpenter Story" premiered on CBS, topping the ratings for that week. It included the previously unreleased "You're the One" and "Where Do I Go from Here" in its soundtrack, which were released on the album "Lovelines" later that year.


title: The Carpenters

text: Richard married his (adopted) first cousin, Mary Rudolph, on May 19, 1984. Together, they have four daughters and one son, and live in Thousand Oaks, California, where the couple are supporters of the arts. In 2004, Richard and his wife pledged a $3 million gift to the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza Foundation in memory of Karen. Richard has actively supported the Carpenter Performing Arts Center at his alma mater, Long Beach State. He continues to make concert appearances, including fundraising efforts for the Carpenter Center.


title: The Carpenters

text: In 2007 and 2009, the current owners of the former Carpenter family home on Newville Avenue, Downey, obtained city permits to tear down the existing buildings to make room for newer and larger structures, despite protests from fans. In February 2008, the campaign was covered in the "Los Angeles Times". At that time an adjacent house that had once served as the band's headquarters and recording studio had already been demolished and the main house was on the verge of being demolished. The original house was featured on the cover of "Now & Then" and was where Karen had died. In the words of one fan, "this was our version of Graceland."


title: The Carpenters

text: The Carpenters (both as a duo and separately) were among hundreds of artists whose material was destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire. Richard told the "Times" he had been informed about the destruction of the master tapes by a Universal Music Enterprises employee while he was working on a reissue for the label, and only after he had made multiple, persistent inquiries into their whereabouts.


title: The Carpenters

text: Richard Carpenter was the creative force behind the Carpenters' sound. An accomplished keyboard player, composer and arranger, music critic Daniel Levitin called him "one of the most gifted arrangers to emerge in popular music." The duo's smooth harmonies were not in step with contemporary music, which was dominated by heavy rock. Instead, the Carpenters strove for a rich and melodic sound, along the same vein as the Beach Boys and the Mamas & the Papas, but with greater fullness and orchestration including frequent use of small string and horn sections and introspective lyrics centred around relationships. Richard also admired the musicianship and arranging skills of Frank Zappa, and the two briefly met backstage at the Billboard Forum in 1975. He has credited Judd Conlon as a key influence on his vocal arranging.


title: The Carpenters

text: Many of Richard's arrangements were classically influenced, featuring strings and occasional brass and woodwind, such as the Tijuana Brass-style couplets in the chorus of "Superstar", which did not appear in the original. He later said "if you don't have the right arrangement for that song, the singer's going nowhere and neither is the song". As well as arranging all of the parts for musicians, he scored drum notation, showing where individual components of a kit were supposed to be played. He also scored bass lines that he knew Joe Osborn would enjoy playing and fit his style. Most Carpenters albums credit Ron Gorow, who sometimes took some of Richard's arrangements worked out on piano, and wrote the actual sheet music notation onto paper.


title: The Carpenters

text: Richard frequently played the Wurlitzer electric piano, which he purchased during his Spectrum days. He also played the grand piano, Hammond organ, synthesizer and the harpsichord. In the studio, he dubbed the Wurlitzer over acoustic piano parts to thicken the sound. From the mid-1970s, he used Fender Rhodes pianos, and kept up to date with music technology. While touring, he alternated between grand piano, Rhodes and Wurlitzer on stage, for different songs.


title: The Carpenters

text: Karen possessed a powerful singing voice, and close miking brought out many nuances in her performances. Richard arranged their music to take advantage of this, though Karen had a three-octave vocal range. Richard's work with Karen was influenced by the music of Les Paul, whose overdubbing of the voice of wife and musical partner Mary Ford allowed her to be used as both the lead and harmony vocals. By multi-tracking, Richard was able to use Karen and himself for the harmonies to back Karen's lead. The overdubbed background harmonies were distinctive to the Carpenters, but it was the soulful, engaging sound of Karen's lead voice that made them so recognizable. Record executive Mike Curb said it was Karen's voice that took the Carpenters above straight pop music into pop rock. She was known as a "one take wonder" and could deliver a strong performance on the first attempt.


title: The Carpenters

text: Karen was an accomplished drummer, which was her original musical role, but she soon began to sing for the group too. Before 1974, Karen played the drums for a number of their songs, although some had Hal Blaine playing. Blaine later reported that while Karen was a capable drummer he was brought in for studio work partly because Karen was accustomed to playing loudly for live audiences and thus was unfamiliar with the more subtle playing required in recording facilities of the era. She considered herself a "drummer who sang". However, while Karen's vocals soon became the centerpiece of the group's performances, at tall, performing behind her drum kit made it difficult for audiences to see her and it was soon apparent to Richard and their manager that the audience wanted to see more of Karen. Although unwilling, she eventually agreed to sing the ballads standing up front, returning to her drums for the lesser known songs.


title: The Carpenters

text: As the group's popularity increased, demand for Karen's vocals at the expense of her drumming overshadowed her abilities and, gradually, she played the drums less; for "A Kind of Hush", she played no drums at the sessions at all, although she continued to sporadically drum in concert. From early 1976 onward, the tours featured a drum medley for Karen, and a piano solo number for Richard. Karen made a final return to studio drumming for the track "When It's Gone (It's Just Gone)" on "Made in America", albeit in tandem with Nashville session drummer Larrie Londin, and she also provided percussion in tandem with Paulinho da Costa on "Those Good Old Dreams". Karen used Ludwig drums, Zildjian cymbals, a Rogers foot pedal and hi-hat stand, 11A drumsticks and Remo drumheads.


title: The Carpenters

text: Although the Carpenters' greatest success was with record sales, most of their professional career was spent on the road. Albums took between four and five months to produce; the remainder of time would be spent at live concerts and television appearances. The duo played up to six one-night concerts back-to-back, which left them exhausted, along with television shows including "The Ed Sullivan Show", "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson", "The Carol Burnett Show", "The Mike Douglas Show" and "The Johnny Cash Show", as well as their own television specials.


title: The Carpenters

text: From the mid-1970s onwards, the Carpenters changed their stage show to allow Karen to have more presence and to interact with the audience, particularly between instrumental breaks. However, extensive touring and lengthy recording sessions had begun to take their toll on the duo and contributed to their professional and personal difficulties during the latter half of the decade. Karen dieted obsessively and developed anorexia nervosa, which first manifested itself in 1975 when the duo was forced to cancel concert tours in the Philippines, UK and Japan. Richard has said that he regrets the six- and seven-day work schedules of that period, adding that had he known then what he knows now, he would not have agreed to it, and was persuaded to do so by the belief that the Carpenters would not be financially stable without the touring. Richard's Quaalude addiction began to affect his performance in the late 1970s and led to the end of the duo's live concert appearances in 1978.


title: The Carpenters

text: Despite numerous concert appearances, the Carpenters never released a live album in the US. Two such albums, "Live in Japan" (1974) and "Live at the Palladium" (1976) have been released in Japan and reissued on CD there. Richard has said he is not particularly interested in live albums.


title: The Carpenters

text: The Carpenters' popularity confounded critics. With their output focused on ballads and mid-tempo pop, the duo's music was sometimes dismissed as being bland and saccharine. The recording industry, however, bestowed awards on the duo, who won three Grammy Awards during their career (Best New Artist, and Best Pop Performance by a Duo, Group, or Chorus, for They Long to Be) Close to You" in 1970; and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group for "Carpenters" in 1971). In 1974, the Carpenters were voted Favorite Pop/Rock Band, Duo, or Group at the first annual American Music Awards.


title: The Carpenters

text: From the start of their career, the Carpenters were coached by their management over handling interviews, and told to avoid saying anything controversial that would spoil their "clean cut" image. A&M described the duo as "Real nice American kids – in 1971". While the Carpenters were not a rock band, they were reviewed by the rock press; in 1971, "Rolling Stone"s Lester Bangs described them as having "the most disconcerting collective stage presence of any band I have seen". He also said that promotional photographs made them resemble "the cheery innocence of some years-past dream of California youth", and they appeared to the public to be more conservative than they actually were. The White House appearances only served to reinforce this image.


title: The Carpenters

text: Though the Carpenters had mass popular appeal and were recognized as being musically talented, people felt embarrassed and stigmatized about liking their records. In later interviews, Richard stressed repeatedly how much he disliked the A&M executives for making their image "squeaky-clean", and the critics for criticizing them for their image rather than their music.


title: The Carpenters

text: After "Goodbye to Love" had been released, attitudes towards the duo changed slightly. Ken Barnes, writing in "Phonograph" said "It's certainly less than revolutionary to admit you like the Carpenters these days – in 'rock' circles, if you recall, it formerly bordered on heresy. Everybody must be won over by now." Since then, the group's "saccharine" image has softened and musicians have cited the Carpenters as a key influence. In 1995, "Rolling Stone"s Sue Cummings wrote that the 1990s acceptance of the duo's work was "a renewed ironic appreciation", adding that listeners "had loved the veneer, then hated it, then found it even more compelling, on a second look, for the complexity in the places where the darkness cracked through".


title: The Carpenters

text: "Rolling Stone" ranked the Carpenters No. 10 on its list of the 20 Greatest Duos of All Time. Karen Carpenter has been called one of the greatest female vocalists of all time by "Rolling Stone" and National Public Radio. Paul McCartney has said she was "the best female voice in the world: melodic, tuneful and distinctive", while Herb Alpert said she was "the type of singer who would sit in your lap and sing in your ear".


title: The Carpenters

text: Shortly after Karen's death, a film archivist discovered some rare footage of an early Carpenters' television appearance. The archivist contacted Richard Carpenter and the two began viewing more footage which he had found. When the British division of A&M Records learned of the discoveries, they suggested the footage be turned into a video for home viewing. The finished piece, entitled "Yesterday Once More" is 55 minutes long and combines vintage and recent film clips. A&M Video and Richard intended "to create a video that played like an album"; all music was remixed from the masters and each selection was put into correct synchronization. The video was released in early 1985.


title: The Carpenters

text: Pop singer Michael Jackson was a fan of the duo. He cited the group as an early influence growing up.


title: The Carpenters

text: A critical re-evaluation of the Carpenters occurred during the 1990s and 2000s with the making of several documentaries such as "" (US), "The Sayonara" (Japan), and "" (UK). Despite contentions that their sound was "too soft" to fall under the definition of rock and roll, major campaigns and petitions exist toward inducting the Carpenters into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.


title: The Carpenters

text: Both "We've Only Just Begun" and "(They Long to Be) Close to You" have been honored with Grammy Hall of Fame awards for recordings of lasting quality or historical significance. The Carpenters' album and single sales total more than 90 million units making them one of the best-selling music artists of all time.


title: The Carpenters

text: Japanese singer Akiko Kobayashi has been influenced by Karen Carpenter, and she asked Richard to produce her 1988 album, "City of Angels". In 1990, the alternative rock band Sonic Youth recorded "Tunic (Song for Karen)" in recognition of her musical talents. A tribute album, "If I Were a Carpenter", by contemporary artists such as Sonic Youth, Bettie Serveert, Shonen Knife, Grant Lee Buffalo, Matthew Sweet, and The Cranberries, was released in 1994 and provided an alternative rock interpretation of Carpenters hits. Richard Carpenter played keyboards for the Matthew Sweet cut "Let Me Be the One". Guitarist Pat Metheny covered "Rainy Days and Mondays" for his album of cover versions of popular songs called "What's It All About", as a tribute to the band.


title: The Carpenters

text: Modern entertainers such as the Bangles and Concrete Blonde have listed Karen Carpenter as an influence on their careers. Brazilian pop duo Sandy & Junior was deemed the "Brazilian Carpenters" by the press and recorded a cover version of "We've Only Just Begun" for their album "Internacional" (2002).


title: The Carpenters

text: In 2021, longtime Carpenters historian Chris May and Associated Press entertainment journalist Mike Cidoni Lennox published "Carpenters: The Musical Legacy", based on interviews with Richard Carpenter. It features rare photographs and newly revealed stories behind the making of the albums. "Goldmine" said the book "provided a candid and detailed look at much of what went into the Carpenters sound as well as Richard's personal thoughts on the music business today."


title: The Carpenters

text: The Carpenters released ten albums during their active career, of which five contained two or more top 20 hits on the "Billboard" Hot 100 ("Close to You", "Carpenters", "A Song for You", "Now & Then", and "Horizon"). Ten singles were certified gold by the RIAA, and twenty-two peaked in the top 10 on the Adult Contemporary chart.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first American conductor to receive international acclaim. According to music critic Donal Henahan, he was "one of the most prodigiously talented and successful musicians in American history". Bernstein was the recipient of many honors, including seven Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, sixteen Grammy Awards including the Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Kennedy Center Honor.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: As a composer he wrote in many genres, including symphonic and orchestral music, ballet, film and theatre music, choral works, opera, chamber music and works for the piano. His best-known work is the Broadway musical "West Side Story", which continues to be regularly performed worldwide, and has been adapted into two (1961 and 2021) feature films. His works include three symphonies, "Chichester Psalms", "Serenade after Plato's "Symposium"", the original score for the film "On the Waterfront", and theater works including "On the Town", "Wonderful Town", "Candide", and his "MASS".


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Bernstein was the first American-born conductor to lead a major American symphony orchestra. He was music director of the New York Philharmonic and conducted the world's major orchestras, generating a significant legacy of audio and video recordings. He was also a critical figure in the modern revival of the music of Gustav Mahler, in whose music he was most passionately interested. A skilled pianist, he often conducted piano concertos from the keyboard. He was the first conductor to share and explore music on television with a mass audience. Through dozens of national and international broadcasts, including the Emmy Award-winning "Young People's Concerts" with the New York Philharmonic, he made even the most rigorous elements of classical music an adventure in which everyone could join. Through his educational efforts, including several books and the creation of two major international music festivals, he influenced several generations of young musicians.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: A lifelong humanitarian, Bernstein worked in support of civil rights; protested against the Vietnam War; advocated nuclear disarmament; raised money for HIV/AIDS research and awareness; and engaged in multiple international initiatives for human rights and world peace. Near the end of his life, he conducted an historic performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in Berlin to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall. The concert was televised live, worldwide, on Christmas Day, 1989.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Born Louis Bernstein in Lawrence, Massachusetts, he was the son of Ukrainian-Jewish parents, Jennie (née Resnick) and Samuel Joseph Bernstein, both of whom immigrated to the United States from Rivne (now in Ukraine). His grandmother insisted that his first name be Louis, but his parents always called him Leonard. He legally changed his name to Leonard when he was eighteen, shortly after his grandmother's death. To his friends and many others he was simply known as "Lenny".


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: His father was the owner of The Samuel Bernstein Hair and Beauty Supply Company. It held the New England franchise for the Frederick's Permanent Wave Machine, whose immense popularity helped Sam get his family through The Great Depression.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In Leonard's early youth, his only exposure to music was the household radio and music on Friday nights at Congregation Mishkan Tefila in Roxbury, Massachusetts. When Leonard was ten years old, Samuel's sister Clara deposited her upright piano at her brother's house. Bernstein began teaching himself piano and music theory and was soon clamoring for lessons. He had a variety of piano teachers in his youth, including Helen Coates, who later became his secretary. In the summers, the Bernstein family would go to their vacation home in Sharon, Massachusetts, where young Leonard conscripted all the neighborhood children to put on shows ranging from Bizet's "Carmen" to Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Pirates of Penzance". He would often play entire operas or Beethoven symphonies with his younger sister Shirley. Leonard's youngest sibling, Burton, was born in 1932, thirteen years after Leonard. Despite the large span in age, the three siblings remained close their entire lives.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Sam was initially opposed to young Leonard's interest in music and attempted to discourage his son's interest by refusing to pay for his piano lessons. Leonard then took to giving lessons to young people in his neighborhood. One of his students, Sid Ramin, became Bernstein's most frequent orchestrator and lifelong beloved friend.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Sam took his son to orchestral concerts in his teenage years and eventually supported his music education. In May 1932, Leonard attended his first orchestral concert with the Boston Pops Orchestra conducted by Arthur Fiedler. Bernstein recalled, "To me, in those days, the Pops was heaven itself ... I thought ... it was the supreme achievement of the human race." It was at this concert that Bernstein first heard Ravel's "Boléro", which made a tremendous impression on him.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Another strong musical influence was George Gershwin. Bernstein was a counselor at a summer camp when news came over the radio of Gershwin's death. In the mess hall, a shaken Bernstein demanded a moment of silence, and then played Gershwin's second "Prelude" as a memorial.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: On March 30, 1932, Bernstein played Brahms's "Rhapsody in G minor" at his first public piano performance in Susan Williams's studio recital at the New England Conservatory. Two years later, he made his solo debut with orchestra in Grieg's Piano Concerto in A minor with the Boston Public School Orchestra.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Bernstein's first two education environments were both public schools: the William Lloyd Garrison School, followed by the prestigious Boston Latin School, for which Bernstein and classmate Lawrence F. Ebb wrote the Class Song.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In 1935, Bernstein enrolled at Harvard College, where he studied music with, among others, Edward Burlingame Hill and Walter Piston. His first extant composition, Psalm 148 set for voice and piano, is dated in 1935. He majored in music with a final year thesis titled "The Absorption of Race Elements into American Music" (1939; reproduced in his book "Findings"). One of Bernstein's intellectual influences at Harvard was the aesthetics Professor David Prall, whose multidisciplinary outlook on the arts inspired Bernstein for the rest of his life.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: One of his friends at Harvard was future philosopher Donald Davidson, with whom Bernstein played piano duets. Bernstein wrote and conducted the musical score for the production Davidson mounted of Aristophanes' play "The Birds", performed in the original Greek. Bernstein recycled some of this music in future works.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: While a student, he was briefly an accompanist for the Harvard Glee Club as well as an unpaid pianist for Harvard Film Society's silent film presentations.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Bernstein mounted a student production of "The Cradle Will Rock", directing its action from the piano as the composer Marc Blitzstein had done at the infamous premiere. Blitzstein, who attended the performance, subsequently became a close friend and mentor to Bernstein.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: As a sophomore at Harvard, Bernstein met the conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos. Mitropoulos's charisma and power as a musician were major influences on Bernstein's eventual decision to become a conductor. Mitropoulos invited Bernstein to come to Minneapolis for the 1940–41 season to be his assistant, but the plan fell through due to union issues.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Bernstein met Aaron Copland on the latter's birthday in 1937; the elder composer was sitting next to Bernstein at a dance recital at Town Hall in New York City. Copland invited Bernstein to his birthday party afterwards, where Bernstein impressed the guests by playing Copland's challenging Piano Variations, a work Bernstein loved. Although he was never a formal student of Copland's, Bernstein would regularly seek his advice, often citing him as his "only real composition teacher".


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: After graduating from Harvard, Bernstein enrolled at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. At Curtis, Bernstein studied conducting with Fritz Reiner (who anecdotally is said to have given Bernstein the only "A" grade he ever awarded); piano with Isabelle Vengerova; orchestration with Randall Thompson; counterpoint with Richard Stöhr; and score reading with Renée Longy Miquelle.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In 1940, Bernstein attended the inaugural year of the Tanglewood Music Center (then called the Berkshire Music Center) at the Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer home. Bernstein studied conducting with the BSO's music director, Serge Koussevitzky, who became a profound lifelong inspiration to Bernstein. He became Koussevitzky's conducting assistant at Tanglewood and later dedicated his Symphony No. 2: "The Age of Anxiety" to his beloved mentor. One of Bernstein's classmates, both at Curtis and at Tanglewood, was Lukas Foss, who remained a lifelong friend and colleague. Bernstein returned to Tanglewood nearly every summer for the rest of his life to teach and conduct the young music students.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Soon after he left Curtis, Bernstein moved to New York City where he lived in various apartments in Manhattan. Bernstein supported himself by coaching singers, teaching piano, and playing the piano for dance classes in Carnegie Hall. He found work with Harms-Witmark, transcribing jazz and pop music and publishing his work under the pseudonym "Lenny Amber". ("Bernstein" means "amber" in German.)


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Bernstein briefly shared an apartment in Greenwich Village with his friend Adolph Green. Green was then part of a satirical music troupe called The Revuers, featuring Betty Comden and Judy Holliday. With Bernstein sometimes providing piano accompaniment, the Revuers often performed at the legendary jazz club the Village Vanguard.


title: Leonard Bernstein

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


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: On November 14, 1943, having recently been appointed assistant conductor to Artur Rodziński of the New York Philharmonic, Bernstein made his major conducting debut at short notice—and without any rehearsal—after guest conductor Bruno Walter came down with the flu. The challenging program included works by Robert Schumann, Miklós Rózsa, Richard Wagner, and Richard Strauss.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: The next day, "The New York Times" carried the story on its front page and remarked in an editorial, "It's a good American success story. The warm, friendly triumph of it filled Carnegie Hall and spread far over the air waves."


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Many newspapers throughout the country carried the story, which, in combination with the concert's live national CBS Radio Network broadcast, propelled Bernstein to instant fame.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Over the next two years, Bernstein made conducting debuts with ten different orchestras in the United States and Canada, greatly broadening his repertoire and initiating a lifelong frequent practice of conducting concertos from the piano.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: On January 28, 1944, he conducted the premiere of his Symphony No. 1: "Jeremiah" with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra with Jennie Tourel as soloist.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In the fall of 1943, Bernstein and Jerome Robbins began work on their first collaboration, "Fancy Free", a ballet about three young sailors on leave in wartime New York City. "Fancy Free" premiered on April 18, 1944, 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.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Bernstein and Robbins decided to expand the ballet into a musical and invited Comden and Green to write the book and lyrics. "On the Town" opened on Broadway's Adelphi Theatre on December 28, 1944. The show resonated with audiences during World War II, and it broke race barriers on Broadway: Japanese-American dancer Sono Osato in a leading role; a multiracial cast dancing as mixed race couples; and a Black concertmaster, Everett Lee, who eventually took over as music director of the show. "On the Town" became an MGM motion picture in 1949, starring Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Jules Munshin as the three sailors. Only part of Bernstein's score was used in the film and additional songs were provided by Roger Edens.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: From 1945 to 1947, Bernstein was the music director of the New York City Symphony, which had been founded the previous year by the conductor Leopold Stokowski. The orchestra (with support from Mayor Fiorello La Guardia) had modern programs and affordable tickets.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In 1946, he made his overseas debut with the Czech Philharmonic in Prague. He also recorded Ravel's Piano Concerto in G as soloist and conductor with the Philharmonia Orchestra. On July 4, 1946, Bernstein conducted the European premiere of "Fancy Free" with the Ballet Theatre at the Royal Opera House in London.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In 1946, he conducted opera professionally for the first time at Tanglewood with the American premiere of Benjamin Britten's "Peter Grimes", which was commissioned by Koussevitzky. That same year, Arturo Toscanini invited Bernstein to guest conduct two concerts with the NBC Symphony Orchestra, one of which featured Bernstein as soloist in Ravel's Piano Concerto in G.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In 1947, Bernstein conducted in Tel Aviv for the first time, beginning a lifelong association with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, then known as the Palestine Symphony Orchestra. The next year he conducted an open-air concert for Israeli troops at Beersheba in the middle of the desert during the Arab-Israeli war. In 1957, he conducted the inaugural concert of the Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv. In 1967, he conducted a concert on Mount Scopus to commemorate the Reunification of Jerusalem, featuring Mahler's Symphony No. 2 and Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with soloist Isaac Stern. The city of Tel Aviv added his name to the Habima Square (Orchestra Plaza) in the center of the city.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: On December 10, 1949, he made his first television appearance as conductor with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. The concert, which included an address by Eleanor Roosevelt, celebrated the one-year anniversary of the United Nations General Assembly's ratification of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and included the premiere of Aaron Copland's "Preamble" with Sir Laurence Olivier narrating text from the UN Charter. The concert was televised by NBC Television Network.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In April 1949, Bernstein performed as piano soloist in the world premiere of his Symphony No. 2: The Age of Anxiety with Koussevitzy conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Later that year, Bernstein conducted the world premiere of the "Turangalîla-Symphonie" by Olivier Messiaen, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Part of the rehearsal for the concert was recorded and released by the orchestra. When Koussevitzky died in 1951, Bernstein became head of the orchestra and conducting departments at Tanglewood.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: The 1950s comprised among the most active years of Bernstein's career. He created five new works for the Broadway stage; he composed several symphonic works and an iconic film score; he was appointed music director of the New York Philharmonic with whom he toured the world, including concerts behind the Iron Curtain; he harnessed the power of television to expand his educational reach; and he married and started a family.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In 1950, Bernstein composed incidental music for a Broadway production of J. M. Barrie's play "Peter Pan". The production, which opened on Broadway on April 24, 1950, starred Jean Arthur as Peter Pan and Boris Karloff in the dual roles of George Darling and Captain Hook. The show ran for 321 performances.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In 1951, Bernstein composed "Trouble in Tahiti", a one-act opera in seven scenes with an English libretto by the composer. The opera portrays the troubled marriage of a couple whose idyllic suburban post-war environment belies their inner turmoil. Ironically, Bernstein wrote most of the opera while on his honeymoon in Mexico with his wife, Felicia Montealegre.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Bernstein was a visiting music professor at Brandeis University from 1951 to 1956. In 1952, he created the Brandeis Festival of the Creative Arts, where he conducted the premiere of "Trouble in Tahiti" on June 12 of that year.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: The NBC Opera Theatre subsequently presented the opera on television in November 1952. It opened on Broadway at the Playhouse Theatre on April 19, 1955, and ran for six weeks.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Three decades later, Bernstein wrote a second opera, "A Quiet Place", which picked up the story and characters of "Trouble in Tahiti" in a later period.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In 1953, Bernstein wrote the score for the musical "Wonderful Town" on very short notice, with a book by Joseph A. Fields and Jerome Chodorov and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. The musical tells the story of two sisters from Ohio who move to New York City and seek success from their squalid basement apartment in Greenwich Village.


title: Leonard Bernstein

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


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In the three years leading up to Bernstein's appointment as music director of the New York Philharmonic, Bernstein was simultaneously working on the scores for two Broadway shows. The first of the two was the operetta-style musical "Candide." Lillian Hellman originally brought Bernstein her idea of adapting Voltaire's novella. The original collaborators on the show were book writer John Latouche and lyricist Richard Wilbur.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: "Candide" opened on Broadway on December 1, 1956, at the Martin Beck Theatre, in a production directed by Tyrone Guthrie. Anxious about the parallels Hellman had deliberately drawn between Voltaire's story and the ongoing hearings conducted by the House Un-American Activities Committee, Guthrie persuaded the collaborators to cut their most incendiary sections prior to opening night.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: While the production was a box office disaster, running for only two months for a total of 73 performances, the cast album became a cult classic, which kept Bernstein's score alive. There have been several revivals, with modifications to improve the book.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: The elements of the music that have remained best known and performed over the decades are the Overture, which quickly became one of the most frequently performed orchestral compositions by a 20th century American composer; the coloratura aria "Glitter and Be Gay", which Barbara Cook sang in the original production; and the grand finale "Make Our Garden Grow".


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: The other musical Bernstein was writing simultaneously with "Candide" was "West Side Story". Bernstein collaborated with director and choreographer Jerome Robbins, book writer Arthur Laurents, and lyricist Stephen Sondheim.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: The story is an updated retelling of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet", set in the mid-1950s in the slums of New York City's Upper West Side. The Romeo character, Tony, is affiliated with the Jets gang, who are of white Northern European descent. The Juliet character is Maria, who is connected to the Sharks gang, recently arrived immigrants from Puerto Rico.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: The original Broadway production opened at the Winter Garden Theatre on September 26, 1957, and ran 732 performances. Robbins won the Tony Award for Best Choreographer, and Oliver Smith won the Tony for Best Scenic Designer.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Bernstein's score for "West Side Story" blends "jazz, Latin rhythms, symphonic sweep and musical-comedy conventions in groundbreaking ways for Broadway". It was orchestrated by Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal following detailed instructions from Bernstein. The dark theme, sophisticated music, extended dance scenes, and focus on social problems marked a turning point in musical theatre.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In 1960, Bernstein prepared a suite of orchestral music from the show, titled "Symphonic Dances from West Side Story", which continues to be popular with orchestras worldwide.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: A 1961 United Artists film adaptation, directed by Robert Wise and Robbins and starred Natalie Wood as Maria and Richard Beymer as Tony. The film won ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture and a ground-breaking Best Supporting Actress award for Puerto Rican-born Rita Moreno playing the role of Anita.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In addition to Bernstein's compositional activity for the stage, he wrote a symphonic work, "Serenade after Plato's "Symposium""; the score to the Academy Award-winning film "On The Waterfront"; and "Prelude, Fugue and Riffs", composed for jazz big band and solo clarinet"."


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In 1953, Bernstein became the first American conductor to appear at La Scala in Milan, conducting Cherubini's "Medea", with Maria Callas in the title role. Callas and Bernstein reunited at La Scala to perform Bellini's "La sonnambula" in 1955.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: On November 14, 1954, Bernstein presented the first of his television lectures for the CBS Television Network arts program "Omnibus". The live lecture, entitled "Beethoven's Fifth Symphony", involved Bernstein explaining the symphony's first movement with the aid of musicians from the "Symphony of the Air" (formerly NBC Symphony Orchestra). The program featured manuscripts from Beethoven's own hand, as well as a giant painting of the first page of the score covering the studio floor. Six more Omnibus lectures followed from 1955 to 1961 (later on ABC and then NBC) covering a broad range of topics: jazz, conducting, American musical comedy, modern music, J.S. Bach, and grand opera.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Bernstein was appointed the music director of the New York Philharmonic in 1957, sharing the post jointly with Dimitri Mitropoulos until he took sole charge in 1958. Bernstein held the music directorship until 1969 when he was appointed "Laureate Conductor". He continued to conduct and make recordings with the orchestra for the rest of his life.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Bernstein's television teaching took a quantum leap when, as the new music director of the New York Philharmonic, he put the orchestra's traditional Saturday afternoon "Young People's Concerts" on the CBS Television Network. Millions of viewers of all ages and around the world enthusiastically embraced Bernstein and his engaging presentations about classical music. Bernstein often presented talented young performers on the broadcasts. Many of them became celebrated in their own right, including conductors Claudio Abbado and Seiji Ozawa; flutist Paula Robison; and pianist André Watts. From 1958 until 1972, the fifty-three "Young People's Concerts" comprised the most influential series of music education programs ever produced on television. They were highly acclaimed by critics and won numerous Emmy Awards.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Some of Bernstein's scripts, all of which he wrote himself, were released in book form and on records. A recording of "Humor in Music" was awarded a Grammy award for Best Documentary or Spoken Word Recording (other than comedy) in 1961. The programs were shown in many countries around the world, often with Bernstein dubbed into other languages, and the concerts were later released on home video by Kultur Video.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In 1958, Bernstein and Mitropoulos led the New York Philharmonic on its first tour south of the border, through 12 countries in Central and South America. The United States Department of State sponsored the tour to improve the nation's relations with its southern neighbors.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In 1959, the Department of State also sponsored Bernstein and the Philharmonic on a 50-concert tour through Europe and the Soviet Union, portions of which were filmed by the CBS Television Network. A highlight of the tour was Bernstein's performance of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony, in the presence of the composer, who came on stage at the end to congratulate Bernstein and the musicians.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Bernstein's innovative approach to themed programming included introducing audiences to lesser performed composers at the time such as Gustav Mahler, Carl Nielsen, Jean Sibelius, and Charles Ives (including the world premiere of his Symphony No. 2). Bernstein actively advocated for the commission and performance of works by contemporary composers, conducting over 40 world premieres by a diverse roster of composers ranging from John Cage to Alberto Ginastera to Luciano Berio. He also conducted US premieres of 19 major works from around the globe, including works by Dmitri Shostakovich, Pierre Boulez, and György Ligeti.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Bernstein championed American composers, especially with whom he had a close friendship, such as Aaron Copland, William Schuman, and David Diamond. This decade saw a significant expansion of Bernstein and the Philharmonic's collaboration with Columbia Records, together they released over 400 compositions, covering a broad swath of the classical music canon.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Bernstein welcomed the Philharmonic's additions of its first Black musician, Sanford Allen, and its second woman musician, Orin O'Brien. Bernstein also shared the Philharmonic's commitment to connecting with as many New Yorkers as possible. That vision became a reality with the launch of the Concerts in the Parks in 1965, which Bernstein conducted often.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Another milestone was the Philharmonic's first visit to Japan in 1961, when Bernstein led acclaimed Philharmonic concerts and engaged in cultural exchange. Over the years he led the Orchestra on tours to 144 cities in 38 countries.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: He initiated the Philharmonic's informal Thursday Evening Preview Concerts, which included Bernstein's talks from the stage, a practice that was unheard of at the time.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In one oft-reported incident, on April 6, 1962, Bernstein appeared on stage before a performance of the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor to explain that the soloist, Glenn Gould, had chosen an idiosyncratic approach to the work. Bernstein explained that while he did not totally agree with it, he thought Gould's interpretation was an artistically worthy exploration. Bernstein questioned: "In a concerto, who is the boss: the soloist or the conductor?" The incident created a stir that reverberated in the press for decades.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In 1960, Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic introduced American audiences to the music of Gustav Mahler, beginning with a festival marking the centennial of the composer's birth. The composer's widow, Alma, attended some of Bernstein's rehearsals. In that same year, Bernstein made his first commercial recording of a Mahler symphony (the Fourth). Over the next seven years, he recorded the entire Mahler symphony cycle with the New York Philharmonic (except for the 8th Symphony, which was recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra).


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: The combination of concert performances, television talks, and recordings led to a renewed interest in Mahler, especially in the United States. Bernstein claimed that he identified with the works on a personal level, and once wrote of the composer: "I'm so sympathetic to Mahler: I understand his problem. It's like being two different men locked up in the same body; one man is a conductor and the other a composer ... It's like being a double man."


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: On May 14, 1959, President Dwight D. Eisenhower broke ground for Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. On September 23, 1962, the New York Philharmonic moved from Carnegie Hall to its new home, Philharmonic Hall (now David Geffen Hall). Bernstein conducted the gala opening concert featuring works by Mahler, Beethoven, and Vaughan Williams, as well as the premiere of Aaron Copland's "Connotations".


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In 1964, Bernstein conducted at The Metropolitan Opera for the first time in Franco Zeffirelli's production of Verdi's "Falstaff". In subsequent years, Bernstein returned to The Met to conduct "Cavalleria Rusticana" (1970) and "Carmen" (1972), as well as at the Centennial Gala in 1983.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In 1961, Bernstein composed a fanfare for President John F. Kennedy's pre-inaugural gala, at which Bernstein conducted.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: On November 23, 1963, the day after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Bernstein conducted the New York Philharmonic and the Schola Cantorum of New York in a nationally televised memorial featuring the Mahler's Symphony No. 2: "Resurrection". Later that week, in a speech to the United Jewish Appeal, Bernstein said: "This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before."


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: After President Kennedy's brother Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1968, Bernstein conducted at the funeral mass, featuring the "Adagietto" movement from Mahler's Symphony No. 5.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Due to his commitment to the New York Philharmonic and his many other activities, Bernstein had little time for composition during the 1960s. Nevertheless, he was able to compose two major works.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Bernstein's Symphony No. 3: "Kaddish" was written in 1963; Bernstein dedicated the work: "To the Beloved Memory of John F. Kennedy." The work features a large orchestra, a full choir, a boys' choir, a soprano soloist, and a narrator. "Kaddish" refers to the Jewish prayer recited for the dead. Bernstein wrote the text of the narration himself; his wife, Felicia Montealegre, narrated the US premiere of the work.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In 1965, Bernstein took a sabbatical year from the New York Philharmonic in order to concentrate on composition, during which he composed "Chichester Psalms." Commissioned by the Dean of Chichester Cathedral, Walter Hussey, the work premiered at Philharmonic Hall in New York City on July 15, 1965, conducted by Bernstein himself, and subsequently at Chichester Cathedral, conducted by John Birch. For his text, Bernstein chose excerpts from the Book of Psalms in the original Hebrew. In 2018, Bernstein's Centennial year, "Chichester Psalms" was cited as the 5th-most performed concert work worldwide.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In 1966, Bernstein began a lifelong rich relationship with the Vienna Philharmonic, conducting concerts as well as making his debut 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 the works of Mahler to the Vienna Philharmonic's core repertoire. Bernstein recorded Mahler's Symphonies numerous times with the orchestra.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: He returned to the State Opera in 1968 for a production of "Der Rosenkavalier" and in 1970 for Otto Schenk's production of Beethoven's "Fidelio".


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: During the 1970s, Bernstein's company, Amberson, in partnership with Unitel, produced and coordinated filmed recordings of his symphonic concerts around the world. For the remainder of his life, Bernstein preferred to derive his audio recordings from live performances. Nearly 80% of Bernstein's recordings with his new recording partner, Deutsche Grammophon, were recorded live.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Bernstein's major compositions during the 1970s were his "Mass: A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players, and Dancers"; his score for the ballet "Dybbuk"; his orchestral vocal work ""; and his U.S. bicentennial musical "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue," with lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, which was his last Broadway show and his only theatrical flop.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In 1966, Jacqueline Kennedy commissioned Bernstein to compose a work for the inauguration of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Bernstein began writing "Mass" in 1969 as a large-scale theatrical work based on the Tridentine Mass of the Catholic Church, and in 1971, Bernstein invited the young composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz, who had recently opened the musical "Godspell" off-Broadway, to collaborate as co-lyricist. The world premiere took place on September 8, 1971, conducted by Maurice Peress, directed by Gordon Davidson, and choreographed by Alvin Ailey.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Bernstein's score combines elements of musical theater, jazz, gospel, blues, folk, rock, and symphonic music, and the libretto combines Latin and English liturgy, Hebrew prayer, and additional lyrics written by Bernstein and Schwartz.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: "Mass" received both rapturous and critical reactions, from audiences and music critics alike. While some members of the Catholic Church praised the piece's expression of contemporary crises of faith, others considered it blasphemous. (In 2000, Pope John Paul II requested a performance of Mass at the Vatican itself.) President Richard Nixon declined to attend the premiere due to its anti-Vietnam War message. Viewpoints on "Mass" continue to evolve over time, and Edward Seckerson wrote in 2021, 50 years after its premiere: "Put simply, no other work of Bernstein's encapsulates exactly who he was as a man or as a musician; no other work displays his genius, his intellect, his musical virtuosity and innate theatricality quite like MASS."


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In the 1972–73 academic year, Bernstein was appointed to the Charles Eliot Norton Chair as Professor of Poetry at his alma mater, Harvard University. Bernstein prepared and delivered six lectures entitled "The Unanswered Question". The interdisciplinary lectures explored such elements as tonality, harmony, and form through the lens of Noam Chomsky's linguistic theories. Bernstein provided musical examples from the piano, and pre-recorded musical works with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Amberson arranged for the lectures to be videotaped at the WGBH studios in Boston. The six lectures were broadcast on PBS in 1976, and subsequently released on home video and published as a book.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Bernstein collaborated with Jerome Robbins to create "Dybbuk", a ballet based on S. Ansky's play of the same name. The ballet depicts Ansky's tale of a young woman possessed by a malicious spirit, known in Jewish folklore as a "dybbuk". "Dybbuk" was premiered by the New York City Ballet at the New York State Theater on 16 May 1974, with Bernstein conducting. A revision of the choreography and the score was made later the same year, titled "Dybbuk Variations". It received its premiere in November 1974.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Bernstein's "Songfest: A Cycle of American Poems for Six Singers and Orchestra" premiered on October 11, 1977, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C, with the composer conducting the National Symphony Orchestra. The work was intended as a tribute to the 1976 American Bicentennial but was not finished in time.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: The work sets an array of texts by thirteen American poets spanning three centuries. Bernstein deliberately selected the widest possible array of literary voices to express the nation's essential diversity; the poets include June Jordan, Julia de Burgos, Walt Whitman, and Langston Hughes.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: On July 4, 1985, Bernstein conducted a nationally televised performance of "Songfest" as part of the National Symphony's annual "A Capitol Fourth" concert.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: After becoming Conductor Laureate of the New York Philharmonic in 1969, Bernstein took advantage of his freed-up schedule to increase the pace of his world travel, conducting twenty-nine orchestras throughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas, and making live recordings with them for both Unitel GmbH & Co.KG and Deutsche Grammophon.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Bernstein founded Amberson Productions in 1969. In partnership with Unitel, Amberson created many video productions of concert performances, starting with Verdi's Requiem Mass in St. Paul's Cathedral with the London Symphony Orchestra in 1970, produced and directed by Humphrey Burton. Burton would go on to collaborate with Bernstein on his music video projects for the rest of Bernstein's life.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In 1972, Bernstein recorded Bizet's "Carmen", with Marilyn Horne in the title role and James McCracken as Don Jose, after leading several stage performances of the opera at The Metropolitan Opera. The recording was one of the first in stereo to use the original spoken dialogue between the sung portions of the opera. The recording was Bernstein's first for Deutsche Grammophon and won a Grammy.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In working with Unitel and Deutsche Grammophon, Bernstein made a host of video and audio recordings with such orchestras as Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma della Rai, and Orchestre National de France. Among the many noteworthy Amberson productions with Unitel were Bernstein conducting Mahler's Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection" with the London Symphony Orchestra at Ely Cathedral in 1973, and "Fidelio" at the Vienna State Opera in 1978.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: One particularly noteworthy film was "Bernstein on Beethoven: A Celebration in Vienna," which Bernstein wrote and narrated in 1970. The film is an in-depth exploration of Beethoven on the composer's 200th birthday, filmed on location in and around Vienna. It features excerpts of Bernstein's rehearsals and performance of "Fidelio" at the Vienna State Opera, directed by Otto Schenk (which was later revived and filmed in 1978); Bernstein playing the Piano Concerto No. 1 and conducting from the piano; and a performance of Symphony No. 9 with the Vienna Philharmonic, featuring the young Plácido Domingo among the soloists. The show, produced and directed by Humphrey Burton, was broadcast around the world and won an Emmy Award.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: During the 1970s, Bernstein recorded his symphonies and other works with the Israel Philharmonic on Deutsche Grammophon. In May 1978, the Israel Philharmonic played two U.S. concerts under his direction to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Orchestra under that name. On consecutive nights, 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 at Carnegie Hall in New York.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In the late 1970s, Bernstein conducted a complete Beethoven symphony cycle with the Vienna Philharmonic, and cycles of Brahms and Schumann were to follow in the 1980s. Other orchestras he conducted on numerous occasions in the 1970s include the Israel Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de France, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In October 1976, Bernstein led the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and pianist Claudio Arrau in an Amnesty International Benefit Concert in Munich. To honor his late wife and to continue their joint support for human rights, Bernstein established the Felicia Montealegre Bernstein Fund of Amnesty International USA to provide aid for human rights activists with limited resources.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In 1979, Bernstein conducted the Berlin Philharmonic for the first time, in two charity concerts for Amnesty International involving performances of Mahler's Ninth Symphony. The invitation for the concerts had come from the orchestra and not from its principal conductor Herbert von Karajan. There has been speculation about why Karajan never invited Bernstein to conduct his orchestra. (Karajan did conduct the New York Philharmonic during Bernstein's tenure.) The full reasons will probably never be known—reports suggest they were on friendly terms when they met, but sometimes practiced a little mutual one-upmanship. One of the concerts was broadcast on radio and was posthumously released on CD by Deutsche Grammophon. One oddity of the recording is that the trombone section fails to enter at the climax of the finale, as a result of an audience member fainting just behind the trombones a few seconds earlier.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Bernstein received the Kennedy Center Honors award in 1980. For the rest of the 1980s he continued to conduct, teach, compose, and produce the occasional TV documentary. His most significant compositions of the decade were probably his opera "A Quiet Place", which he wrote with Stephen Wadsworth and which premiered, in its original version, in Houston in 1983; his Divertimento for Orchestra; his "Ḥalil" for flute and orchestra; his Concerto for Orchestra "Jubilee Games"; and his song cycle "Arias and Barcarolles", which was named after a comment President Dwight D. Eisenhower had made to him in 1960.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In 1982 in the U.S., PBS aired an 11-part series of Bernstein's late 1970s films for Unitel of the Vienna Philharmonic playing all nine Beethoven symphonies and various other Beethoven works. Bernstein gave spoken introduction and actor Maximilian Schell was also featured on the programs, reading from Beethoven's letters. The original films have since been released on DVD by Deutsche Grammophon. In addition to conducting in New York, Vienna and Israel, Bernstein was a regular guest conductor of other orchestras in the 1980s. These included the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, with whom he recorded Mahler's First, Fourth, and Ninth Symphonies amongst other works; the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Munich, with whom he recorded Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde"; Haydn's "Creation"; Mozart's Requiem and "Great Mass in C minor"; and the orchestra of Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, with whom he recorded some Debussy and Puccini's "La bohème".


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In 1982, he and Ernest Fleischmann founded the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute as a summer training academy along the lines of Tanglewood. Bernstein served as artistic director and taught conducting there until 1984. Around the same time, he performed and recorded some of his own works with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for Deutsche Grammophon. Bernstein was also at the time a committed supporter of nuclear disarmament. In 1985 he took the European Community Youth Orchestra in a "Journey for Peace" tour across Europe and Japan.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In 1984, he conducted a recording of "West Side Story", the first time he had conducted the entire work. The recording, featuring what some critics felt were miscast opera singers such as Kiri Te Kanawa, José Carreras, and Tatiana Troyanos in the leading roles, was nevertheless an international bestseller. A TV documentary "The Making of West Side Story" about the recording was made at the same time and has been released as a DVD. Bernstein also continued to make his own TV documentaries during the 1980s, including "The Little Drummer Boy", in which he discussed the music of Gustav Mahler, perhaps the composer he was most passionately interested in, and "The Love of Three Orchestras", in which he discussed his work in New York, Vienna, and Israel.


title: Leonard Bernstein

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


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: During summer 1987, he celebrated the 100th anniversary of Nadia Boulanger at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau. He gave a masterclass inside the castle of Fontainebleau.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In December 1989, Bernstein conducted live performances and recorded in the studio his operetta "Candide" with the London Symphony Orchestra. The recording starred Jerry Hadley, June Anderson, Adolph Green, and Christa Ludwig in the leading roles. The use of opera singers in some roles perhaps fitted the style of operetta better than some critics had thought was the case for "West Side Story", and the posthumously released recording was universally praised. One of the live concerts from the Barbican Centre in London is available on DVD. "Candide" had had a troubled history, 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. The opening night, which Bernstein attended in Glasgow, was conducted by his former student John Mauceri.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: On December 25, 1989, Bernstein conducted Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in East Berlin's Schauspielhaus as part of a celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall. He had conducted the same work in West Berlin the previous day. The concert was broadcast live in more than twenty countries to an estimated audience of 100 million people. For the occasion, Bernstein reworded Friedrich Schiller's text of the "Ode to Joy", using the word "Freiheit" (freedom) instead of the original "Freude" (joy). Bernstein, in his spoken introduction, said that they had "taken the liberty" of doing this because of a "most likely phony" story, apparently believed in some quarters, that Schiller wrote an "Ode to Freedom" that is now presumed lost. Bernstein added, "I'm sure that Beethoven would have given us his blessing."


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In the summer of 1990, Bernstein and Michael Tilson Thomas founded the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan. Like his earlier activity in Los Angeles, this was a summer training school for musicians modeled on Tanglewood and is still in existence. At this time, Bernstein was already suffering from the lung disease that would lead to his death. In his opening address Bernstein said that he had decided to devote what time he had left to education. A video showing Bernstein speaking and rehearsing at the first Festival is available on DVD in Japan.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In the same year, Bernstein received the Praemium Imperiale, an international prize awarded by the Japan Arts Association for lifetime achievement in the arts. Bernstein used the $100,000 prize to establish The Bernstein Education Through the Arts (BETA) Fund. He provided this grant to develop an arts-based education program. The Leonard Bernstein Center was established in April 1992, and initiated extensive school-based research, resulting in the Bernstein Model, the Leonard Bernstein Artful Learning Program.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Bernstein conducted his last concert on August 19, 1990, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood. The program consisted of Benjamin Britten's "Four Sea Interludes" from "Peter Grimes" and Beethoven's Symphony No. 7. He suffered a coughing fit during the third movement of the Beethoven symphony, but continued to conduct the piece until its conclusion, leaving the stage during the ovation, appearing exhausted and in pain. The concert was later issued in edited form on CD as "Leonard Bernstein – The Final Concert" by Deutsche Grammophon. Also included was Bernstein's own "Arias and Barcarolles" in an orchestration by Bright Sheng. However, poor health prevented Bernstein from performing it. Carl St. Clair was engaged to conduct it in his stead.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: After much personal struggle and a turbulent on-off engagement, Bernstein married actress Felicia Cohn Montealegre on September 10, 1951. One suggestion is that he chose to marry partly to dispel rumors about his private life to help secure a major conducting appointment, following advice from his mentor Dimitri Mitropoulos about the conservative nature of orchestra boards. Bernstein had expressed the same internal conflict and sought similar advice from Aaron Copland in April 1943, suggesting he could resolve it by marrying his then "girl-friend ... my dentist's daughter". (Adolph Green asked Bernstein about the status of this idea in a letter five months later.) In a private letter published after both had died, Bernstein's wife within a year of their marriage acknowledged his homosexuality. Felicia wrote to him: "You are a homosexual and may never change—you don't admit to the possibility of a double life, but if your peace of mind, your health, your whole nervous system depend on a certain sexual pattern what can you do?" Arthur Laurents (Bernstein's collaborator in "West Side Story") said that Bernstein was "a gay man who got married. He wasn't conflicted about it at all. He was just gay." Shirley Rhoades Perle, another friend of Bernstein, said that she thought "he required men sexually and women emotionally". But the early years of his marriage seem to have been happy, and no one has suggested Bernstein and his wife did not love each other. They had three children, Jamie, Alexander, and Nina. There are reports, though, that Bernstein did sometimes have brief extramarital liaisons with young men, which his wife and children knew about.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: A major period of upheaval in Bernstein's personal life began in 1976 when he decided that he could no longer conceal his homosexuality. He left his wife Felicia for a period to live with the musical director of the classical music radio station KKHI in San Francisco, Tom Cothran. The next year Felicia was diagnosed with lung cancer, and eventually Bernstein moved back in with her and cared for her until she died on June 16, 1978. Bernstein is reported to have often spoken of feeling terrible guilt over his wife's death. Most biographies of Bernstein state that his lifestyle became more excessive and his personal behavior sometimes more reckless and crude after Felicia's death. However, his public standing and many of his close friendships appear to have remained unaffected, and he resumed his busy schedule of musical activity.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: His affairs with men included a ten-year relationship with Kunihiko Hashimoto, a Tokyo insurance employee. The two met when the New York Philharmonic was performing in Tokyo. Hashimoto went backstage and they ended up spending the night together. It was a long distance affair, but according to letters, they both cared about each other deeply. "Dearest Lenny: Letters from Japan and the Making of the World Maestro" by Mari Yoshihara (Oxford University Press, 2019) goes into detail about their letters and relationship including interviews with Hashimoto. The book also includes other letters Bernstein received from Japanese fans.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Bernstein announced his retirement from conducting on October 9, 1990. He died five days later, in his New York apartment at The Dakota, of a heart attack brought on by mesothelioma. He was 72 years old. A longtime heavy smoker, he had emphysema from his mid-50s. On the day of his funeral procession through the streets of Manhattan, construction workers removed their hats and waved, calling out "Goodbye, Lenny". Bernstein is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York, next to his wife and with a copy of Mahler's Fifth Symphony opened to the famous Adagietto lying across his heart. On August 25, 2018 (his 100th birthday), he was honored with a Google Doodle. Also for his centennial, the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles created an exhibition titled "Leonard Bernstein at 100".


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: While Bernstein was very well known for his music compositions and conducting, he was also known for his outspoken political views and his strong desire to further social change. His first aspirations for social change were made apparent in his producing (as a student) a recently banned opera, "The Cradle Will Rock", by Marc Blitzstein, about the disparity between the working and upper class. His first opera, "Trouble in Tahiti", was dedicated to Blitzstein and has a strong social theme, criticizing American civilization and suburban upper-class life in particular. As he went on in his career, Bernstein would go on to fight for everything from the influences of "American Music" to the disarming of western nuclear weapons.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Like many of his friends and colleagues, Bernstein had been involved in various left-wing causes and organizations since the 1940s. He was blacklisted by the US State Department and CBS in the early 1950s, but unlike others his career was not greatly affected, and he was never required to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: His political life received substantial press coverage though in 1970, due to a gathering hosted at his Manhattan apartment at 895 Park Avenue on January 14, 1970. Bernstein and his wife held the event seeking to raise awareness and money for the defense of several members of the Black Panther Party against a variety of charges, especially the case of the Panther 21. "The New York Times" initially covered the gathering as a lifestyle item, but later posted an editorial harshly unfavorable to Bernstein following generally negative reaction to the widely publicized story.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: This reaction culminated in June 1970 with the appearance of "Radical Chic: That Party at Lenny's", an essay by journalist Tom Wolfe featured on the cover of the magazine "New York". The article contrasted the Bernsteins' comfortable lifestyle in one of the world's most expensive neighborhoods with the anti-establishment politics of the Black Panthers. It led to the popularization of "radical chic" as a critical term. Both Bernstein and his wife Felicia responded to the criticism, arguing that they were motivated not by a shallow desire to express fashionable sympathy but by their concern for civil liberties.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Bernstein was named in the book "Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television" (1950) as a Communist along with Aaron Copland, Lena Horne, Pete Seeger, Artie Shaw and other prominent figures of the performing arts. "Red Channels" was issued by the right-wing journal "Counterattack".


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Bernstein played an instrumental role in the release of renowned cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich from the USSR in 1974. Rostropovich, a strong believer in free speech and democracy, had been officially held in disgrace; his concerts and tours both at home and abroad cancelled, and in 1972 he was prohibited to travel outside of the Soviet Union. During a trip to the USSR in 1974, Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy and his wife Joan, urged by Bernstein and others in the cultural sphere, mentioned Rostropovich's situation to Leonid Brezhnev, the Soviet Union Communist Party Leader. Two days later, Rostropovich was granted his exit visa.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Among the many awards Bernstein earned throughout his life, one allowed him to make one of his philanthropic dreams a reality. He had for a long time wanted to develop an international school to help promote the integration of arts into education. When he won the Praemium Imperiale, Japan Arts Association award for lifetime achievement in 1990, he used the $100,000 that came with the award to build such a school in Nashville, that would strive to teach teachers how to better integrate music, dance, and theater into the school system which was "not working". Unfortunately, the school was not able to open until shortly after Bernstein's death. This would eventually yield an initiative known as Artful Learning as part of the Leonard Bernstein Center.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Bernstein was one of the major figures in orchestral conducting in the second half of the 20th century. He was held in high regard amongst many musicians, including the members of the Vienna Philharmonic, evidenced by his honorary membership; the London Symphony Orchestra, of which he was president; and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, with which he appeared regularly as guest conductor. He was probably the main conductor from the 1960s onwards who acquired a sort of superstar status similar to that of Herbert von Karajan, although unlike Karajan he conducted relatively little opera and part of Bernstein's fame was based on his role as a composer. As the first American-born music director of the New York Philharmonic, his rise to prominence was a factor in overcoming the perception of the time that the top conductors were necessarily trained in Europe.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Bernstein's conducting was characterized by extremes of emotion with the rhythmic pulse of the music conveyed visually through his balletic podium manner. Musicians often reported that his manner in rehearsal was the same as in concert. As he got older his performances tended to be overlaid to a greater extent with a personal expressiveness which often divided critical opinion. Extreme examples of this style can be found in his Deutsche Grammophon recordings of "Nimrod" from Elgar's "Enigma Variations" (1982), the end of Mahler's 9th Symphony (1985), and the finale of Tchaikovsky's "Pathétique Symphony" (1986), where in each case the tempos are well below those typically chosen. A skilled pianist, he used to perform the piano parts himself and conduct orchestras from the keyboard (for instance, when he conducted Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue").


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Bernstein performed a wide repertoire from the Baroque era to the 20th century, although perhaps from the 1970s onwards he tended to focus more on music from the Romantic era. He was considered especially accomplished with the works of Gustav Mahler and with American composers in general, including George Gershwin, Aaron Copland, Charles Ives, Roy Harris, William Schuman, and of course himself. Some of his recordings of works by these composers would likely appear on many music critics' lists of recommended recordings. A list of his other well-thought-of recordings would include, among others, individual works from Haydn, Beethoven, Berlioz, Schumann, Liszt, Nielsen, Sibelius, Stravinsky, Hindemith, and Shostakovich. His recordings of "Rhapsody in Blue" (full-orchestra version) and "An American in Paris" for Columbia Records, released in 1959, are considered definitive by many, although Bernstein cut the "Rhapsody" slightly, and his more 'symphonic' approach with slower tempi is quite far from Gershwin's own conception of the piece, evident from his two recordings. (Oscar Levant, Earl Wild, and others come closer to Gershwin's own style.) Bernstein never conducted Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F, or more than a few excerpts from "Porgy and Bess", although he did discuss the latter in his article "Why Don't You Run Upstairs and Write a Nice Gershwin Tune?", originally published in "The New York Times" and later reprinted in his 1959 book "The Joy of Music".


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In addition to being an active conductor, Bernstein was an influential teacher of conducting. During his many years of teaching at Tanglewood and elsewhere, he directly taught or mentored many younger conductors, including John Mauceri, Marin Alsop, Herbert Blomstedt, Edo de Waart, Alexander Frey, Paavo Järvi, Eiji Oue, Maurice Peress, Seiji Ozawa (who made his American TV debut as the guest conductor on one of the "Young People's Concerts"), Carl St. Clair, Helmuth Rilling, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Jaap van Zweden. He also undoubtedly influenced the career choices of many American musicians who grew up watching his television programmes in the 1950s and 60s.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Bernstein recorded extensively from the mid-1940s until just a few months before his death. Aside from those 1940s recordings, which were made for RCA Victor, Bernstein recorded primarily for Columbia Masterworks Records, especially when he was music director of the New York Philharmonic between 1958 and 1971. In the late 1950's he also joined forces with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra and Glenn Gould in a recording of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 19 and Bach's Keyboard Concerto No. 1 in D minor, BWV 1052 for Columbia Masterworks (ML 5211, 1957). His typical pattern of recording at that time was to record major works in the studio immediately after they were presented in the orchestra's subscription concerts or on one of the "Young People's Concerts", with any spare time used to record short orchestral showpieces and similar works. Many of these performances were digitally remastered and reissued by Sony Classical Records (the successor to American Columbia/CBS Masterworks following Sony's 1990 acquisition of Columbia/CBS Records) between 1992 and 1993 as part of its 100 volume, 125-CD "Royal Edition", as well as its 1997–2001 "Bernstein Century" series. The rights to Bernstein's 1940s RCA Victor recordings became fully owned by Sony following its 2008 acquisition of Bertelsmann Music Group's (BMG), and now controls both the RCA Victor and Columbia archives. The complete Bernstein Columbia and RCA Victor catalog was reissued on CD in a three-volume series of box sets (released in 2010, 2014, and 2018, respectively) comprising a total of 198 discs under the mantle "Leonard Bernstein Edition".


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: His later recordings (starting with Bizet's "Carmen" in 1972) were mostly made for Deutsche Grammophon, though he would occasionally return to the Columbia label. Notable exceptions include recordings of Gustav Mahler's "Song of the Earth" and Mozart's 15th piano concerto and "Linz" symphony with the Vienna Philharmonic for Decca Records (1966); Berlioz's "Symphonie fantastique" and "Harold in Italy" (1976) for EMI; and Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde" (1981) for Philips Records, a label that like Deutsche Grammophon was part of PolyGram at that time. Unlike his studio recordings for Columbia Masterworks, most of his later Deutsche Grammophon recordings were taken from live concerts (or edited together from several concerts with additional sessions to correct errors). Many replicate repertoire that he recorded in the 1950s and 60s.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In addition to his audio recordings, many of Bernstein's concerts from the 1970s onwards were recorded on motion picture film by the German film company Unitel. This included a complete cycle of the Mahler symphonies (with the Vienna Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestra), as well as complete cycles of the Beethoven, Brahms and Schumann symphonies recorded at the same series of concerts as the audio recordings by Deutsche Grammophon. Many of these films appeared on LaserDisc and are now on DVD.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: In total Bernstein was awarded 16 Grammys for his recordings in various categories, including several for posthumously released recordings. He was also awarded a Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 1985.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Bernstein was an eclectic composer whose music fused elements of jazz, Jewish music, theatre music, and the work of earlier composers like Aaron Copland, Igor Stravinsky, Darius Milhaud, George Gershwin, and Marc Blitzstein. Some of his works, especially his score for "West Side Story", helped bridge the gap between classical and popular music. His music was rooted in tonality but in some works like his "Kaddish Symphony" and the opera "A Quiet Place" he mixed in 12-tone elements. Bernstein himself said his main motivation for composing was "to communicate" and that all his pieces, including his symphonies and concert works, "could in some sense be thought of as 'theatre' pieces".


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: According to the League of American Orchestras, he was the second most frequently performed American composer by U.S. orchestras in 2008–09 behind Copland, and he was the 16th most frequently performed composer overall by U.S. orchestras. (Some performances were probably due to the 2008 90th anniversary of his birth.) His most popular pieces were the "Overture to Candide", the "Symphonic Dances from West Side Story", the "Serenade after Plato's "Symposium"" and the "Three Dance Episodes from On the Town". His shows "West Side Story", "On the Town", "Wonderful Town" and "Candide" are regularly performed, and his symphonies and concert works are programmed from time to time by orchestras around the world. Since his death many of his works have been commercially recorded by artists other than himself. The "Serenade", which has been recorded more than 10 times, is probably his most recorded work not taken from an actual theatre piece.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Despite the fact that he was a popular success as a composer, Bernstein himself is reported to have been disillusioned that some of his more serious works were not rated more highly by critics, and that he himself had not been able to devote more time to composing because of his conducting and other activities. Professional criticism of Bernstein's music often involves discussing the degree to which he created something new as art versus simply skillfully borrowing and fusing together elements from others. In the late 1960s, Bernstein himself reflected that his eclecticism was in part due to his lack of lengthy periods devoted to composition, and that he was still seeking to enrich his own personal musical language in the manner of the great composers of the past, all of whom had borrowed elements from others. Perhaps the harshest criticism he received from some critics in his lifetime though was directed at works like his "Kaddish Symphony", his "MASS" and the opera "A Quiet Place", where they found the underlying message of the piece or the text as either mildly embarrassing, clichéd or offensive. Despite this, all these pieces have been performed, discussed and reconsidered since his death.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: The "Chichester Psalms", and excerpts from his Third Symphony and "MASS" were performed for Pope John Paul II, including at World Youth Day 1993 in Denver on August 14, 1993, and at the Papal Concert to Commemorate the Shoah on April 7, 1994, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the Sala Nervi at the Vatican. Both performances were conducted by Gilbert Levine.


title: Leonard Bernstein

text: Bernstein is also a member of both the American Theater Hall of Fame and the Television Hall of Fame. In 2015, he was inducted into the Legacy Walk.