Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein will best be remembered for two things: composing what is arguably the greatest work of musical theatre, West Side Story, and his international reputation as a conductor. Less celebrated are his three symphonies — Jeremiah, The Age of Anxiety, and Kaddish — all introspective works drawing on his Jewish faith and heritage.
Bernstein's breakthrough came in November 1943, when, as assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic, he was called in on a few hours' notice to replace the ailing Bruno Walter for a nationally broadcast Carnegie Hall concert. The strong critical response brought him immediate national recognition and opened the door to guest-conducting invitations worldwide.
Somewhat wary of Broadway convention, where big numbers can feel incidental to the plot, Bernstein sought to fuse opera and jazz idioms in early works such as On the Town (1944), for which some critics accused him of frivolity and of abandoning his classical roots. His more serious operetta Candide (1956) fared better with critics, if not always with audiences, and drew the unwelcome attention of the McCarthy era for its political undertones.
West Side Story had its origins in 1949 as East Side Story, a modern reworking of Romeo and Juliet. It wasn't until 1955 that the concept was refocused on the racial and cultural tensions of Puerto Rican immigrants on Manhattan's West Side, with Bernstein and a then-unknown Stephen Sondheim bringing the finished work to the stage in 1957.
A massive theatrical and musical undertaking, West Side Story builds thematically across its score — most famously through the unresolved tritone at its core — where classical and popular idioms collide. There are echoes of Bizet's Carmen and distinctly Latin rhythms, giving it an edge that set it apart from Broadway's more sentimental conventions.
Though Bernstein remained a celebrated conductor, West Side Story stands as the peak of his output as a composer. His Mass, commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis to open the Kennedy Center in 1971, was somewhat overshadowed by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Jesus Christ Superstar, which opened on Broadway the following month.
In Part 2, we looked at earlier composers: Hildegard von Bingen, notable as one of the earliest composers known by name, whose liturgical music survives in her own notation; Palestrina, celebrated for his mastery of counterpoint in the Renaissance; and Jean-Philippe Rameau, whose Les Indes Galantes fused Baroque style with opera and ballet.
Our next meeting is at Startforth Community Centre on Friday 28 August at 10:00.
Report by Ian Royston