Leonard Bernstein / Humphrey Burton.
| Author/creator | Burton, Humphrey author. |
| Format | Book |
| Edition | First edition. |
| Publication Info | New York : Doubleday, ©1994. |
| Description | xiv, 594 pages, 32 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, portraits ; 25 cm |
| Subjects |
| Contents | Prologue. The funeral -- Part one. The education of an American musician: 1918-1943. Beginnings ; Family life ; The provincial boy grows up: 1932-1935 ; Harvard ; Broader horizons ; New York, New York! ; The Curtis Institute: 1939-1940 ; Tanglewood: 1940 ; Finishing touches ; Tanglewood revisited: June 1941-August 1942 ; The New York Bohemian ; Overnight sensation -- Part two. Rise to prominence: 1943-1951. The Jeremiah symphony and Fancy Free ; On the Town ; The first American conductor gets his first orchestra ; Finding his way ; The conductor as messiah ; The man from another world ; History-making days ; The end of the first conducting career ; Rites of passage -- Part three. Something's coming - the composing years: 1952-1957. Return to show business ; Diversionary tactics ; From La Scala to Broadway ; Candide ; West Side Story -- Part four. The New York Philharmonic era: 1957-1969. The heir apparent takes command ; Music director at the New York Philharmonic ; To Russia with love ; Last years at Carnegie Hall ; A Kaddish for a president ; The conquest of Vienna ; End of an era -- Part five. Coming apart: 1969-1978. Radical chic ; Professor Bernstein ; Crises and catastrophe -- Part six. Anything but twilight: 1978-1990. Toward A Quiet Place ; Royal progress ; The living legend ; Final days: August-October 1990 -- Principal events in the live of Leonard Bernstein -- Principal compositions of Leonard Bernstein. |
| Abstract | Composer, pianist, author, television personality, Harvard lecturer, cultural icon and conductor without peer, Leonard Bernstein was one of the most flamboyant and multifaceted musical giants of the twentieth century. His versatility and boundless energy were legendary. He captivated Broadway with such smash hits as On the Town and West Side Story, wrested and cajoled out of the world's best orchestras some of the most inspired performances ever heard, and introduced several generations of Americans to classical music with his "Omnibus" and "Young People's Concerts" television shows. In the most richly detailed and in-depth biography of Bernstein yet written, the author vividly brings to life this controversial and contradictory figure. Incorporating hundreds of interviews with family, friends and colleagues, as well as exclusive access to Bernstein's own rich legacy of letters and papers, this book reveals the maestro as he has never been seen before. Admired by the world, he felt an almost desperate need to be loved; married to the beautiful actress Felicia Montealegre, and father of three children, he also engaged in passionate affairs--private and eventually public--with other men; the New York Philharmonic's most influential music director since Toscanini, he felt himself constantly torn between the rival claims of conducting and composing. We see a Bernstein who embraced the world with extraordinary passion, a man with an enormous appetite for the center stage who, his critics would charge, often squandered his seemingly inexhaustible talent and energy. Bernstein's exuberant vitality and restless ambition are successfully brought to the page in this compelling portrait of one of the most beloved musical figures of our age. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 573-578) and index. |
| LCCN | 93040278 |
| ISBN | 0385423454 : |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Music | Music Stacks | ML410.B566 B9 1994 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |