AMERICAN MASTERS: LEONARD BERNSTEIN: REACHING FOR THE NOTE (TV)
Summary
One in this documentary series that explores the lives and achievements of America's most celebrated native-born and adopted artists and performers. This documentary examines the life and career of composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein, using still photos; footage of stage, screen, and concert performances; and interviews with colleagues and family, as well as his own words. The program opens with footage from the day of Bernstein's funeral and a brief description of his growing up in a home without music until a significant episode occurred when he was ten. A portion of the 1943 Carnegie Hall performance that brought him instant fame is heard on a recorded radio broadcast, followed by memories of that day from his brother Burton Bernstein and violinist Jacques Margolies. Next, his collaboration with choreographer Jerome Robbins on the one-act ballet "Fancy Free" is danced by members of the New York City Ballet. Robbins talks about Bernstein's edgy urban blend of classical music and jazz; in footage from the original 1944 production of "On the Town," Nancy Walker and Cris Alexander are shown performing "Come Up to My Place"; and Betty Comden and Adolph Green discuss their collaboration with Bernstein, followed by a clip of these three creators performing the show's "Carried Away." Conductor/composer Lukas Foss talks about the influence of Serge Koussevitsky and the Tanglewood Music Festival on Bernstein, composer Harold Shapero comments on Bernstein's energetic method of conducting, and the composer's mentoring by composer Aaron Copland is mentioned. Following a segment of her performance of Bernstein's "Jeremiah, Symphony No. 1," Christa Ludwig talks about the Judaism inherent in his music, seconded by conductor Michael Barrett and composer Jack Gottlieb. Next, daughter Nina Bernstein gives some revealing insights about his "Trouble in Tahiti," as performed by Nancy Williams and Julian Patrick; actress-writer Phyllis Newman discusses Bernstein's desire for a family; and manager Harry Kraut, art historian and lecturer Rosamond Bernier, and journalist Martha Gellhorn explain why Bernstein's wife Felicia Montealegre was ideally suited to him despite his bisexuality. Composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim and playwright Arthur Laurents both agree that Bernstein was exuberant, extravagant, and larger than life, and that he revealed these qualities in his collaboration with Lillian Hellman in an adaptation of Voltaire's "Candide." Barbara Cook, from the play's original cast, looks at this ambitious project, a social commentary on 1950s America, followed by footage of the number "Best of All Possible Worlds," and tenor Jerry Hadley talks about the controversial, satiric literacy of the play.
Bernstein's desire to write an American opera that anyone could understand came to fruition in "West Side Story," viewers learn. Along with segments from the movie version, librettist Arthur Laurents explores the timeliness of the show and the volatility of the opening night; director-choreographer Jerome Robbins calls it a mixture of opera, Broadway, ballet, dancing, realism, and poetry; and lyricist Sondheim examines the importance of the opening number. Next, Carol Lawrence, who starred in the original stage production, is seen performing with Larry Kert in the show's balcony scene. Carlos Moseley, former managing director of the New York Philharmonic, recalls Bernstein's appointment as music director for that organization. Commenting on this period of Bernstein's life are conductor-composer Andre Previn, music critic John Ardoin, musician Yaacov Mishori, clarinetist Stanley Drucker, conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, violinist Newt Mansfield, music critic Edward Seckerson, and conductor John Mauceri. The next segment focuses on Bernstein's fifteen-year tenure on television with his "Young People's Concerts." Amid episodes of this program, Hadley says that Bernstein was the first serious musician to make serious music understandable, composer John Corigliano speaks about Bernstein's desire to rid classical music of its formidable reputation, and New York City Commissioner of Cultural Affairs Schuyler Chapin and series producer-director Robert Englander explain the concept and mission of the show. Bernstein's daughter Jamie Bernstein Thomas and conductor Michael Tilson Thomas explore the conflict between Bernstein's public conducting and his private composing, and actor Michael Wagner theorizes that Bernstein's "Kaddish Symphony No. 3" is about his relationship with his father.
Next, footage of home movies depicts the Bernsteins entertaining their "magic circle" of friends. The composer's simple, tonal, tuneful composition "Chichester Psalms," a bit of which is performed here, represents a break from his previous development with more atonal music. Lukas Foss and John Corigliano explain the importance of communicating in this way and explore the dichotomy of Bernstein as creator and performer. In a discussion of Bernstein's long relationship with Israel and the Israel Philharmonic, Isaac Stern mentions Bernstein's inherent sense of Judaism, and violinist Yaacov Mishori describes Bernstein's conducting of his orchestra for the Israeli soldiers in war zones. Jamie Bernstein Thomas and music critic Franz Endler discuss the composer's tenure at the Vienna Philharmonic, focusing on his drive to reinvent the Jewish Mahler in a city in which Mahler's music had been virtually banned for a long time, and on Bernstein's frustrations with the orchestra's resistance to the composer's spirit. Next, Christa Ludwig and baritone Thomas Hampson describe Bernstein's joy in expressing himself through the conduit of singers while their performances with him are shown. Following this, portions of the rehearsals and performance of his "Mass," an anti-war statement decrying the lack of moral leadership in America, created for the opening of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., are seen, featuring Michael Hume and the Yale Symphony Orchestra. Foss and producer/director Gordon Davidson explain the importance of this work to Bernstein, Harry Kraut talks about the difficulties the White House had with the work, and daughter Jamie explains that the piece was created during a period in which her father's desire to contribute politically led him to radical causes and in turn to controversy. After a brief discussion of Bernstein's sexual struggle, the program returns to his 1983 opera "A Quiet Place" and its issues of death loss, despair, and family acceptance as described by Nina Bernstein, John Mauceri, and Michael Tilson Thomas. Along with footage shown from the event, musicians John Deak and Stanley Drucker describe Bernstein's leading of an international orchestra in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in a performance marking the dismantling of the Berlin Wall. The program ends in an examination of Bernstein's last years spent teaching his craft to others, as witnessed by Andre Previn, conductor Seiji Ozawa, and former assistant Craig Urquhart.
Cataloging of this program was made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, 1999.
Details
- NETWORK: PBS WNET New York, NY
- DATE: October 28, 1998 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:56:46
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:54913
- GENRE: Documentary
- SUBJECT HEADING: Documentary; Biography; Musicians
- SERIES RUN: PBS - TV series, 1986-
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Susan Lacy … Executive Producer, Director, Writer
- Tamar Hacker … Senior Producer
- Margaret Smilow … Producer
- Dina Hossain … Associate Producer
- Karen Bernstein … Associate Producer
- Thomas Wagner … Theme Music by
- Harris Yulin … Narrator
- Cris Alexander
- John Ardoin
- Michael Barrett
- Rosamond Bernier
- Burton Bernstein
- Leonard Bernstein
- Nina Bernstein
- Schuyler Chapin
- Betty Comden
- Barbara Cook
- Aaron Copland
- John Corigliano
- Gordon Davidson
- John Deak
- Stanley Drucker
- Franz Endler
- Robert Englander
- Lukas Foss
- Martha Gellhorn
- Jack Gottlieb
- Adolph Green
- Jerry Hadley
- Thomas Hampson
- Lillian Hellman
- Michael Hume
- Larry Kert
- Serge Koussevitsky
- Harry Kraut
- Lillian Hellman
- Arthur Laurents
- Carol Lawrence
- Christa Ludwig
- Gustav Mahler
- Newt Mansfield
- Jacques Margolies
- John Mauceri
- Yaacov Mishori
- Felicia Montealegre
- Carlos Moseley
- Phyllis Newman
- Seiji Ozawa
- Julian Patrick
- Andre Previn
- Jerome Robbins
- Edward Seckerson
- Harold Shapero
- Stephen Sondheim
- Isaac Stern
- Jamie Bernstein Thomas
- Michael Tilson Thomas
- Craig Urquhart
- Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire
- Michael Wagner
- Nancy Walker
- Bruno Walter
- Nancy Williams