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American Original
Harper
September 2008
On Sale: August 25, 2008
240 pages ISBN: 0061537861 EAN: 9780061537868 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Biography
One of the most gifted, celebrated, scrutinized, and
criticized musicians in the second half of the twentieth
century, Leonard Bernstein made his legendary conducting
debut at the New York Philharmonic in 1943, at age 25. A
year later, he became a sensation on Broadway with the
premiere of On the Town. Throughout the 1950s, his Broadway
fame only grew with Wonderful Town, Candide, and West Side
Story. And in 1958, the Philharmonic appointed him the first
American Music Director of a major symphony orchestra—a
signal historical event. He was adored as a quintessential
celebrity but one who could do it all—embracing both popular
and classical music, a natural with the new medium of
television, a born teacher, writer, and speaker, as well as
a political and social activist. In 1976, having conducted
the Philharmonic for more than one thousand concerts, he
took his orchestra on tour to Europe for the last time. All of this played out against the backdrop of post-Second
World War New York City as it rose to become the cultural
capital of the world—the center of wealth, entertainment,
communications, and art—and continued through the chaotic
and galvanizing movements of the 1960s that led to its
precipitous decline by the mid 1970s. The essays within this book do not simply retell the
Bernstein story; instead, Leonard Bernstein's brother,
Burton Bernstein, and current New York Philharmonic
archivist and historian, Barbara B. Haws, have brought
together a distinguished group of contributors to examine
Leonard Bernstein's historic relationship with New York City
and its celebrated orchestra. Composer John Adams, American
historians Paul Boyer and Jonathan Rosenberg, music
historians James Keller and Joseph Horowitz, conductor and
radio commentator Bill McGlaughlin, musicologist Carol Oja,
and music critics Tim Page and Alan Rich have written
incisive essays, which are enhanced by personal
reminiscences from Burton Bernstein. The result is a telling
portrait of Leonard Bernstein, the musician and the man.
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