This is an illustrated biography of the American conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein. Despite international fame and success, he was a man constantly struggling with inner conflicts. The best loved and most successful conductor of his generation, also a virtuoso pianist, he was adored by an international public, but suffered years of hostile criticism from the New York press. An inspiration to fellow American musicians, he was the first native American to direct a major American orchestra, and the first to conquer Europe (conducting the Vienna Philharmonic and at La Scala, Milan). His conducting style was famously flamboyant, yet he possessed a rare ability to communicate his music to the listener, who was often held spellbound. But Bernstein often dismissed conducting for its "temporary" character, and declared himself to be primarily a composer. Among other musicals, Bernstein wrote the world-famous "West Side Story" (1957), and the moving score to the film "On the Waterfront", but he never enjoyed unanimous critical acclaim for his "serious" classical works, such as "Chichester Psalms" and "Mass". In later years he feared that he would be remembered solely for his musicals. His private life was equally ambivalent. He regularly occupied the psychiatrist's couch, frequently switching from one "shrink" to the next; he was a bisexual who adored his wife and children but engaged almost constantly in homosexual liaisons. Brilliant, articulate, witty, charming and generous, he could equally be vain, egocentric, arrogant and demanding, sometimes distressing his most loyal supporters, especially in his later years, with drunken outbursts and wilful behaviour. In spite of these paradoxes, Bernstein is still one of the most important musical figures of the second half of the 20th century, and a major influence on musical life in Europe and America. This book chronicles his extraordinary rise to fame, and presents an account - from first-hand experience - of Bernstein's triumphs and his disappointments. This text is part of the 20th-century composers series, examining composers in a biographical context, and offering a comprehensive study of key figures in the creation of 20th-century music. None of the books in the series presume a knowledge of specialized terms or musical notation. Each book in the series features a list of works, a bibliography, and a discography.
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Leonard Bernstein, the latest in Phaidon Books's 20th Century Composers series, continues this workmanlike, readable collection of modern biographies, designed to fit all the essentials into fewer than 250 pages each. Author Paul Myers, a former record producer for Decca, Columbia, and Naxos, has composed a fond but clear-eyed look at this prodigal talent with the prodigal lifestyle. His excesses as well as his triumphs are examined, and his homosexuality is candidly discussed, but the book never descends to the tabloid-like depths of some other biographies of the composer of West Side Story, Candide, Trouble in Tahiti, and other works, both serious and less than serious. Myers himself seems to belong to the camp that holds that Bernstein deserved recognition primarily as a composer of important works, as opposed to mere entertainments. He is, moreover, perhaps too generous in his examination of such things as Mass, which was performed at the opening of the Kennedy Center, and is very much a souvenir of its time (the early 1970s) and place (the world of fashionable liberalism), and hard to listen to today as a result. But he discusses both Bernstein's triumphs as a conductor and composer and his failures in work and life fairly. This is a good, readable biography, a worthwhile introduction to Bernstein's life, and a good starting place for those who want more details. --Sarah Bryan Miller
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Leonard Bernstein" - not just a West Side Story,
By G. Andrew Wolff gwolff@olivet.edu (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Leonard Bernstein (20th Century Composers) (Paperback)
This brief biography of the life of Leonard Bernstein captivated me. I am very familiar with the music of Bernstein, but never got to know him the way my parent's generation did. Bernstein was ever in the forefront of music both popular, and classical. His "Young People's Concerts" made him, and a great deal of classical music, a houshold name. I was too young to enjoy these, however they are now being re-broadcast on cable television for a whole new generation to enjoy. Although I was captivated by the music of Bernstein long before I ever read this chronology, I understand the music of Bernstein much better now. It is interesting to look at this life from several perspectives- Bernstein as conductor, Bernstein as composer, Bernstein as father, Bernstein as husband. Most interesting is the fact that Bernstein spent his whole life in search of creating the "flagship" compostion that would secure his place in the books. Meyers has done a fine job at relaying the "self-illustrated" life of Bernstein. It is an honest book, too, detailing Bernstein's affairs, and tantrums. Meyers shows us an amazing composer, a respected conductor, and a very colorful reflection of 20th century America via the life of Leonard Bernstein.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very Good Biography of Bernstein,
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This review is from: Leonard Bernstein (20th Century Composers) (Paperback)
This well-written bigraphy of Leonard Bernstein provides details about his life that I never knew as well as information about the compositions he wrote. If you like his work as a conductor, pianist and composer, you will enjoy this book.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
"Life without music is unthinkable" - Leonard Bernstein.,
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This review is from: Leonard Bernstein (20th Century Composers) (Paperback)
The introduction to his book caught my attention: "A few days after Leonard Bernstein's death, I was in the office of a well-known middle-European conductor, a man seldom generous when assessing his colleagues. `Bernstein?', he shrugged dismissively. ` He was always such an exhibitionist: a playboy.".. His young American assistant stared at him in disbelief. `How can you say that? You're talking about one of the greatest musicians of our time. He brought classics to millions of people who'd never thought of listening to them.."
As a result of this captivating introduction, I was expecting a book that might bridge this gap and explain why Bernstein was such an interesting character that I was spending money and time on this book just as I had on another biography by Humphrey Burton published almost 20 years ago. Unfortunately, the book tells us little even though the author claims to have met Bernstein "quite frequently" over an 18-year period. I don't wish to be unkind but I have the feeling that he might have been physically present on certain occasions when Bernstein was around but I doubt whether Bernstein knew him from Adam. The book is part of a series called The Composers and it reads like a commissioned effort to fit within a stiff lifeless pattern. It is mainly biographical but does not bring Bernstein to life and consists of endless itineraries through Europe, Israel, the Far East and the United States and appearances in various concert halls. There are some few more technical descriptions of his works but even they are uninformative, if not superficial. I certainly did not feel I was reading about a composer. The creation of West Side Story is dismissed in a few pages although this is what Bernstein is still best remembered for. The writer tries to defend Bernstein's classical works but they gather dust and he is now better known for his radical chic flirtation with the Black Panthers and his ridiculous "I dig absolutely" response to a rant by an anti-Semitic black civil rights supporter at a trendy cocktail party he hosted in his Park Avenue apartment. A meeting with the Russian writer, Boris Pasternak, who was forced to turn down the Nobel Prize for Literature, is dismissed in a sentence. Myers perhaps delves a little deeper into Bernstein's private life than Burton did but not much and the incidents are nothing more than petty gossip. Overall, a disappointing read and waste of money. The blurb tells me that the author writes "thrillers set in the world of classical music". Believe me, this is no thriller.
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