"There are no neutrals when it comes to Leonard Bernstein: exhibitionist, a playboy touring Italy in a Maserati, an exhilarating conductor, provocative thinker, ‘one of the most electrifying personalities of our time’. 2018 marks the centenary of this life-affirming composer who always preferred to call himself, simply, ‘musician’.
This week Donald Macleod is joined by Bernstein protegée, the conductor Marin Alsop, to look back at Bernstein’s hectic life as composer, pianist, thinker and entertainer. And, thanks to the BBC radio and TV archives, we hear from the man himself in interviews he gave through the course of his prolific career. We discover a man who was forceful in his views, passionate to the extreme, charismatic on the stage, but also latterly tormented by regrets and a feeling that he had never quite achieved the magnum opus inside him."
This week Donald Macleod is joined by Bernstein protegée, the conductor Marin Alsop, to look back at Bernstein’s hectic life as composer, pianist, thinker and entertainer. And, thanks to the BBC radio and TV archives, we hear from the man himself in interviews he gave through the course of his prolific career. We discover a man who was forceful in his views, passionate to the extreme, charismatic on the stage, but also latterly tormented by regrets and a feeling that he had never quite achieved the magnum opus inside him."
Comment