Leonard Bernstein at rehearsal for West Side Story. Carol Lawrence (who played Maria) is at his left, and lyricist Stephen Sondheim is playing the piano, 1957. Library of Congress, Music Division hide caption
Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein artist page: interviews, features and/or performances archived at NPR Music
Leonard Bernstein
Jamie Bernstein watches her father, Leonard Bernstein, conduct the New York Philharmonic at a rehearsal for one of his Young People's Concerts, circa fall 1962. Bob Serating/New York Philharmonic Leon Levy Digital Archives hide caption
Leonard Bernstein conducting at London's Royal Festival Hall in 1963. Evening Standard/Getty Images hide caption
American composer, conductor and pianist Leonard Bernstein, in 1970, at a London press conference. Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption
Leonard Bernstein composing in 1955. Al Ravenna/Library of Congress hide caption
'Something Develops Onstage Called Love': Baltimore Symphony's Bernstein Centennial
Kelsey Grammer onstage in the Los Angeles Opera production of Leonard Bernstein's Candide. Ken Howard/Courtesy of the Los Angeles Opera hide caption
Lara Downes' new album, America Again, comes out Oct. 28. Rik Keller/Courtesy of the artist. hide caption
Soprano Dawn Upshaw (second from right) and fellows from Tanglewood's summer program performed the world premiere of Michael Gandolfi's Carroll in Numberland July 25. Boston Symphony Orchestra hide caption
At 75, Tanglewood's Student Program Holds Focus On New Music And People Making It
From a 2012 New York Philharmonic production of Candide, Marin Alsop conducts a cast that includes (from right) Kristin Chenoweth, Jeff Blumenkrantz, Paul Groves and Janine LaManna. Randy Brooke/WireImage hide caption
Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich's once brilliant career took a dive after the official party paper criticized one of his operas in 1936. Shostakovich responded with his powerful Fifth Symphony. Central Press/Getty Images hide caption
Cameron Carpenter's new album, If You Could Read My Mind, comes out Aug. 26. Thomas Grube/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
If You Could Read My Mind
Audio for First Listens is no longer available after the album is released.
Composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, shown here conducting the New York Philharmonic orchestra in 1963, was a legend in American music. Letters to and from Bernstein have been compiled into The Leonard Bernstein Letters, a new book edited by Nigel Simeone. Express Newspapers/Getty Images hide caption
Leonard Bernstein's Age of Anxiety symphony is as unconventional as its creator. Courtesy of Library of Congress hide caption
cover for Dinner With Lenny Courtesy of the artist hide caption
Amy Beach, with her 1896 "Gaelic" Symphony, was among America's early symphonic composers. Library of Congress hide caption
Leonard Bernstein leads the London Symphony Orchestra. He called Stravinsky's famously savage Rite of Spring "extremely tuneful and dancy, rhythmically seductive, beguiling." Ian Showell/Getty Images hide caption
In Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, he imagines his own march to the guillotine. Rischgitz/Getty Images hide caption
The traditional Jewish Kaddish prayer gets turned on its head in Leonard Bernstein's Symphony No. 3. Fethi Belaid/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
Seiji Ozawa and Arthur Fielder, aboard a train during Tanglewood on Parade, 1975. Heinz Weissenstein/Whitestone Photo/courtesy of the Boston Symphony Orchestra hide caption
Richard Strauss' iconic opening to Also Sprach Zarathustra evokes a sense of vastness and power, Marin Alsop says. Valery Hache/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
