New York Philharmonic Young People's Concerts

Leonard Bernstein told the television audience at the start of the first Young People's Concert: "No matter what stories people tell you about what mu...

From Carnegie Hall, Bernstein discusses the origins and characteristics of American music. After an extended excerpt from George Gershwin's An America...

After brief introductory remarks, Bernstein conducts the finale of Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio espagnol and then explains what a composer must know in...

Using the examples of Mozart's Jupiter Symphony and Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony, Bernstein demonstrates the techniques of repetition and variation i...

Bernstein conducts Handel's Water Music and cites it as an indisputable example of classical music. "Exact" is the word that best defines classical mu...

Using excerpts from Shostakovich, Mahler, Haydn and others Bernstein demonstrates how a "serious" composition can take an unexpected humorous turn. Pr...

Leonard Bernstein discusses the development of the concerto form from Bach to Bartok. Bernstein conducts examples of early concertos-Bach's Fifth Bran...

Leonard Bernstein celebrates Mahler's centennial by conducting excerpts from the composer's Fourth Symphony in G and discussing his career as a compos...

Daniel Domb; Kenneth Schermerhorn; Barry Finclair; Stefan B. Mengelberg; Alexandra Wager

New York Pro Musica; Noah Greenberg; Vladimir Ussachevsky; Anita Darian

The High School of Music & Art

Aaron Copland; William Warfield

Lynn Harrell; Elyakum Shapirra; Jung-Ja Kim; Russell Stanger; Veronica Tyler; Gregory Millar; Henry Chapin

Bernstein discusses folk music and its influence on orchestral music, and conducts excerpts from Mozart, Chavez and Ives, and "Songs of the Auvergne"...

Bernstein focuses on impressionism in music, discussing the methods and styles of Debussy and Ravel. He conducts three movements from La Mer and the f...

Zara Nelsova

Bernstein sketches a brief history of Stravinsky's musical career, noting changes of style and shifts of direction. The whole of Petrouchka is played...

Seiji Ozawa; Gary Karr; Maurice Peress; John Canarina; Ruth & Naomi Segal; Paula Robison; Paul Green; Tony Cirone; David Hopper

John Corigliano, Sr.; Frank Gullino; Joseph Bernstein; William Dembinsky

Bernstein discusses the different forms melody can take, including tune, theme, motive, melodic line and musical phrase. He illustrates by conducting...

Joan Weiner; Yuri Krasnopolsky; Claudia Hoca; Zoltán Rozsnyai; Pamela Paul; Serge Fournier; André Watts

Bernstein discusses "the two ingredients that give this music its special Latin flavor: rhythm and color." Excerpts include Bernstein's own Symphonic...

Heidi Lehwalder; Amos Eisenberg; Weldon Berry, Jr.; Claudio Abbado; Shulamit Ran (as Shulamith Ran); Pedro Calderon; Stephen E. Kates; Zdeněk Košler

Bernstein discusses the blending of jazz and symphonic music, with performances and readings to illustrate. The program ends with Larry Austin's Impro...

Bernstein describes the three-part sonata form, and exemplifies it by singing the Beatle's "And I Love Her." Veronica Tyler sings Micaela's aria from...

Patricia Michaelian; James Boswell IV

Bernstein celebrates the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, and comments on Finland, the Finnish language, and...

Bernstein explains musical intervals and discusses their relationship to harmony, melody and inversion. After analysis, the first movement of Symphony...

Bernstein explains that the duty of the orchestra is to reproduce faithfully the notes and instructions of the composer. The main focus is the first h...

Bernstein celebrates Dmitri Shostakovich's sixtieth birthday by discussing his work and conducting an excerpt from his Symphony No. 7 and all of Symph...

Performers include Paul Schoenfeld; Stephanie Sebastian; David Oei; Horacio Gutiérrez; James DePreist; Jacques Houtmann; Edo de Waart.

Bernstein discusses scales, intervals and tones, and analyzes several pieces, including Debussy's Fêtes, Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, and music fro...

Elmar Oliveira; Mark Salkind; Fred Alston; Donald Green; Juan Pablo Izquierdo; Sylvia Caduff; George Reid; Young Uck Kim

Stephen E. Kates; Veronica Tyler; André Watts

Bernstein pays tribute to New York Philharmonic's "fraternal orchestra," the Vienna Philharmonic, in celebration of the 125th anniversary of both orch...

Joseph Kalichstein; Paul Capolongo

Lawrence Foster; Alois Springer; Martin and Steven Vann; Helen Quach, Michael DeTemple

Leonard Bernstein quizzes Avery Fisher Hall and television audiences on their musicality. Highlights include true-or-false questions with musical exam...

Lorne Munroe, cellist

Michael Korn; Leopold Stokowski; Moog synthesizer; New York Rock and Roll Ensemble

Bernstein discusses what he describes as the "first psychedelic symphony," Berlioz's La Symphonie fantastique, examining the concept of the idée fixe...

Bernstein compares the main theme of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake with Stravinsky's Firebird. A performance of the pas de deux from Swan Lake illustrates t...

Bernstein takes a look at Beethoven's so-called "flawed masterpiece" - his only opera, Fidelio. After discussing the story and its problems, "charming...