Helping Hands

Donald Macleod explores Bernstein’s early years and the influential contacts he made while at Harvard who gave him a head start in his career.

Donald Macleod explores the life and music of Leonard Bernstein - one of the most iconic personalities in the musical life of America and a key figure in the formation of the cultural identity of the United States. Over the course of this week, Donald discovers how Bernstein rose to conquer both the concert hall and the Broadway stage and succeed both as conductor and, more importantly for him personally, as composer.

We will explore Bernstein’s whirlwind life. A journey from a cocksure teenager giving piano lessons in his local neighbourhood to his studies at Harvard where the connections he made – with the composer Aaron Copland and the conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos - prepared him, not as his father hoped for a career in business, but instead for a life in music.

Donald also explores Bernstein’s friendship with the conductor Serge Koussevitsky and the events that led to his headline-grabbing success as a stand-in conductor for Bruno Walter in his mid-twenties. We'll also hear about his rise to prominence as a composer during the days of the Second World War with a pair of Broadway scores.

Donald also details Bernstein’s conflicted personal life – from his marriage to the actress and TV star Felicia Montealegre to his own TV career and his social life mixing with the celebrity set of New York City. And we’ll find out how his marriage hit the rocks as he underwent a difficult period in his personal life like his hero Mahler, “like being two different men locked up in the same body”.

In Monday’s episode, Donald explores the contacts Bernstein made in his early life which gained him an entrance into the elite cultural world of New York. We’ll discover him as a young boy returning home with bleeding fingers from playing piano into the early hours to fund his own piano lessons and discover how the friendships he cultivated with Aaron Copland, Dimitri Mitropoulos and Serge Koussevitsky gave him a helping hand in his ambition to carve out a career in music.

West Side Story – America
Original Broadway Cast: Chita Rivera (Anita)
New York Philharmonic
Max Goberman, conductor

Divertimento
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Paavo Jarvi, conductor

Anniversaries – I. For Aaron Copland
Katie Mahan, piano

Serenade after Plato’s Symposium – IV. Agathon
Esther Yoo, violin
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Long Yu, conductor

Clarinet Sonata - 2nd movement
Sebastian Manz, clarinet
Martin Klett, piano

Symphony No 2 “The Age of Anxiety” – The Epilogue
Krystian Zimerman, piano
Berlin Philharmonic
Sir Simon Rattle, conductor

Producer: Sam Phillips