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Leonard Bernstein - Young People's Concerts / New York Philharmonic
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9780769715032
Format: Box set, Classical, Color, DVD-Video, Black & White, Dolby, NTSC
ISBN: 0769715036
Label: Kultur Video
Languages: English (Original Language),
Manufacturer: Kultur Video
MPN: D1503D
Number Of Discs: 9
Number Of Items: 9
Publisher: Kultur Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: September 28, 2004
Running Time: 1500 minutes
Studio: Kultur Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1961
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Editorial Review:
Leonard Bernstein earned glory as a composer, conductor, and pianist (classical and jazz), but nothing gave him more pleasure than the joy of teaching. He presented the unique blend of spoken words and music known as the "Young People's Concerts" throughout his tenure as music director of the New York Philharmonic and for several years after. His enjoyment, and his audience's, can be seen vividly captured by the video cameras. He is an intensely interactive teacher, getting his audience to sing, springing a quiz full of trick questions, and singing a Beatles song to demonstrate a point.
Bernstein is completely at ease talking to his audience. He can take the most abstruse subject - the meaning and function of intervals, tonality and atonality, the links between Gustav Mahler's troubled life and his music - and present them to a young audience with clarity, without condescension, and with a clear sense of the material's value. His subject-matter is enormously varied. For Igor Stravinsky's 80th birthday, he simply tells his audience the story of Petrouchka while conducting a dazzling performance of the colorful ballet. For a program on "Folk Music in the Concert Hall," he plays some of Canteloube's folk song arrangements and the boisterous finale of Ives's Symphony No. 2, full of borrowed pop and folk melodies. The influence of folk music is shown in folk song imitations by Mozart and Carlos Chavez.
The sound and images, taped over a 15-year span when the art of recording was rapidly advancing, are varied in quality; the series begins in black-and-white and ends in vivid color. Not all of the programs are equally compelling, but all are worth close and repeated attention. --Joe McLellan
Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic stand among his greatest achievements. These televised programs introduced an entire generation to the joys of classical music. Bernstein conducted his first Young People's Concert on January 18, 1958, just two weeks after becoming Music Director of the New York Philharmonic. Such programs were already a Philharmonic tradition when Bernstein arrived, but he made them a centerpiece of his work, part of what he described as his "educational mission." Looking back on the concerts years later, he referred to them as being "among my favorite, most highly prized activities of my life." When he took a sabbatical season from the orchestra in 1964-65, he still came back to lead the Young People's Concerts. He continued to lead these programs until 1972, even though he had stepped down as director of the Philharmonic in 1969. Bernstein led a total of fifty-three Young People's Concerts during those fourteen years, and covered a broad range of subjects. The works of the great composers were explored, including tributes to modern masters such as Dmitri Shostakovich, Paul Hindemith, Gustav Holst, Aaron Copland and Charles Ives. Bernstein discussed "Jazz in the Concert Hall," "Folk Music in the Concert Hall," and "The Latin-American Spirit." He explained the intricacies of Music Theory in programs such as "Musical Atoms: A Study of Intervals" and "What is a Mode?" He broached complex aesthetic issues such as "What Does Music Mean?" (his first program) with clarity and without condescension. Bernstein also used the Young People's Concerts to introduce young performers to the musical world. The sixteen year-old pianist André Watts made his debut in the concert of January 15, 1963. Originally broadcast on Saturday mornings, the programs were considered so important that for three glorious years CBS presented them at 7:30 p.m. (prime time for television viewing). Eventually the programs were moved to Sunday afternoons. The concerts were translated into other languages and syndicated to forty countries.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - A must toward getting musical culture in every home
Bernstein is truly a genius. This collection shows in a detailled and very didactic manner the best way to aproach the learning and enjoying of classic music.
In specially attonishing and breathtaking "The sound pf an Orchestra" "The Sonata form" "What is a Concert" and thos parts where Bernstain performs his pianistic parts showing himself as a virtuoso.
I allready conveyed my collection to those physicians in my hospital to whom I am conducting in the world of classic music.
But ... Read More
Rating: - Excelent Bernstein
This is the best colection of Bernstein, as an outstanding Professor. 13 years of Music Academy at the very top. Yet, easy to understand and funny. Don't miss this set. It is a must for music lovers.
Rating: - Superlative Sound & Performances
These lessons, as many have noted, are edifying and accessible to intelligent adolescents and still quite enriching to people who already know a thing or two about music. Bernstein doesn't patronize or pander to his audience, but he uses an accessible vocabulary, often with a touch of humor (and with clever examples from pop music as asides--I find that these hold up very well). But what is most impressive is the quality of the performances; these are not just lectures punctuated by brief examples, ... Read More
Rating: - The art of teaching while amusing
Leonard Bernstein certainly is besides a great conductor a wonderful, almost ideal, teacher. I am tremendously grateful for these series of one-hour concerts for young people, it makes my day every time I watch them.
For those, like myself, who feel that they like classical music but they don't quite understand why or what exactly of it, this is a good companion for the road of learning. It teaches and amuses; it's never boring but quick-paced. It's worth it, if only for the pleasure ... Read More
Rating: - The view of a child
Being one of the fortunate children to attend the Bernstein concerts as a child I am surprised at other children of the same audience commenting as adults now. Why do they doubt children today as less able to understand what Bernstein was saying? What he is saying is only half of it, IT'S THE MUSIC that's speaking. I sat there and understood what was 'american music' with Aaron Copeland because the music explained more than anything anyone could say about it. Let children listen and take from it what they ... Read More
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