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Air Date: Thursday, October 3
Piece: Serenade for Violin
Artists: Hilary Hahn, conductor; Baltimore Symphony; David Zinman, conductor
Recording: Sony 60584
Don't Miss: 20-year-old violinist Hilary Hahn is a splendid champion for the lyrical and jazzy Serenade, an early work of Bernstein's inspired by Plato's Symposium.

Air Date: Thursday, October 10
Piece: West Side Story excerpts - "Somewhere" (Upshaw); "Tonight" (McDonald, Patinkin)
Artists: Audra McDonald, Dawn Upshaw, Mandy Patinkin; Orchestra of St. Luke's; Eric Stern, conductor
Recording: Nonesuch 79400
Don't Miss: Bernstein was born and reared in the Boston area, but New York, New York, was clearly in his blood. This recording features a cast of American theater's best including Metropolitan Opera star Dawn Upshaw, two-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald, and Mandy Patinkin wonderfully indulging his comic side.

Air Date: Thursday, October 17
Piece: Symphony No. 2 ("The Age of Anxiety")
Artists: Israel Philharmonic Orchestra; Leonard Bernstein, conductor
Recording: Deutsche Grammophon 45964
Don't Miss: Bernstein's Second Symphony, "The Age of Anxiety," was commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky and premiered in 1949 by the Boston Symphony Orchestra with Lenny at the piano. This primarily reflective, dramatic work was based on W.H. Auden's 1948 Pulitzer winning eighty page poem in six parts and shows the strong influence of Gustav Mahler.

Air Date: Thursday, October 24
Piece: Chamber Music selections, including the Seven Anniversaries
Artists: Leonard Bernstein, piano
Recording: BMG 60915
Don't Miss: The seven Anniversaries were a collection of miniatures that Bernstein composed in 1943 as birthday gifts for some of his friends. Rarely heard today, these show Bernstein at his most concise, charming and intimate.

Air Date: Thursday, October 31
Piece: Fancy Free, On the Town excerpts
Artists: New York Philharmonic; Leonard Bernstein, conductor
Recording: Sony Classical 63805
Don't Miss: Fancy Free was Leonard Bernstein's first foray into the world of the ballet, and it immediately became extremely popular. The story is a simple one, devised by Jerome Robbins. It takes place in New York City, where three sailors are on shore leave. While in New York, they meet three girls in a bar, dance with them, fight over them, and then realize how stupid it is to let women come between friends. The plot line was reused by Bernstein in On The Town, his celebrated first Broadway musical.

Leonard Bernstein Biography:

Born: Lawrence, MA, 25 Aug 1918
Died: New York, 14 Oct 1990

Leonard Bernstein studied at Harvard and the Curtis Institute and was a protégé of Koussevitzky. In 1944 he made his reputation as a conductor when he stepped in when Bruno Walter was ill; thereafter he was associated particularly with the Israel PO(from 1947), the Boston SO and the New York PO (musical director, 1958-69), soon achieving an international reputation, conducting in Vienna and at La Scala. During his tenure the New York PO flourished as never before. A gifted pianist, he often performed simultaneously as soloist and conductor. At the same time, he pursued a career as a composer, cutting across the boundaries between high and popular culture in his mixing of Mahler and Broadway, Copland and Bach. His theatre works are mostly in the Broadway manner: they include the ballet "Fancy Free" (1944) and the musicals "Candide" (1956) and "West Side Story" (1957). His more ambitious works, many of them couched in a richly chromatic, intense post-Mahlerian idiom, often have a religious inspiration, for example the "'Jeremiah' Symphony" with mezzo (1942), "Kaddish," with soloists and choirs (1963) and the theatre piece "Mass" (1971).

More on Leonard Bernstein:

  What Makes Leonard Bernstein Great? Hosted by Robert Kapilow, and featuring tenor Brian d’Arcy James, Lincoln Center explores Bernstein's Legacy on November 15.

Leonard Bernstein Discography

 Leonard Bernstein Timeline 1918-1949

West Side Story Web site

Merchandising Bernstein Philadelphia Inquirer, April 7, 2002