Leonard Bernstein - Young People's Concerts / New York Philharmonic

This series of concerts is a truly wonderful achievement. It must surely rank among the finest treasures of the television medium.Bernstein aside from being a brilliant musician is a wonderful teacher. To think that these concerts were conceived for children. In today's context this would probably be more suitable for the general adult music lover, someone with at least a modicum of musical knowledge. I'm not sure how today's children would respond to them, especially with their dated look and relatively dry subject matter.The concerts technically are not concerts at all but music appreciation classes, led by a brilliant maestro, full of passion for his subject and backed by a superlative orchestra. The topics covered range from the disarmingly simple like "What is a Melody?" to the simple yet profound, "What does music mean?" Does music have meaning? He covers standard music subjects like sonata form, symphonic music, concerto form and tries to define what is classical music. In all these subjects, he is never anything less than compelling. He also explores little discussed topics like the significance of intervals and the concept of modes. One drawback of the TV broadcast format is that he is limited to a mere one hour to explain each topic. By the end of the session on musical modes he is so pressed for time he can only zip through the the remainder of his notes. In the episode on Folk Music, he touches on the relationship between language and music, a theme he would pursue in far greater depth and length in his Harvard Lectures of 1973. The other aspect of the concerts is the introduction of lesser known composers to his young audience. Particularly treasurable is the episode on Mahler. Bernstein, the long-time champion of Mahler, spends the entire hour introducing his young audience to the then obscure composer's works, this at a time when even regular concert-going audiences were unfamiliar with them. The other episode among this group that stands out is his tribute to Aaron Copland in "What is American Music?". Bernstein proclaims Copland as the greatest living American composer and has the man himself conduct exerpts from his Third Symphony. Unfortunately Kultur has omitted another episode devoted entirely to Copland, "Aaron Copland Birthday Party" which discusses Copland's lesser known works and has the composer himself conduct his famous El Salon Mexico. Among Bernstein's many guests, are the great soprano Christa Ludwig and the baritone Walter Berry, featured in the 125th joint anniversary of the New York and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras - "A Toast to Vienna" (Christmas 1967). Other guests include the Israeli soprano Netania Devrath singing Villa Lobos' haunting Bachianas Brasilieras No. 5. My favorite surprise appearance was by Marni Nixon, the unjustly uncredited singing voice behind Hollywood's greatest musicals (she was the singing voice for Natalie Wood in West Side Story, Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady and Deborah Kerr in The King & I). Here we get to see her in the flesh, singing exerpts from Canteloube's achingly beautiful Songs of the Auvergne. The series fittingly ends with Beethoven's operatic paean to freedom, Fidelio.On the technical side, much leeway has to be given because the picture quality varies from downright poor to above average (for its period). The earliest concerts have problems with lens distortion which create an effect similar to looking through a goldfish bowl. One must understand that when these concerts began, way back in the Fifties, television broadcast technology was relatively primitive. There was no such thing as videotape. To record a live concert broadcast for later transmission or for posterity, they used a primitive technology called kinescope recording. Essentially this entailed putting a film-based motion picture camera in front of a TV screen and capturing the moving images from the TV screen onto film. That was their version of the videotape. Hence the poor quality of the initial few episodes. However, quality gets progressively better until eventually color is introduced in the Nov 1967 concert. Only the last six concerts are actually in color. Still, you're not buying this set for how beautiful the picture looks. Soundwise, it is mostly in mono but helpfully remixed to 2.0 and 5.1 surround. A pleasant surprise is that the final two concerts are actually recorded in native dual-channel stereo - and pretty effective stereo at that. Overall, the sound is not great but more than acceptable for its purpose.My only regret with this set is that it contains just 25 out of the total of 53 Young People's Concerts that Bernstein actually gave. Here is a listing of the episodes contained in the set:1. What Does Music Mean?2. What is American Music?3. What is Orchestration?4. What Makes Music Symphonic?5. What is Classical Music?6. Humor in Music7. What is a Concerto?8. Who is Gustav Mahler?9. Folk Music in the Concert Hall10. What is Impressionism?11. Happy Birthday, Igor Stravinsky12. What is a Melody?13. The Latin American Spirit14. Jazz in the Concert Hall15. What is Sonata Form?16. A Tribute to Sibelius17. Musical Atoms: A Study in Intervals18. The Sound of an Orchestra19. A Birthday Tribute to Shostakovich20. What is a Mode?21. A Toast to Vienna in 3/4 Time22. Quiz-Concert: How Musical Are You?23. Berlioz Takes a Trip24. Two Ballet Birds25. Fidelio: A Celebration of LifeSome episodes not found on this set include:Anatomy of a Symphony OrchestraBach TransmogrifiedCharles Ives: American PioneerFarewell to NationalismForever Beethoven!Holst: "The Planets"Liszt and the DevilModern Music from All OverOvertures and PreludesThe Genius of Paul HindemithThe Road to ParisThe Second HurricaneThus Spake Richard StraussHopefully Kultur will release these and the remainder soon.For those who may be interested, the transcripts for most of these concerts are available online either from the Library of Congress (Leonard Bernstein Collection) or Leornard Bernstein's official website. The LoC has high quality color scans of all the handwritten manuscripts and typewritten transcripts bequeathed to it by the Bernstein estate, complete with Bernstein's barely legible scribblings and annotations.

First of all, these programs are a national treasure. A five-star review is simply inadequate. Bernstein conducting Copland's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra with Copland as piano soloist. . . No price can be put on such a gift.I respectfully disagree with another reviewer: Bernstein is not condescending, but he is sometimes tough on his audience. When he elicits answers from the audience during the lecture on Humor in Music, he becomes highly critical of their answers, as if he expected adult sophistication from the poor children who are doing the best they can.A memorable moment occurs during the lecture "The Sound of an Orchestra" when Bernstein turns to the audience and asks, "So you think that was beautiful? Well, I have news for you. It isn't." One reviewer called Bernstein's manner at this moment condescending, but actually it was charming and highly dramatic--a real grabber.As a general music teacher, I must agree with other reviewers that these programs should not be played for children unless the teacher is willing to devote weeks (or months) of preparation for each lecture. The following lectures are some of my favorites:"What makes music symphonic"--Save for High School. This one is my favorite, but even smart nonmusical adults have trouble understanding it."The Sound of an orchestra"--Great for teaching musical style."What makes music American"--A passionate and thought provoking overview from one of the great American composers. (And Copland conducts as a special treat!)."What is orchestration"--The sound quality is poor, but this one is terrific for elementary school as long as you prepare kids by talking about the instruments beforehand. Bernstein's choices of musical examples are wonderful!"What is impressionism"--A fascinating introduction to Debussy's music."The Latin American spirit"--This one is just plain fun. Elementary school kids can enjoy this episode with very little preparation. (Bernstein conducts the Symphonic Dances from West Side Story at break-neck speed!)Fifth grade students and older can understand Bernstein's ideas (and they don't even mind the black and white picture or the static camera work), but teachers should teach the concepts slowly beforehand and introduce the kids to the pieces the NYP plays long before they see these shows. After that, during the hot school days of June, after you've done your job teaching general music as best you can, put on these Bernstein lectures to watch the master teacher at work.

What an amazingly rich experience these concert programs are! Everyone responds to Bernstein's warm and passionate manner, and anyone's appreciation for classical music will be enhanced by his cogent and fun explorations into the myriad aspects of classical music. Anyone new to classical music who watches these programs will find themselves with new ways to derive great pleasure in life. Anyone familiar with classical music will smile inwardly as they find wonderful nuggets that increase the pleasures they have already tasted.Classical music attendance and sales have been on a decline for some time. But in the 1950s there was a broader appreciation for all the arts as uplifting experiences; people respected an understanding of the arts and considered that an important component to a well-rounded life.Leonard Bernstein was able to reach a large enthusiastic and receptive audience through the relatively untried medium of TV. I remember watching many of these concerts on TV as a kid, our family thought of those programs as important somehow. We have nothing like that today in either content or impact.Bernstein was very popular at the time and for good reason. He was an enthusiastic guide no matter what he was doing: conducting, concertizing, composing, or teaching outright. He found enjoyable ways to entertain and educate, without being pedantic.For a completely satisfying new old experience, I highly recommend these enchanting programs. And after having done that, I recommend taking in Bernstein's more detailed explorations in his Harvard Lectures series from the early 70s, available from the same video house.

I used to watch these on TV in my younger days as I explored the world of Classical Music. These programmes used to so inspire me and taught me to develop an insight into Classical Music. I bought them mainly out of nostalgia and I recommend them to anyone who would like to develop an appreciation of music.

They are very good, you need to understand these are only available in US format as coming from USA so you need to play them accordingly. The videos are identical to the original recordings, and excellent sound!

Fantastic!

Leonard Bernstein was not just a great composer. He was a brilliant lecturer and teacher. A real musical guru. This collection represents his lections for young people starting from 1958. Even people which are far from the music will start loving it after such presentations. I recommend these DVDs to all: yonge and seniors.

Splendide le lezioni di Bernstein sulla musica, i nove DVD sono un gioiello.Peccato che nel catalogo vengano descritti come region-free, al contrario sono per regione 1: risultano non utizzabili in Italia