Birth and death at the Proms
On the 25 August 1918, one Louis Bernstein was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts to Ukrainian Jewish parents.
As a teenager he changed his name to ‘Leonard’, but to many of his friends and colleagues in later life he was always known as ‘Lenny’.
Photo: Public Domain
This week in the BBC Proms, the music of Leonard Bernstein is celebrated in two concerts with one of the great American orchestras the Minnesota Orchestra taking on the Overture from Bernstein’s operetta Candide.
On Tuesday night, it's Bernstein’s best-known work, his retelling of Romeo and Juliet set in mid-1950s New York, West Side Story.
“The book works, the tragedy works, the ballets shine, the music pulses and soars, and there is at least one history-making set. It’s all too good to be true,” Bernstein wrote to his wife in 1957 before West Side Story’s premiere.
The critics and audiences agreed.
Lili Boulanger Photo: Public Domain
An all-French programme at the Proms next Friday includes a work by composer Lili Boulanger, who during her short life managed to become the first female winner of the Prix de Rome composition competition.
Famous for her use of harmony, her promising career was cut short by her early death at the age of 24, in January 1918.
The Proms Schedule this Week:
Saturday 25 August 2018
7.30 Music Alive
BBC Proms 2018: Minnesota Orchestra & Osmo Vänskä
Inon Barnatan (piano), Minnesota Orchestra/Osmo Vänskä
BERNSTEIN: Candide Overture;
GERSHWIN: Piano Concerto in F;
IVES: Symphony No 2
Recorded Royal Albert Hall, London (BBC)
Monday 27 August 2018
7.30 Music Alive
BBC Proms 2018: Inside Shostakovich
Denis Kozhukhin (piano), Aurora Orchestra/Nicholas Collon
SHOSTAKOVICH: Piano Concerto No 2 in F Op 102;
Symphony No 9 in Eb Op 70
Recorded Royal Albert Hall, London (BBC)
Tuesday 28 August 2018
12.00 Upbeat
Including: 1.00 BBC Proms 2018: Tchaikovsky, Glinka & Joby Talbot
Milos Karadaglic (guitar), Finchley Children’s Music Group, BBS Symphony Orchestra/Alexander Vedernikov
GLINKA: Summer Night in Madrid, Spanish Overture No 2;
TALBOT: Ink Dark Moon for guitar and orchestra;
TCHAIKOVSKY: The Nutcracker Op 71, Act 1
Recorded Royal Albert Hall, London (BBC)
7.30 Music Alive
BBC Proms 2018: West Side Story
Ross Lekites, Mikaela Bennett, Students from ArtEd and Mountview, John Wilson Orchestra/John Wilson
BERNSTEIN: West Side Story
Recorded Royal Albert Hall, London (BBC)
Wednesday 29 August 2018
7.30 Music Alive
BBC Proms 2018: Edward Gardner conducts Elgar & Vaughan Williams
Sophie Bevan (soprano), Neal Davies (bass-baritone), Jean-Guihen Queyras (cello), BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Orchestra/Edward Gardner
BOULANGER: Pour les funerailles d'un soldat;
ELGAR: Cello Concerto in E minor Op 85;
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: Dona nobis pacem
Recorded Royal Albert Hall, London (BBC)
Friday 31 August 2018
7.30 Music Alive
BBC Proms: Debussy, Ravel & Boulanger
Justina Gringyte (mezzo-soprano), CBSO Youth Chorus, CBSO Chorus, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra/Ludovic Morlot
DEBUSSY: Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune;
BOULANGER: Psalm 130 'Du fond de l'abime';
DEBUSSY: Nocturnes;
RAVEL: Boléro
Recorded Royal Albert Hall, London (BBC)
