Learning from Leonard Bernstein | The Conductor | Great Performances on PBS

Marin Alsop reflects on her first interaction with Leonard Bernstein at the Tanglewood Music Festival.
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#leonardbernstein #conducting #masterclass #marinalsop

[@Quotenwagnerianer]

If I were a conductor I would die with envy. Getting to learn from Bernstein, what a gift.

[@inezgraer5482]

You are a rare gem Marin! An example to all young people, not just women. Your attitude to life is refreshing, modern and exciting!

[@zerksepraga]

So short a video, and yet so moving that it makes me she'd tears I don't understand. Bernstein was successful in the sense that he had produced such accomplished musicians and powerful conductors as Marin and many others. What's specially touching is the bond between Bernstein and his pupils. It was and is indeed "beyond magical."

[@madavi6321]

Of course, she is not a woman,she is an angel.

[@srothbardt]

He probably meant that it was a good performance, and that the listener wouldn’t know that the conductor was a woman unless he saw that or was told, so why are there so few women conductors. This is something many critics and listeners and perhaps other conductors have wondered about for years.

[@pentaholicproductions5468]

@@srothbardtwell we know the answer, misogyny

[@WinrichNaujoks]

Today he'd be sued to high heavens for touching, hugging and kissing her like that.

[@pablov1973]

He used to touch, hug and kiss everyone that makes him feel happy, he was entirely uninhibited on feelings demostration, very emotional man.

[@calebm9000]

Comments like this on every video of people pre-2000....drives me insane.

[@parvdize3968]

Fact

[@georgelang6455]

Yeah -- his sense of entitlement is off the charts -- even if he is a genius

[@ronwade5646]

Late of course? Not when he came to Phoenix, we were playing Ov.to Candid which is just wicked for string players and we just "thought" we came to rehearsal early by getting into Symphony Hall 2 hours before. He was already there practicing his piano scores and singing loudly and of course smoking like a chimney. In the symphonic world one does not simply, come in late.

[@TheSuzberry]

I remember the brouhaha from the orchestra when she was appointed conductor of the Baltimore Symphony. She showed them.

[@berndwickenhaeuser4886]

Whats the name of the Piece at the end of the Video?

[@isaacbeen2087]

look top left

[@Tennisisreallyfun]

It’s Dvorak’s 9th Symphony “From the New World”, with many of the melodic themes sampled from the indigenous, African-American, and country musical cultures from his time living and teaching in America!!!

[@helenateixeira9274]

When someone is being a creep the victim knows it, body language does not lie. Bernstein was just being himself and Marin knew it. Mum, the first time she saw a woman taxi driver was absolutely euphoric, at the Berlin Dome a woman Decon at evening prayer made her day, and at the end, at the door, she probably took a bit of the young woman's hand with her. (Mum wasn't into theology) When I saw my first woman bus driver, I had to tell her my mum would have loved seeing her🤭... Bernstein was a smart chap.

[@georgiannmilan261]

Where hands belong?!..😫

[@psijicassassin7166]

She didn't mind the master's magical hands.

[@Petespans]

hmmmm, no comment

[@another_aaron]

okay? you're free to leave

[@PianistTanooki]

Hmmmm, no response.

[@lunetelalune2783]

I love Bernstein, but his comment that "when I close my eyes, I can't tell you're a woman" was low-key misogynistic.

[@ClarinetEnthusiast]

Such comments were much more accepted at the time. I sort of feel like he didn’t mean it that way, although I could be wrong. I felt that his intention was more like “I hear a goddess.” Or “I hear an angel, something along those lines. Basically her conducting is beyond the human level. Poor choice of words in other words, but again I could be wrong.

[@henryseidel5469]

I do not think it was misogynistic at all. It was an intuitive compliment by Bernstein in that very situation. Of course there were more male conductors than female at that time. And I do not believe Bernstein's hug was meant to be a sexual attack. Why not hug a person that you like very much just to express your admiration. Without it meaning to be sexually offensive...

[@smurf902]

​@@henryseidel5469exactly. He conducted boy choir singers too and was very affectionate with them, as well, the soloists. He had great admiration for his students.

[@henryseidel5469]

@@ClarinetEnthusiast I think you are right. The norms of human behaviour and attitudes have changed since then. A hug or a hand over the shoulder was meant to improve the bonds but not a sexual assault. I was even kissed (on the cheek) several times by one of my female teachers, and I took it for a compliment. Which it was...Such gestures are dependent on the situation and the context but not on some external interpretation.

[@MarshallArtz007]

Remember Alsop & Bernstein are gay. That comment from Bernstein could be interpreted a number of ways.

[@VelvetWhore]

Excellence.

[@inthedesert2008]

Lots of inappropriate touching there…well, by today’s impossible standards…😮

[@JohnGaroPiano]

Their relationship seems more like father and daughter, not to mention Bernstein being gay

[@henryseidel5469]

Indeed ! At that time a touch did not mean being sexually offensive but simply expressed empathy and trust. You are right ! Today's standards immediately take this for a sexual attack depriving people of their humane feelings. Recently a football coach was taken before court in Spain because he had kissed one of his female players, who had won a championship. Out of enthusiasm. Idiotic !! That is the end of human reason.

[@pablov1973]

What you see is a demostration that she means something to him, they have a father and daughter type relationship plus Bernstein was always in that way with people that was very close to him.

[@henryseidel5469]

What type of behaviour is better: Now or then ??

[@pamgeddes5346]

@@henryseidel5469 I think the "then" behaviour was better. For them: Leonard and Marin. They respected each other. I just love this video, I watch it often.

[@whosaysitmatters]

his behaviour is sickening, in a Bill Crosby kind of way

[@Richard-b5r9v]

The way Lenny had his arm around her was his way of flirting with her.

[@betterworld2958]

He was gay

[@FreakieFan]

@@betterworld2958 and she a lesbian

[@betterworld2958]

@@FreakieFan yes and they were friends!

[@joshuadesenna5345]

My brother she's a lesbian and he was gay

[@pablov1973]

He was gay and she's a lesbian. No way!