TV and LB TV and LB
Bernstein's television career started on a show called Omnibus. The show was financed by the Ford Foundation. The first broadcast was on November 14, 1954. It was aimed toward an adult audience. It was the first commercial television show for experimentation in the arts, and from the beginning the program's approach to music was fresh and unusual. An early telecast of Omnibus featured selections from Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, but instead of a traditional concert-style performance, the showman, at this time, maestro, Leopold Stokowski, explained the story's composition. Stokowski gave viewers a guided tour of a mock art gallery, pointing out the particulars that inspired each musical selection. The corresponding excerpts were played along the way. The show clearly demonstrated the determination of those involved with Omnibus.
The most sensational run of programs in the series took off when Leonard Bernstein discussed the structure of the first movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. From its opening moments it was obvious that a totally new approach to music and television was underway. During the half hour that followed he took viewers on an intense journey of musical creation. Instrumentalists were stand-ins for notation. Bernstein's friend, Schuyler Chapin says, "It was both illuminating and amusing. The orchestra was unaccustomed to the camera's eye and sometimes looked like a bunch of embarrassed children playing hooky. The musicians were arranged precisely with their instruments notation. Leonard Bernstein brought much more than his enthusiasm and natural gifts, he knew how to express the intellectual and emotional passion of his art in a way that was understanding to all types of viewers. More than any other musician before or since Bernstein, Bernstein understood television's possibilities to unlock the mysteries of music and make the home audiences care as deeply as he did about the glories of its expressive language." In 1956 Bernstein won an Emmy for his work on Omnibus.
The World of Jazz was followed in late 1955 by The Art of Conducting , a program in which Bernstein discussed the importance of the conductor and told and explained what might happen if an orchestra worked without a leader.
Starting in 1957, CBS decided to feature Bernstein's talents on a more regular basis by televising the New York Philharmonic's Young People's Concerts. Roger Englander became good friends with Leonard Bernstein. Richard Lewine, director of special programs for CBS at the time, suggested that Englander and Bernstein would make a good pair on The Young People's Concerts. Their first broadcast together was on January 18, 1958. The camera work was carefully planned to coordinate with the music being played. Pictures of composers appeared at the mention of their names. In this way the Young People's Concert telecasts combined the best features of a live concert program and the excitement of musicians performing before a large audience. Bernstein's magical relationship with the audience at Carnegie Hall, and later at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall came across so effectively that two more Young People's Concert broadcasts aired in the months that followed. Their success persuaded CBS to keep the series going; all in all there were over 25 different Young People's Concert programs.
By the 1960's the Young People's Concerts had become a part of pop culture. They were on nighttime comedies; cartoons appeared in magazines and there were references to Beethoven and Bernstein in Peanuts. Films were loaned to schools and shows were translated into twelve languages.
The Young People's Concerts are available today. I think they are available at libraries, video rental stores and maybe even at your school.