All Episodes of New York Philharmonic Young People's Concerts
Browse all episodes of New York Philharmonic Young People's Concerts
From 1958 through 1973, renowned conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra thrilled audiences with wonderful concert experiences presented in a sparkling music-with-commentary format: the Young People's Concerts.
Season 1
9.0/101 votesWhat is a Mode?
Season 1 Episode 36 - Aired 11/23/1966
Bernstein discusses scales, intervals and tones, and analyzes several pieces, including Debussy's Fêtes, Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, and music from the Kinks and the Beatles, to illustrate different modes. An excerpt from Bernstein's ballet Fancy Free is also performed.
Director: Unknown
Writer: Unknown
- 8.0/101 votes
What is a Melody?
Season 1 Episode 21 - Aired 12/21/1962
Bernstein discusses the different forms melody can take, including tune, theme, motive, melodic line and musical phrase. He illustrates by conducting the orchestra in excerpts from Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Mozart, Hindemith, and Brahms.
Director: Unknown
Writer: Unknown
- 8.0/101 votes
A Tribute to Sibelius
Season 1 Episode 31 - Aired 2/19/1965
Bernstein celebrates the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, and comments on Finland, the Finnish language, and Finnish patriotism, as well as Sibelius himself. Works by the composer, including Finlandia and the first movement of his Violin Concerto, with soloist Sergiu Luca, are performed.
Director: Unknown
Writer: Unknown
- 8.0/101 votes
The Sound of an Orchestra
Season 1 Episode 33 - Aired 12/14/1965
Bernstein explains that the duty of the orchestra is to reproduce faithfully the notes and instructions of the composer. The main focus is the first half of Haydn's Symphony No. 88. The opening music is deliberately played incorrectly and errors are pointed out.
Director: Unknown
Writer: Unknown
- 8.0/101 votes
A Toast to Vienna in 3/4 Time
Season 1 Episode 40 - Aired 12/25/1967
Bernstein pays tribute to New York Philharmonic's "fraternal orchestra," the Vienna Philharmonic, in celebration of the 125th anniversary of both orchestras. Works by Johann and Richard Strauss, Mozart, Beethoven, and Mahler are performed, preceded by a brief discussion.
Director: Unknown
Writer: Unknown
- 8.0/101 votes
Quiz-Concert: How Musical Are You?
Season 1 Episode 43 - Aired 5/26/1968
Leonard Bernstein quizzes Avery Fisher Hall and television audiences on their musicality. Highlights include true-or-false questions with musical examples, and excerpts from Mozart, Prokofiev, and Rimsky-Korsakov.
Director: Unknown
Writer: Unknown
- 8.0/101 votes
Berlioz Takes a Trip
Season 1 Episode 46 - Aired 5/25/1969
Bernstein discusses what he describes as the "first psychedelic symphony," Berlioz's La Symphonie fantastique, examining the concept of the idée fixe in music and illustrating this concept with excerpts froth first movement. Bernstein analyzes the music and discusses the story line of the remaining movements, which are performed by the Philharmonic.
Director: Unknown
Writer: Unknown
- 8.0/101 votes
Two Ballet Birds
Season 1 Episode 47 - Aired 9/14/1969
Bernstein compares the main theme of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake with Stravinsky's Firebird. A performance of the pas de deux from Swan Lake illustrates the concept of abstract ballet, followed by excerpts from Stravinsky's Firebird.
Director: Unknown
Writer: Unknown
- 8.0/101 votes
Fidelio: A Celebration of Life
Season 1 Episode 48 - Aired 3/29/1970
Bernstein takes a look at Beethoven's so-called "flawed masterpiece" - his only opera, Fidelio. After discussing the story and its problems, "charming excerpts" are performed. Four vocal selection from Act II follow, each preceded by analysis and plot summary.
Director: Unknown
Writer: Unknown
- 7.0/101 votes
What is Sonata Form?
Season 1 Episode 28 - Aired 11/6/1964
Bernstein describes the three-part sonata form, and exemplifies it by singing the Beatle's "And I Love Her." Veronica Tyler sings Micaela's aria from Bizet's Carmen and Bernstein conducts the Philharmonic in the first movement of Mozart's Jupiter Symphony.
Director: Unknown
Writer: Unknown
- 7.0/101 votes
Musical Atoms: A Study of Intervals
Season 1 Episode 32 - Aired 11/29/1965
Bernstein explains musical intervals and discusses their relationship to harmony, melody and inversion. After analysis, the first movement of Symphony No. 4 in E-flat Major by Brahms is performed. The discussion continues, focusing on major and minor seconds.
Director: Unknown
Writer: Unknown
- N/A/100 votes
What Does Music Mean?
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 1/18/1958
Leonard Bernstein told the television audience at the start of the first Young People's Concert: "No matter what stories people tell you about what music means, forget them. Stories are not what music means. Music is never about things. Music just is. It's a lot of beautiful notes and sounds put together so well that we get pleasure out of hearing them. So when we ask, 'What does it mean; what does this piece of music mean?' we're asking a hard question. Let's do our best to answer it." During the course of this first program the New York Philharmonic performs portions of Rossini's William Tell Overture, Beethoven's Sixth Symphony, and Ravel's La Valse.
Director: Unknown
Writer: Unknown
- N/A/100 votes
What is American Music?
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 2/1/1958
From Carnegie Hall, Bernstein discusses the origins and characteristics of American music. After an extended excerpt from George Gershwin's An American in Paris and a discussion of nationalistic and folk music, excerpts from compositions by American composers Edward MacDowell, William Schuman, Virgil Thomson, and others are performed. In closing Aaron Copland conducts parts of his own Third Symphony.
Director: Charles S. Dubin
Writer: Unknown
- N/A/100 votes
What is Orchestration?
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 3/8/1958
After brief introductory remarks, Bernstein conducts the finale of Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio espagnol and then explains what a composer must know in order to orchestrate music successfully. He compares the flute to the trumpet, and the clarinet to the viola, with examples from Debussy and Gershwin. After asking the audience to sing two notes in a variety of ways, he contrasts the families of instruments that compose an orchestra, using excerpts from Prokofiev, Hindemith, Mozart and others to illustrate, and ends with Ravel's Bolero.
Director: Unknown
Writer: Unknown
- N/A/100 votes
What Makes Music Symphonic?
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 12/13/1958
Using the examples of Mozart's Jupiter Symphony and Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony, Bernstein demonstrates the techniques of repetition and variation int he development of symphonic music. After conducting part of Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet, he asks the audience to sing "Frére Jacques," demonstrating the uses of sequence and imitation in symphonic composition. The final movement of Brahm's Second Symphony is then analyzed and played.
Director: Unknown
Writer: Unknown
- N/A/100 votes
What is Classical Music?
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 1/24/1959
Bernstein conducts Handel's Water Music and cites it as an indisputable example of classical music. "Exact" is the word that best defines classical music, Bernstein says, and he demonstrates with musical illustrations from Bach's Fourth Brandenburg Concerto, Mozart's Concerto No. 21 in C Major and The Marriage of Figaro, and Haydn's Symphony No. 102. The decline of classical music at the end of the eighteenth century is tied to Beethoven's innovations and the Romantic movement, and Bernstein conducts Beethoven's Egmont Overture.
Director: Unknown
Writer: Unknown
- N/A/100 votes
- N/A/100 votes
What is a Concerto?
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 3/28/1959
Leonard Bernstein discusses the development of the concerto form from Bach to Bartok. Bernstein conducts examples of early concertos-Bach's Fifth Brandenburg Concerto and Vivaldi's Concerto in C Major. From the classical period, he conducts Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante and, finally, the fourth and fifth movements of Bartok's neo-classical Concerto for Orchestra.
Director: Unknown
Writer: Unknown
- N/A/100 votes
Who is Gustav Mahler?
Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 2/7/1960
Leonard Bernstein celebrates Mahler's centennial by conducting excerpts from the composer's Fourth Symphony in G and discussing his career as a composer and conductor. Soprano Reri Grist joins the orchestra in a performance of the last movement of the Fourth Symphony. William Lewis sings "Youth" and Helen Raab sings from "The Farewell," both from Mahler's The Song of the Earth (Das Lied von der Erde).
Director: Unknown
Writer: Unknown