Leonard Bernstein

The conductor must not only make his orchestra play - he must make them want to play. He must exalt them, lift them, start their adrenaline pouring, either by pleading or demanding or raging. But however he does it, he must make them love the music as he loves it. It is not so much a matter of imposing his will on them like a dictator; it is more like projecting his feelings around so that they reach the last player in the 2nd violin section. And when this happens - when everybody shares his feelings, when 100 musicians are sharing the same feelings, exactly, simultaneously, responding as one to each rise and fall of the music, to each point of arrival and departure, to when all that is happening then there is a human identity of feeling that has no equal elsewhere." -Leonard Bernstein ("Omnibus Presents: The Art of Conducting," December 4, 1955) [📸 Leonard Bernstein conducting the @New York Philharmonic, 1980s. Photo by Martha Swope, courtesy of the New York Philharmonic Digital Archives ]

What better way to celebrate Johannes Brahms’s birthday than with his Symphony No. 4 performed by the @bostonsymphony and led by @leonardbernsteinofficial at @tanglewoodmusicfestival? Watch the full Brahms symphony cycle on @carnegiehallplus.

Today, we celebrate the birth of composer Johannes Brahms! 🎶 Enjoy this video of Leonard Bernstein conducting the Vienna Philharmonic in an excerpt from the third movement of Brahms's Symphony No. 4, recorded in 1983.

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! "Teaching is probably the noblest profession in the world — the most unselfish, difficult, and honorable profession, but it is also the most unappreciated, underrated, underpaid, and under-praised profession in the world. And so today we are going to praise teachers." -Leonard Bernstein Bernstein and the opened the 1963 season of Young People's Concerts with “A Tribute to Teachers,” highlighting Bernstein’s appreciation for his mentors and teachers, and his ongoing love of learning. In this excerpt, Bernstein pays homage to his conducting mentor, Serge Koussevitzky, with a performance by the New York Philharmonic of Modest Mussorgsky’s “Prelude to Khovanshchina.” #TeacherAppreciationWeek

Happy 5/5! What's your favorite Fifth Symphony? Enjoy this video of Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic in an excerpt of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5, recorded at the Bunka Kaikan, Tokyo in 1979.

Happy World Laughter Day! 😄 [📸 © Dan Weiner/Courtesy Deutsche Grammophon - DG] #WorldLaughterDay