On Leonard Bernstein’s birthday, in line with all the Martinů posts that have appeared on this page over the past weeks, I’m sharing a link to this live concert performance from 1963 – unearthed by my most recent Bard Music Festival acquaintance, Mather Pfeiffenberger – of Bernstein conducting Martinů’s Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra, featuring the Juilliard String Quartet. This is a work Bernstein never recorded commercially. How cool is that?
The program and notes have been archived on the New York Philharmonic website. The concert also included Peter Mennin’s “Concertato for Orchestra: Moby Dick.”
Bernstein took a master class with Martinů at Tanglewood in 1942.
Martinů not your bag? In 1965, Bernstein reunited with the Juilliard Quartet, this time as pianist, for my favorite recording of Schumann’s Piano Quintet in E-flat Major.
Happy birthday, Leonard Bernstein!
PHOTOS (clockwise from left): Signed photo of Bohuslav Martinů; Bernstein recording at the piano; Julliard String Quartet in 1962
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