Great Conductors I: Leonard Bernstein

Weegee, Leonard Bernstein, ca. 1960

Whether lecturing at Harvard, screaming at professional orchestras, or conducting Haydn using only his eyes (3:45), Leonard Bernstein was a showman. While some, most famously Tom Wolfe, excoriated him as a shallow, self-obsessed charlatan, to most he was the classical music world’s last real celebrity, someone whose passion and larger-than-life personality—perfectly captured in Weegee’s kaleidoscopic portrait—spoke to a large, adoring audience.