Leonard Bernstein was an American composer (born in Lawrence, Massachusetts), pianist and conductor. He was the first conductor born in the United States of America to receive world-wide acclaim, and is known for both his conducting of the New York Philharmonic and his multiple compositions, including West Side Story and Candide.

Bernstein was born to a Jewish family from Rovno, Ukraine.   His father, Sam Bernstein, was  initially opposed to Bernstein's interest in music. Despite this, the elder Bernstein frequently took him to orchestra concerts. One time, Bernstein heard a piano performance and was immediately captivated; he subsequently began learning the piano at a young age.

He was highly regarded as a conductor, composer, pianist, and educator. All told, he wrote three symphonies, two operas, five musicals, and numerous other pieces. In 1958, Bernstein was named Music Director of the New York City Philharmonic Orchestra, a post he held until 1969. Bernstein married Felicia Montealegre, a Chilean actress, in 1951 and with her had three children.

Candide is a comic operetta, based on the novella of the same name by Voltaire. It has existed in many versions but is now generally performed with a book by Hugh Wheeler. The primary lyricist  was Richard Wilbur.  Candide is most famous for its colourful and varied score, many parts of which are very well known, especially in musical circles.

Beethoven sometimes known as ‘The Shakespeare of music’, reaching the heights and plumbing the depths of the human spirit  - ‘Tone poet’, to use the term by which he expressed his own ambition.

As stated earlier in these notes, Beethoven was taught by his father who was so keen for his son’s success that Beethoven was sometimes made to cry by his father’s bullying during lessons. His intensive musical training meant that his general education suffered and Beethoven later had problems with grammar and simple arithmetic.
During the course of his life a series of personal tragedies, his inability to maintain relationships (often due to his uncontrollable temper) and his gradual loss of hearing meant that he developed an increasingly individual style.

Beethoven held strong views on the equality of men, and avidly watched the changing political scene in Europe. While these ideals must be seen in the context of the disgraceful way he treated his servants and the impossible demands he put on his friends, they gave to his music a unique intensity. Beethoven’s genius was so great that his and future generations were prepared to accept his quirks of personality. Consequently when Beethoven died in 1827, his funeral was one of the most impressive ever seen in Vienna with over 20,000 people packed into the square and dignitaries arriving from all over Europe.

By the time he died at the age of fifty-seven, Beethoven had broken new musical ground, preparing the way for the Romantic and Modern composers in the hey-day of the Classical period.  Beethoven said “Strength is the morality of the man who stands our from the rest, and it is mine. His strength and individuality live on in his music
Beethoven’s nine symphonies are amongst his greatest works.

During Beethoven’s many bouts of depression he repeatedly visited the rural haven of Heiligenstadt.   It was during one of these visits in the summer of 1807 that he completed his 5th Symphony.

Beethoven’s 5th was nicknamed the “Victory Symphony” during the Second World War, when it was realised that the opening 4-note theme (short-short-short-long), was in rhythm, almost the same as the Morse signal ‘V’, so that this theme came to be used incessantly in broadcasting as a promise of ‘Victory’. The opening notes of Beethoven’s 5th are probably the most well known phrase in the whole of classical music and they have also been made even more famous by the Electric Light Orchestra in their introduction to the rock classic “Roll Over Beethoven”. The defiant and exultant mood of this piece has been linked to Beethoven’s defiance of his growing deafness.  In a letter to his friend Wegeler, several years later Beethoven wrote of his struggle “No, I cannot ignore it. I will seize fate by the throat. It will not wholly conquer me! Oh, how beautiful it is to live and live a thousand times over.

The 5th Symphony is an embodiment of his exultation in the face of adversity.