# Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts



## Oreb (Aug 8, 2013)

Over the last couple of months we have been having a wonderful time watching these at Casa del Oreb:









For those of you here who grew up in the US, were they popular on TV at the time?

Any of you go?

I ask because I'm curious as to whether they had much impact. They certainly deserved to: I think they are just marvellous and I really like the tone LB adopted with the youngsters: not patronising, just eager to share a love for music.

I suspect they are way too low-tech to be of much interest to youngsters today, but I think they still have a lot to offer.

Oh, and by the way - seeing those clothes and the black and white footage and those young faces... almost worth the price of the set alone.

If you haven't seen them, give them a try: a great way of reminding oneself of a time when maybe we were a bit less jaded and when there was an excitement about hearing music. I can take it for granted sometimes: these are a lovely antidote to that


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## Celloman (Sep 30, 2006)

I've seen all of them, I think. They're highly entertaining for adults and kids alike. It's amazing how much you can learn from just one of those concerts...Bernstein does an excellent job!


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## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

I have them all. I think that's why I love Lenny so much. He just loved Music. He had a great joy in sharing it and spreading understanding about it.


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

A friend of mine lived in Washington DC and they bussed his school to one of the concerts. He didn't remember much of it, but he remembered that every kid in the audience was involved with what was going on. No fidgeting.

The thing that strikes me about these is how much more aware kids were back then. In "What Makes American Music American?" Bernstein plays a few tunes on his piano asking the kids to say what country they come from. I don't know any kids today that could correctly answer that.


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## Hoffmann (Jun 10, 2013)

I was taking a breather from the Opera Discussion area and ran across this thread.

I live in Washington, DC and went on a class trip to a Young People's Concert (but I don't think I'm the guy mentioned in the above post). It was in 1963 when I was in 8th grade. I also don't recall anything about the performance itself, but remember being totally dazzled by the day in Lincoln Center. 

Music and art classes were part of the curriculum in 7th grade, and the music teacher used the Young People's Concert films (yes, films) as teaching aides. Bernstein's explanation of sonata form during one of those filmed concerts showed up several times during my years in public school.


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## drpraetorus (Aug 9, 2012)

I remember seeing them as a kid. Since I didn't know anything about TV programming or TV Guide, I had no idea that they were a recurring thing or when to catch them. I do remember feeling very lucky to have been able to catch it when I did. They were, for me, a godsend. I remember very little specifically but I came away from each episode understanding music a little more and a little more committed to making music a large part of my life.


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## Cheyenne (Aug 6, 2012)

They played a John Wiliams score in my music class, and next to that they used very little music even adopting a classical ensemble or orchestra  Would've gotten into it all sooner if I had heard it before, perhaps. I love the Young People's Concerts, anyhow: great fun.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I was born 10 years too late to enjoy these episodes on TV. I watched one on Petroushka on YouTube and enjoyed it very much.

Too bad American TV is total crap these days. It's been dumbed down as low as it can get, imo. The music classes I had in elementary and junior high school were also incredibly square and boring. I was never taught anything about classical or jazz music. The teachers were very lame, square suburbanites. They had us singing top 40 songs like Bad Bad Leroy Brown. 

I did get to go on a field trip to Saratoga to hear the Philadelphia Orchestra in the early 70s, but I got nothing out of it because we received no education prior to the concert.


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