DAVID BIANCULLI

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LEONARD BERNSTEIN TRIBUTE: "NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC YOUNG PEOPLE'S CONCERTS"
July 21, 2018  | By David Bianculli

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

 

This weekend, TCM celebrates the 100th anniversary of the birth of Leonard Bernstein, with a tribute that should have your DVRs humming in overdrive. Last night, TCM presented movies featuring some of Bernstein’s most beloved film scores, including music for the big-screen versions of West Side Story and On the Town. That would be an expected approach from a network called Turner Classic Movies – but today and tomorrow, the treats, very rarely shown by anyone, are taken from television. Starting tonight at 8 p.m. ET, TCM presents four episodes of Bernstein’s monumental, influential New York Philharmonic Young People’s Concerts. My favorite episode, “What Is Sonata Form?,” is not among them (that’s the one, from November 1964 on CBS, in which Bernstein complimented, and demonstrated, the Beatles’ “And I Love Her”). But the quartet of shows here includes the very first Young People’s Concerts installment, 1958’s “What Does Music Mean?” (at 8 p.m. ET), 1959’s “Humor in Music” (9:06 p.m. ET), 1966’s “What Is a Mode?” (10:15 p.m. ET), and 1967’s “A Toast to Vienna in 3/4 Time” (11:16 p.m. ET). I highly recommended watching, and recording, them all. And save room and time for tomorrow, when TCM presents even older Bernstein TV appearances, from the iconic Omnibus series in 1961.

 
 
 
 
 
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