Pieces of Tomorrow - Music of Leonard Bernstein

United Songs of America

In this episode of Pieces of Tomorrow, the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and principal conductor Karina Canellakis take you in tow to Leonard Bernstein's greatest success: West Side Story. It is a musical with the power and drama of an opera, loosely based on Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet. The idea originated in the minds of choreographer Jerome Robbins and composer Leonard Bernstein in 1949. The characters of Romeo and Juliet were substituted for two rival youth gangs in Manhattan's West Side.
By 1957, West Side Story was finished and on Sept. 26 of that year, it premiered at the Winter Garden Theater on Broadway, New York. The musical was a great success. A large number of songs from this musical have earned a place in the Great American Songbook. These all appear in the Symphonic Dances that Bernstein himself distilled from the original work.

Nostalgic enjoyment is the key word for these Pieces of Tomorrow. Go at your leisure to TivoliVredenburg, we start at 9 p.m., bring your drink, hear what the musicians have to say about this program and immerse yourself in the powerful symphonic sounds of Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story.