Leonard Bernstein on OMNIBUS
- Wednesday, March 26 6:15 pm
City Hall Arts Center
For those who watched television in the 1950s, there was nothing quite like CBS’s Omnibus program, perhaps the best and certainly the most ambitious cultural program ever seen on network TV. Produced by Robert Saudek and hosted by Alistair Cooke, Omnibus covered the world of music, theater, literature and dance in unexpected ways. We are presenting two segments of the several that conductor Leonard Bernstein did for Omnibus on understanding Bach and Beethoven. Sponsored by Vermont Sheep and Goat Association. Community Partners: Vermont Public Radio, Capital City Concerts, Monteverdi Music School, Friends of Classical Music, Green Mountain Youth Symphony. Post-film event: Susan Cooke Kittredge, daughter of Alistair Cooke, and Richard Saudek, son of Robert Saudek, will share their recollections of the production of “Omnibus.” 75 minutes. Film website
“As a teacher, Bernstein is intense yet detached, dedicated yet well-rounded. He is contemptuous of the cult of “music appreciation,” and thinks that love of music should be as complex and emotional as love itself. ‘We live in our emotions,’ he argues, ‘and that is the area a teacher must reach—and as soon as possible. If you can strike an emotional spark, then you can teach anything.’ “
“The sort of teaching that I had visions of television doing in all the arts and sciences. One great teacher bursting with vitality and personality and information could spread his culture all over the country, assaulting you in a physical wave to such a degree that a short course …sticks in a million or so craniums forevermore. It’s quite a feat if you can bring it off and Bernstein can and does. Virtually no one else does. He’s a natural asset, that young man, and one we should treasure.”
Posted in 2008 Films & Events