Monumental Moments

We begin with Leonard Bernstein, who was a major influence on Music Director John DeMain’s early life and career. Bernstein had a knack for bringing lighthearted populism into the concert hall. Though written in the late 1940s, Shostakovich’s first concerto makes use of traditional musical forms, including a famous Passacaglia, favored by composers like Bach 200 years earlier. Feared by violinists and loved by audiences, it was a hit from the day...