Leonard Bernstein was without question the greatest musician America ever produced. As an inspirational teacher and renowned conductor he was the nation’s musical ambassador to the world, and his work as a composer bridged gaps and broke down barriers, reaching audiences way beyond the normal boundaries of classical music. This celebration of Bernstein’s centenary brings together all of the acclaimed Naxos recordings of his music conducted by his protégée Marin Alsop as well as new and world premiere recordings, and an insightful documentary DVD in which colleagues and family sum up this boundlessly brilliant and charismatic musical giant of the 20th century.

2018 will see a wealth of celebrations around Leonard Bernstein, and this box set of 8 CDs and a bonus DVD documentary is our celebration of the centenary of Leonard Bernstein’s birth. This includes all of Marin Alsop’s existing Bernstein recordings plus two new CDs from the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra with previously unrecorded pieces, and a bonus DVD of Georg Wübbolt’s film Leonard Bernstein – Larger than Life, that has interviews with Bernstein’s children as well as colleagues and artistic collaborators such as Stephen Sondheim, Gustavo Dudamel, Marin Alsop and many others.

Marin Alsop’s Naxos recordings of Bernstein’s music have been given great critical acclaim. Chichester Psalms/On the
Waterfront/On the Town (8559177) was admired by The New York Times for its “technically adept, bracing performances.” The Mass (855962223) received huge press attention and was a Gramophone ‘Editor’s Choice’, considered by them as “a worthy successor to Bernstein’s own recording.” “[Alsop creates] a dramatic slipstream that is powered relentlessly onwards by the awkward discontinuities and jagged narrative… go tell it on the mountain”, wrote Philip Clark in his review. “Power — emotional, musical — is the word.” BBC Music Magazine declared that our Serenade/Facsimile/Divertimento (8559245) “stands up to most of their challenging competition on the disc... Altogether, then, a REAL WINNER.” The Symphony No.3/Missa Brevis/The Lark (8559742) is “quite excellent — idiomatic and dramatic — all recorded in excellent vibrant sound” for MusicWeb International, and the Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2 (8559790) was a BBC Radio 3 ‘Disc of the Week’ and described by ClassicsToday.com as “sensational… A marvelous release by any standard.”

Two new CDs from Marin Alsop with the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra contain world premiere recordings of the striking CBS Music, the Birthday Bouquet which comprises eight variations on ‘New York, New York’ from On the Town, and orchestrations of eleven of the Anniversaries for piano.

Marin Alsop is an inspiring and powerful voice in the international music scene, a music director of vision and distinction who passionately believes that “music has the power to change lives”. Alsop made history with her appointment as the 12th music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO). Her success as the BSO’s music director has garnered national and international attention for her innovative programming and artistry. Alsop took up the post of principal conductor of the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra in 2012, and became music director in July 2013. Alsop is often making history: in 2005 she was the first conductor to be awarded a MacArthur Genius award, and in September 2013 as the first female conductor of the BBC’s Last Night of the Proms in London – an honour that she repeated in 2015.