Synopsis

On today's date in 1958, Leonard Bernstein asked, "What does Music mean?" He posed the question to an audience of kids assembled at Carnegie Hall for the first of his "Young People's Concerts" -- but since the concert was televised, it was a question he posed as well to a nationwide audience of all ages.

That 1958 concert opened with Rossini's William Tell Overture – music that "meant" the Lone Ranger to TV audiences back then, or as Bernstein put it: "Cowboys, bandits, horses, the Wild West."

But, Bernstein argued: "Music is never about anything. Music just is. Music is notes and sounds put together in such a way that we get pleasure out of listening to them, and that's all it is." Bernstein then demonstrated how the same music could plausibly be the "soundtrack" to any number of different "stories."

Bernstein concluded his first Young People’s Concert with Ravel's La Valse and these comments: "Every once in a while we have feelings so deep and so special that we have no words for them. Music names them for us, only in notes instead of in words. It's all in the way music moves and that movement can tell us more about the way we feel than a million words can."

Music Played in Today's Program

Giaocchino Rossini (1792 –1868) William Tell Overture New York Philharmonic; Leonard Bernstein, conductor. CBS/Sony 48226

Maurice Ravel (1875 –1937) La Valse New York Philharmonic; Pierre Boulez, conductor. CBS/Sony 45842

On This Day

Births

• 1835 - Russian composer César Cui, in Vilnius, Lithuania (Julian date: Jan.6);

• 1841 - French composer Emmanuel Chabrier, in Ambert, Puy-de-Dôme;

• 1903 - German-born English composer and conductor Berthold Goldschmidt, in Hamburg;

Premieres

• 1908 - Delius: "Brigg Fair" in Liverpool;

• 1930 - Shostakovich: opera "The Nose" (after Nikolai Gogol), in Leningrad at the Maliiy Opera Theater;

• 1942 - Ibert: "Ouverture de fête" in Paris;

• 1947 - Elie Siegmeister: "Prairie Legend," by the New York Philharmonic, Leopold Stokowski conducting;

• 1963 - Harris: Symphony No. 9 ("1963"), by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy conducting;

• 1968 - Richard Rodney Bennett: Symphony No. 2 in New York City;

• 1991 - David Ott: Symphony No. 2, by the Grand Rapids ( Michigan) Symphony, Catherine Comet conducting;

Others

• 1958 - "What Does Music Mean?", broadcast, the first of a series of televised New York Philharmonic "Young People's Concerts" on CBS-TV hosted by Leonard Bernstein; The series continued until 1972, with 53 different programs hosted by Bernstein;