The Best Books to Read After Watching Maestro
Curious to learn more about Leonard Bernstein? Add these books to your TBR list.
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A brand-new biographical film of Leonard Bernstein , Maestro , is now streaming on Netflix, but Bradley Cooper's film only offers a snippet of the life of the famed composer and conductor.
"Leonard Bernstein was what my mother mother admiringly called 'a man with a motor,' and when he went on the road, that motor went into overdrive," his daughter, Jamie, reflected in Country Etiquette . "His life became ever more bifurcated between manic conducting tours and glum months at home trying to compose. When he returned from his prodigious global conducting feats with the great orchestras of the world, we’d set about 'bringing him down to earth,' reminding him that he was a human being and not a deity. At home, for example, he could not successfully monopolize the dinner-table conversation. When other family members would insist on putting a word in edgewise, he would pound the table and roar with annoyance—but we persisted. Somebody had to. He partly loved being teased and partly didn’t."
These 10 books about Leonard Bernstein—including Jamie's memoir, Famous Father Girl , which partly inspired Cooper in making Maestro —are key in understanding the man, "the human being," as Jamie writes, behind the fame. Here, what to read after Maestro :
If you're looking for a definitive biography of Leonard Bernstein, look no further than Humphrey Burton's tome, published in 1994. In the 70s, Burton, who worked as BBC's Head of Music and Arts, "developed a second career as a film and television director for Leonard Bernstein’s many musical projects, including documentaries, rehearsals, and over 150 filmed concerts with the Vienna Philharmonic and other orchestras." So not only is he coming at this biography as a writer, but as a collaborator of Bernstein.
Famous Father Girl: The Intimate Memoir of Leonard Bernstein and His Family That Helped Inspire the New Movie Maestro
Famous Father Girl: The Intimate Memoir of Leonard Bernstein and His Family That Helped Inspire the New Movie Maestro
This memoir of Leonard Bernstein, written by his daughter Jamie , partly inspired Cooper's Maestro . "There was simply no moment when Leonard Bernstein wasn't being a teacher," she writes. "It was words, above all, that he shared with us in all their glorious incarnations."
Another biography of Leonard Bernstein—this one by acclaimed biographer Meryle Secrest. (She's also written biographies of Frank Lloyd Wright, Stephen Sondheim, Elsa Schiaperelli, and more.) It follows his life growing up in a Hasidic family, his time at Harvard, his career, and his role as a father.
