Carnegie Hall+

Carnegie Hall+ has the most extensive collection of Leonard Bernstein online, featuring exclusive performances as both pianist and conductor with the best orchestras from around the world, intimate documentaries, and his renowned interpretation of the complete cycle of Mahler symphonies. Important work from the leading musician, innovative composer, and music educator will be added each month to the channel.

Featured Programs

Gidon Kremer: Brahms’s Violin Concerto
Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein

Brahms wrote only one violin concerto, a work of great warmth and yearning with a folk-like finale. Latvian violinist Gidon Kremer gives a highly personal performance with the Vienna Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein.

Boston Symphony: Brahms’s Fourth Symphony
conducted by Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein called Brahms “a true Romantic, containing his passions in classical garb.” Bernstein underscores this dramatic intensity and the sober restraint in Brahms’s Symphony No. 4 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood.

Schumann’s Cello Concerto
with Mstislav Rostropovich and Orchestre National de France

With chamber-like intimacy, Robert Schumann’s Cello Concerto prizes poetic expression over solo virtuosity. The music is unusually reflective, with the cello’s melody interwoven throughout the work, becoming increasingly introspective and serene.

New York Philharmonic: Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony
conducted by Leonard Bernstein

In this Emmy Award–winning performance by the New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein reaffirms his reputation as one of the most daring and emotionally resonant interpreters of Tchaikovsky’s classic symphonies.

Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony with Leonard Bernstein
Boston Symphony at Tanglewood

This 1974 Tanglewood concert marked the 100th anniversary of conductor Serge Koussevitzky’s birth. Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, said Leonard Bernstein, “was like Koussevitzky’s signature, his theme song … I felt his presence on stage very strongly.”

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra: Schubert’s “Great”
conducted by Leonard Bernstein

The illustrious Leonard Bernstein conducts Germany’s Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Schubert’s epic Symphony No. 9, nicknamed the composer’s “Great” Symphony for its labyrinth of harmonies, lavish melodies, and joyous rhythms.

Leonard Bernstein: A Genius Divided

Leonard Bernstein is reaffirmed as a towering figure in this portrait that highlights his artistic struggle as both composer and conductor, his tension between success and failure, and the politics of his time and his own humanitarianism.

Bernstein On Broadway

Leonard Bernstein’s love for New York City comes to life in his Broadway works, musically capturing the “City that Never Sleeps.” Embrace Bernstein’s New York with songs from Wonderful Town, On the Town, West Side Story, and more.

Stage and Screen: A Tribute to Bernstein

The entire family will share in the excitement of this celebration of Leonard Bernstein—including selections from West Side Story, On the Town, and Candide—with the John Wilson Orchestra and a quartet of soloists at the BBC Proms.

Bernstein’s Complete Mahler Symphony Cycle

Vienna Philharmonic: Mahler’s First

Early works can provide glimpses of the mature composer to come, but Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 is the rare example of an early work that bears the artist’s distinct signature, here conducted by Mahler champion Leonard Bernstein.

London Symphony Orchestra: Mahler’s “Resurrection”

Soprano Sheila Armstrong and mezzo-soprano Janet Baker join the London Symphony Orchestra for Mahler’s musical contemplation on life and death in his Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection.”

Vienna Philharmonic: Mahler’s Third

This Vienna Philharmonic performance of the composer’s longest work—the exalted Third Symphony—features mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig and the Vienna Boys’ Choir.

Vienna Philharmonic: Mahler’s Fourth

Leonard Bernstein’s pioneering Mahler cycle with the Vienna Philharmonic includes this performance of the radiant Fourth Symphony, featuring soprano Edith Mathis in the final movement, depicting a child’s vision of heaven.

Vienna Philharmonic: Mahler’s Fifth

Leonard Bernstein was one of the leading Mahler interpreters and the first conductor to record all the composer’s symphonies. Here he leads the Vienna Philharmonic in Mahler’s Fifth, with its dramatic trajectory from mourning to triumph.

Vienna Philharmonic: Mahler’s Sixth

From the opening march to the fateful hammer blows of the finale, Mahler’s Sixth Symphony traverses a vast emotional terrain.

Vienna Philharmonic: Mahler’s Seventh

Mahler called this five-movement symphony, which evokes nature and the night, his best work—though it is not among his best-known.

Vienna Philharmonic: Mahler’s Eighth

“All Mahler symphonies … deal in extremes,” said Leonard Bernstein. When he recorded the Eighth for his pioneering cycle with the Vienna Philharmonic, the stage of Vienna’s Konzerthaus had to be enlarged to fit the sprawling cast.

Israel Philharmonic Orchestra: Mahler’s Ninth

Mahler’s complex and valedictory Ninth Symphony takes the listener on a rich and rewarding emotional journey. The Vienna Philharmonic and Leonard Bernstein made this recording in 1971 at the outset of their fabled Mahler cycle.

Vienna Philharmonic: Mahler’s Tenth (Adagio)

Mahler completed only one movement of his Tenth Symphony, the moving Adagio.