Born: April 4, 1922; New York, NY
Died: August 18, 2004; Ojai, CA
If Elmer Bernstein had realized his childhood aspirations, he might have been a concert pianist. Instead, he has been a major force in film music and popular culture for more than ffity years.
Bernstein showed a consuming interest in the piano at an early age. When Bernstein was thirteen, his music teacher arranged an audition for Aaron Copland, who in turn arranged for Bernstein to study with one of his own students. Bernstein enrolledRead more at the Juilliard School as a piano student and also took up composition, for which his teachers included Stefan Wolpe and Roger Sessions. Assigned to an army entertainment unit during World War II, Bernstein first worked as an arranger of traditional American songs for Glenn Miller, which led to a chance to compose for Armed Forces Radio. Bernstein wrote the music for more than eighty broadcasts and wanted to pursue a career as a composer once the war was over. His break came in 1949 when he was commissioned to write the score for a UN radio program on the founding of the State of Israel, which led to an offer to write music for NBC. That, in turn, got Bernstein a chance to come to Hollywood as a film composer.
Bernstein's professional breakthrough took place in 1955 with Otto Preminger's film The Man With The Golden Arm, a drama dealing with drug addiction. Bernstein's jazz-based score proved popular with the public and critics and was the first of his film music to get an album release, as well as receiving an Oscar nomination. The next major milestone in Bernstein's career came in 1960, when he was engaged to score John Sturges' western The Magnificent Seven. It was here that Bernstein got to put his love of folk music into play: in a manner not far removed from Aaron Copland, he utilized the melodic characteristics of cowboy and traditional Mexican music in composing a sweeping orchestral score. The main title theme quickly took on a life of its own when the makers of Marlboro cigarettes licensed it for a series of commercials that ran for a decade, making it perhaps the most widely heard piece of movie music in history. Bernstein's work during the 1960s ran the gamut from sensitive dramas like To Kill A Mockingbird to such rousing adventure yarns as The Great Escape. He won a 1968 Oscar for his score for Thoroughly Modern Millie. In the early 1970s, Bernstein formed his own record label, Filmmusic Collection, and used it to make new recordings (usually with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London) of film scores that weren't otherwise available, including Miklos Rozsa's music for The Thief of Baghdad and Bernard Herrmann's unused score for Torn Curtain.
In 1977, Bernstein's career took an unexpected turn when he was asked by director John Landis to score the comedy National Lampoon's Animal House. Having never scored a comedy before, the composer hesitated, but Landis said that he wanted the kind of sweeping music that Bernstein was known for. The mix of his dignified music underscoring the film's physical comedy lent a depth to the humor of the movie; other filmmakers liked what they heard, and he has since written the music for such comedies as Airplane and Ghostbusters. At the same time, his status as the dean of living soundtrack composers made Bernstein the first choice for many high profile, serious films, including Martin Scorsese's remake of the 1960 thriller Cape Fear (for which Bernstein rescored Bernard Herrmann's original music) and The Age of Innocence. He remains active in the new century in both film and television music. Read less
Label: Sony
Catalog: 19439752272
Release Date: 08/07/2020
Number of Discs: 18
Composer:
Sergei Prokofiev,
Jean Sibelius,
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky,
Antonín Dvorák
...
Performer:
Itzhak Perlman,
Vladimir Ashkenazy,
John Williams,
Lynn Harrell
...
Conductor:
Erich Leinsdorf,
André Previn,
Zubin Mehta,
John Williams
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Boston Symphony Orchestra,
London Symphony Orchestra,
New York Philharmonic
...
Recommendation
Label: Musical Concepts
Catalog: 1969
Release Date: 12/14/2018
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
John Williams,
Ron Goodwin,
Barry Gray,
Frederick Loewe
...
Conductor:
Stanley Black
Orchestra/Ensemble:
London Symphony Orchestra,
Stanley Black Orchestra
Label: Klanglogo
Catalog: 1518
Release Date: 11/11/2016
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Alfred Newman,
Elmer Bernstein,
Richard Addinsell,
Malcolm Arnold
...
Performer:
Anastasia Voltchok,
Veriko Tchumburidze
Conductor:
Howard Griffiths
Label: Sony
Catalog: 303384
Release Date: 04/01/2014
Number of Discs: 2
Composer:
Franz Waxman,
Dimitri Tiomkin,
Daniele Amfitheatrof,
Erich Wolfgang Korngold
...
Conductor:
Charles Gerhardt,
Maurice Jarre,
Esa-Pekka Salonen,
Elmer Bernstein
...
Label: Sony
Catalog: 5438882
Release Date: 03/25/2014
Number of Discs: 9
Composer:
Johann Sebastian Bach,
Antonio Vivaldi,
Johannes Brahms,
Ernest Chausson
...
Performer:
Isaac Stern,
Itzhak Perlman,
Pinchas Zukerman,
Daniel Barenboim
...
Conductor:
Zubin Mehta,
Erich Leinsdorf,
André Previn,
John Williams
Orchestra/Ensemble:
New York Philharmonic,
Juilliard String Quartet,
Boston Symphony Orchestra
...
Recommendation
Label: Royal Philharmonic
Catalog: 33
Release Date: 07/30/2013
Number of Discs: 3
Composer:
Jeremy Sams,
John Barry,
Craig Armstrong,
John Williams
...
Performer:
Rolf Wilson,
Brian Thomson,
Paul Bateman,
Timothy Gill
...
Conductor:
Christopher Austin,
Paul Bateman,
Debbie Wiseman,
Nigel Hess
...
Label: Guild
Catalog: 5202
Release Date: 07/09/2013
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Max Steiner,
Elmer Bernstein,
Miklós Rózsa,
Richard Addinsell
...
Performer:
Ronnie Aldrich,
Russ Conway
Conductor:
Cyril Ornadel,
Al Caiola,
Ken Jones,
Billy Vaughn
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
The Dreamers
Label: Sepia Records
Catalog: 1189
Release Date: 03/13/2012
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Ernest Gold,
Manos Hadjidakis,
Elmer Bernstein,
Dimitri Tiomkin
...
Performer:
Al Caiola,
Gerry Mulligan,
Shelly Manne,
Marilyn Monroe
...
Conductor:
Don Costa,
Nick Perito,
Alfred Newman,
Jerome Moross
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Ferrante & Teicher,
The Modern Jazz Quartet
Label: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Catalog: 22
Release Date: 02/28/2012
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Bernard Herrmann,
Max Steiner,
Erich Wolfgang Korngold,
Elmer Bernstein
...
Performer:
Clio Gould,
Jamie Talbot
Conductor:
José Serebrier
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Label: Royal Philharmonic
Catalog: 17
Release Date: 11/15/2011
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Jerome Moross,
Bernard Herrmann,
Dimitri Tiomkin,
Erich Wolfgang Korngold
...
Performer:
Phil Todd,
Roderick Elms
Conductor:
Royal Philharmonic Orches,
José Serebrier
Label: eOne
Catalog: 2041
Release Date: 04/06/2010
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Elmer Bernstein,
Scott Joplin,
Philip Glass,
Richard Rodgers
...
Performer:
Deondra Brown,
Desirae Brown,
Gregory Brown,
Ryan Brown
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
The 5 Browns
Label: Telarc
Catalog: 80708
Release Date: 10/28/2008
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Elmer Bernstein,
Miklós Rózsa,
Bernard Herrmann,
Leonard Bernstein
...
Conductor:
Erich Kunzel
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Cincinnati Pops
Recommendation
Label: Emi Classics
Catalog: 15241
Release Date: 06/24/2008
Number of Discs: 6
Composer:
Michael Praetorius,
Joaquin Rodrigo,
Manuel de Falla,
Enrique Granados
...
Performer:
Christopher Parkening,
Ernesto Bitetti,
Manuel Barrueco,
Dario Rossetti-Bonell
...
Conductor:
Antoni Ros Marbŕ,
Jeremy Lubbock,
Elmer Bernstein,
Simon Rattle
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Philharmonia Orchestra,
London Symphony Orchestra,
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra members
...
Label: Telarc
Catalog: 80682
Release Date: 07/24/2007
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Luigi Boccherini,
John Debney,
Morton Gould,
Franz Waxman
...
Performer:
Timothy Lees
Conductor:
Erich Kunzel
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Cincinnati Pops
Recommendation
Label: Emi Classics
Catalog: 56418
Release Date: 05/02/2006
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Elmer Bernstein,
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco,
Johann Sebastian Bach,
Manuel Ponce
...
Performer:
Christopher Parkening
Conductor:
Elmer Bernstein,
Kenneth Klein,
Andrew Litton
Orchestra/Ensemble:
London Symphony Orchestra,
Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra,
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Label: Telarc
Catalog: 89006
Release Date: 11/23/2005
Number of Discs: 3
Composer:
Donald Dorsey,
Richard Strauss,
Jerry Goldsmith,
Alexander Courage
...
Performer:
Donald Dorsey,
Frankie Laine
Conductor:
Erich Kunzel
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Cincinnati Pops,
May Festival Chorus