Few personalities of our time unite so many diverse talents with such passion, generosity and charisma as the immensely gifted American composer, pianist, conductor and music communicator Leonard Bernstein, world citizen and all-round star. His death in October 1990 did nothing to diminish his legacy, still deeply felt to this day. Lenny, as he loved to be known, shaped the musical culture of America.

His boundless energy and talent was his gift to the world, despite moments of self-doubt and ambivalence. The spectrum of his creative activity ranges from the famous musical West Side Story with its pulsating Broadway rhythms to grave, complex works that embrace his Jewish faith or political sensitivity. He once framed his convictions thus: “What have we artists got to do with oil and commerce, with survival and honour? The answer is everything.”