Bernstein in Berlin: A Christmas Classic

In the early 1990s I purchased a Deutsche Grammophon CD of the famous concert Leonard Bernstein conducted on Christmas, 1989, a month after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and listening to it has become a holiday tradition around my humble little homestead.

Bernstein, who died less than a year after this concert, explains in this video how the event came to pass, as he drew on musicians and singers from both sides of the German divide and elsewhere to fashion what became known as the "Ode to Freedom" rendition of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9:



"Ode to Joy," the masterpiece of the great German poet Friedrich Schiller, celebrates the unity and brotherhood of mankind, a theme that was weaved into the finale of Symphony No. 9 by Beethoven. Bernstein adapted the title of the poem to "Ode to Freedom" in honor of the newly freed people of East Germany and their unification with West Germany.

Here's a short snippet of the concert, which was recorded at the Schauspielhaus:



The entire concert is available on YouTube, broken into four separate videos. I had never seen any footage from the concert before, so it was quite revealing. The quality of the videos isn't spectacular, but the sound is marvelous. Enjoy, and Merry Christmas!

Part I:



Part II:



Part III:



Part IV: