On December 1, 1944, Béla Bartók's "Concerto for Orchestra" received its premiere performance by Serge Koussevitzky leading the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Hall. A success at the time, it remains one of Bartók's best-known, most popular, and most accessible works. The work was written in response to a commission from the Koussevitzky Foundation (run by conductor Serge Koussevitzky) and was to be dedicated to the memory of Natalie Koussevitzky, the conductor's wife, who had died a few y

On February 28, 1959, the CBS Television Network aired Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concert titled "Humor in Music", featuring the New York Philharmonic. In this excerpt, Bernstein explores how tempo can be used as a tool to create wit in music. | Leonard Bernstein