Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

On the Road and off the Record with Leonard Bernstein

By: Charlie Harmon, Harold Prince - foreword
Narrated by: William Dufris
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £15.99

Buy Now for £15.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

Written by his former assistant and with a foreword by Broadway legend Harold Prince, this audiobook celebrates Leonard Bernstein's centenary with an intimate and detailed look at the public and private life of the maestro.

Leonard Bernstein reeked of cheap cologne and obviously hadn't showered, shaved, or slept in a while. Was he drunk to boot? He greeted his new assistant with "What are you drinking?" Yes, he was drunk.

Charlie Harmon was hired to manage the day-to-day parts of Bernstein's life. There was one additional responsibility: make sure Bernstein met the deadline for an opera commission. But things kept getting in the way: the centenary of Igor Stravinsky, intestinal parasites picked up in Mexico, teaching all summer in Los Angeles, a baker's dozen of young men, plus depression, exhaustion, insomnia, and cutthroat games of anagrams. Did the opera get written?

For four years, Charlie saw Bernstein every day, as his social director, gatekeeper, valet, music copyist, and itinerant orchestra librarian. He packed (and unpacked) Bernstein's umpteen pieces of luggage, got the maestro to his concerts, kept him occupied changing planes in Zurich, Anchorage, Tokyo, or Madrid, and learned how to make small talk with mayors, ambassadors, a chancellor, a queen, and a Hollywood legend or two. How could anyone absorb all those people and places? Because there was music: late-night piano duets, or the maestro's command to accompany an audition, or, by the way, the greatest orchestras in the world. Charlie did it, and this is what it was like, told for the first time.

©2018 Charlie Harmon (P)2019 Tantor
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Old Rage cover art
The Road to Riverdance cover art
I Exaggerate cover art
Touched by the Sun cover art
Outside the Gates of Eden cover art
Adam's Star cover art
Glamour Ghoul cover art
Paul and Me cover art
World in My Eyes: The Autobiography cover art
My Ticket to Ride cover art
Right Place, Right Time cover art
White House Usher cover art
The Second Ending cover art
Tim: The Official Biography of Avicii cover art
I Was Better Last Night cover art
Apparently There Were Complaints cover art

Critic reviews

"Harmon's personable and warm account of what it was like to work for one of the twentieth century's musical giants casts new light on Bernstein and his world." (Booklist)

What listeners say about On the Road and off the Record with Leonard Bernstein

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.