Composer of the Week: Elmer Bernstein

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Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

Composer of the Week - Brand

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

An informative and accessible guide to composers' lives and their music.

Composer of the Week: Elmer Bernstein (1922-2004): A Master of Style

A Master of Style

Elmer Bernstein (1922-2004)

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Elmer Bernstein (1922-2004), A Master of Style

Donald Macleod talks to Emilie Bernstein about her father, film composer Elmer Bernstein.

Donald Macleod talks to composer Emilie Bernstein about her father, film composer, Elmer Bernstein. They discuss his work with Martin Scorsese and his final film, Far from Heaven.

Donald Macleod talks with composer Emilie Bernstein about her father: film composer, Elmer Bernstein. They discuss his projects with film director, Martin Scorsese, and his final picture "Far from Heaven". 

Born in 1922, Elmer Bernstein created the music for more than 150 films. His big break was one of Hollywood's biggest pictures, Cecil B DeMille's swan song, the 1955 biblical epic, "The Ten Commandments". At the same time as working on that enormous canvas for DeMille, Bernstein was composing the first in a series of groundbreaking jazz-infused scores, "The Man with the Golden Arm". He went on to write the music for the Hollywood adaptation of Harper Lee's classic novel "To Kill a Mockingbird", westerns that include The Magnificent Seven, surely one of the best-known title themes in the history of cinema, before he became the go to composer for John Wayne. His scores for action adventures include "The Great Escape" and a moving depiction of the inner life of a prisoner in "Birdman of Alcatraz". Nominated on numerous occasions, he won an Oscar for "Thoroughly Modern Millie". In the 1980s he delighted younger generations of cinema goers with scores such as "National Lampoon's Animal House", "Ghostbusters" and "Airplane!", before deciding to make a return to more serious drama. Projects with Martin Scorsese included the film of Edith Wharton's novel "The Age of Innocence", and a remake of "Cape Fear".  Bernstein also created a remarkable portrait of the artist Christy Brown in "My Left Foot". His last score, for which he received a final Oscar nomination, was for Todd Haynes's "Far from Heaven" in 2002. He died just two years later in 2004.

Donald Macleod marks the centenary of this gifted and versatile film composer in conversation with Peter and Emilie Bernstein, two of Elmer Bernstein's children. They offer a fascinating insider's view into the film music industry alongside a personal portrait of their father. 

For more than fifty years Elmer Bernstein remained a consummate master craftsman among Hollywood film composers. His daughter Emilie explains something of his working methods. 

Far from Heaven
Autumn in Connecticut 
Hollywood Studio Symphony 
Elmer Bernstein, conductor 

Far From Heaven 
Hit
Crying  
Turning Point 
Cathy and Raymond Dance 
Hollywood Studio Symphony 
Elmer Bernstein, conductor 

Rambling Rose  
Let that crazy creature out 
Fever  
Safe house
The Royal Philharmonic Pops Orchestra
Cynthia Millar, ondes martenot
Elmer Bernstein, conductor 

Devil in a Blue Dress 
Main titles 
Malibu Chase 
Elmer Bernstein, conductor 

Bernard Herrmann, adapted, arranged by Elmer Bernstein 
Cape Fear 
Houseboat 
The Fight 
Destruction 
The End 						
Orchestra conducted by Elmer Bernstein 

The Age of Innocence 
Main title 				
Elmer Bernstein, conductor

Producer Johannah Smith

Composer of the Week: Elmer Bernstein (1922-2004)

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Donald Macleod surveys the life and work of American composer Elmer Bernstein.

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