This DVD is an invaluable document for the many legions of Bernstein admirers. By the time he died at the relatively young age of 72, the chain-smoking, intense dynamo that was Lennie had virtually burned himself out. His meteoric rise to national and international fame is the stuff of legend, and it is retold—straight from the horse’s mouth—in this lovingly crafted documentary. The bonus track—a bearded Bernstein (never saw him wear one before this!) gyrating his way through Milhaud’s ballet Le boeuf sur le toit is an unexpected delight. I’ve always loved the piece (though I wish it was shorter). This version—with the French National Orchestra—is the best and most exciting version I can recall.

In 1977, the Israel Philharmonic organized a concert retrospective in Tel Aviv of composer-conductor Leonard Bernstein’s career—an excellent excuse for filmmaker Peter Rosen to capture him in rehearsal and conversation.

The result is a short but deep appreciation of one of the 20th century’s most important musical figures.

We see Bernstein’s two sides—publicly confident communicator and privately conflicted thinker—in perfect balance. We also get a short-and-sweet story of his life to that point, with a special stop for the day in 1943 when, at age 25, he had to step in for an ailing Bruno Walter and conduct the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall for all of America to hear on the radio.

The tidy, 50-minute doc has plenty of Bernstein’s personality as well as snippets of his music. There is a bonus 1976 concert performance of Darius Milhaud’s fun Le boeuf sur le toit with l’Orchestre national de France, where we see a bearded maestro having a grand time.