Leonard Bernstein conducts his New York Philharmonic Orchestra in New York City, July 9, 1959. (AP Photo)

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New York City is taking some hard blows this season as the titans of Wall Street come tumbling down.

But there was a time, in the heart of the American Century, when New York was on top of the world. The colossus of world wealth and energy and culture.

And at the pinnacle of that energy and culture was Leonard Bernstein. From Broadway and “West Side Story,” to Carnegie Hall and Shostakovich, to CBS and the television nation, Bernstein — conductor, composer, magnetic showman — was everywhere.

This hour, On Point: New York looks back on Leonard Bernstein and the American Century.

Do you remember how he glowed? How New York and the country glowed when Bernstein took the podium? You can join the conversation right here.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from New York City is Barbara Haws, archivist and historian of the New York Philharmonic since 1984. She’s co-author of the new book “Leonard Bernstein: American Original.” The Philharmonic’s Bernstein festival begins on September 24.

Also with us from New York is Clive Gillinson, executive and artistic director of Carnegie Hall, and former managing director of the London Symphony Orchestra. A cellist, he played under Leonard Bernstein for the LSO. Carnegie Hall’s website features a special section devoted to this season’s Bernstein festival.

Joining us from Los Angeles is Tim Page, former music critic for The Washington Post, where he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1997. He’s now a visiting professor of musicology at the University of Southern California. He contributed an essay to “Leonard Bernstein: American Original.”

And from Hanover, New Hampshire, is Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst and senior editor at The Atlantic Monthly.

Chinese pianist Lang Lang performs with the Stockholm Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. June 13, 2008. (AP)

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Twenty-six year old Chinese pianist Lang Lang is an international superstar and the face of a new China. He played a prominent role in Beijing’s lavish opening ceremony on Friday.

But the road to fame hasn’t been easy. He’s been working at it since the age of 3. His parents’ dreams thwarted by the Cultural Revolution, Lang Lang became their future. At 9, he moved with his father to Beijing. At 15, they traveled to America.

He studied at top schools and is now, some argue, one of the best classical pianists in the world — and a phenomenon in China.

This hour, On Point: China’s Lang Lang.

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Guests:

Lang Lang, internationally acclaimed classical pianist, he played at the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, and is author of the new book, with David Ritz, “Journey of a Thousand Miles: My Story.”

David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker. He profiled Lang Lang in the magazine’s August 4 issue.

Links and multimedia:

Read an excerpt from Lang Lang’s “Journey of a Thousand Miles: My Story.”

Langlang.com – The official website of Lang Lang

Watch a famous YouTube video of Lang Lang playing Chopin with orange:

A list of the music played during this hour:

• Xian Xinghai: “Prelude: The Song of The Yellow River Boatmen”
• Franz Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2
• Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1 In C Major, Op. 15 – III. Rondo.
• Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme Of Paganini, Op. 43: Variation XVIII
• Happy Times – [From the 2007 album Dragon Songs]
• Horses – a live recording at Carnegie Hall, a duet with his father, Guo-Ren Lang on the Erhu, a traditional Chinese two-stringed fiddle.
• He Luting: The Cowherd’s Flute (Mutong duandi)
• Chopin: Sonata for Piano No. 3 in B Minor, B. 155, Op. 58: II. Scherzo (Molto Vivace)
• Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B Flat Minor, Op. 23, I.
• Mozart: Sonata for Piano No. 10 in C Major, K. 330
• Xian Xinghai: The Yellow River: III. The Yellow River in wrath

Philip Glass has been called America’s most famous living composer of classical music.

He’s brought his entrancing scores to collaborations with David Bowie and Twyla Tharp, Doris Lessing and Yo-Yo Ma. His operas have brought new music to the stories of Einstein, Gandhi and Robert E. Lee.

Now, at 71, Philip Glass has a new love, a new muse, a new collaborator — the acclaimed cellist Wendy Sutter.

He’s written for her. She inspires, and performs. Critics call it powerful, exalted.

This hour, On Point: Composer Philip Glass, cellist Wendy Sutter, and their new music.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Philip Glass, composer. He has written symphonies, operas, film scores, and ventured into many cross-cultural compositions, including with Indian sitar player and composer Ravi Shankar. His new CD is “Songs and Poems for Solo Cello,” written for cellist Wendy Sutter

Wendy Sutter, internationally acclaimed cellist and professor of music performance at Columbia University. She made her solo debut with the Seattle Symphony at age sixteen. From 1993 to 1998, she was a member of the White Oak Chamber Ensemble touring with Mikhail Baryshnikov. From 2001 to 2007, she was a member of the Bang on a Can All-Stars, which commissions and performs contemporary music.