And there is a beloved Mardi Gras songbook — how many times have you heard “Mardi Gras Mambo,” “Big Chief” and Al Johnson’s “Carnival Time”? Those classics always deserve to be on the playlist. But ...

There has never been an American dynamo remotely like Leonard Bernstein. The composer, conductor, pianist, creator of musicals, educator, political maven and raconteur seemed to spin on his axis ...