Pianist Glenn Gould made his debut recording at age 23 with one of the most important classical recordings of the 20th century: his take on J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations. The record elevated both Gould and what had previously been regarded as a relatively minor piece of the Bach canon.

LIFE took readers inside the world of this budding star with a story headlined “Music World’s Young Wonder.” The story described Gould equally talented and peculiar:

Gould has…a set of the most earnest eccentricities in the music business. Almost everything gives young Glenn trouble. His health, always precarious, keeps him tossing down pills. His voice gets out of control as he plays and its crooning ruins some of his recordings.

The story made much of Gould’s mannerisms: “High-strung ball players stepping into the batter’s box have less ritual to run through than Gould requires before sitting down at the piano.” His pre-performance routine included removing the two sets of gloves that he wore to keep his fingers warm and then soaking his hands in warm water. Next he took what LIFE described as “circulation pills” before removing his shoes and setting himself down on a special chair.

LIFE photographer Gordon Parks joined Gould in the studio to capture the scene as Gould recording music by Beethoven and Bach. Parks’ photo of Gould bent over the piano in his signature posture as he records Bach while sound engineers hover overhead is one of the most popular in the LIFE print store.

Another of Parks’ photos captures the mannerism for which Gould was most famous—that previously-mentioned tendency to hum or vocalize when he was at the keyboard. Look at the photo which shows Gould leaning back and laughing. He is amused because the producers just played back a recording and he is realizing that he inadvertently ruined a take with his vocal noises.

All these decades later, Gould’s music continues to fascinate. In 2017 Columbia Masterworks released as a set the two separate records Gould had made of the Goldberg Variations—his debut record in 1956 and a fresh take on the music in 1981, a year before Gould died. Pitchfork gave the 2017 release a rare perfect 10 rating.

Preparing to make recordings of Bach and Beethoven at a Columbia recording studio, pianist Glenn Gould (right) discussed his approach to one of the pieces with a producer, 1956.

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Glenn Gould sampled pianos at a Steinway warehouse before choosing one for his recording session at a Columbia recording studio, 1956.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shuttertstock

Glenn Gould sang as he sampled pianos at a Steinway warehouse before choosing one for his session at Columbia Recording studios, 1956.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Glenn Gould carried his special folding chair which he insisted upon using when he played the piano, 1956.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Pianist Glenn Gould removed his outer gloves to reveal an underset of fingerless knitted ones which he wore even in the summer in order to keep his hands supple for performing, 1956.

Pianist Glenn Gould studied a Bach piano score while discussing with an engineer how he was going to record the sections in a Columbia recording studio, 1956.

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Glenn Gould, before a recording session, soaked his hands in lukewarm water to limber up his fingers, gradually raising temperature to hot before performing, 1956.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Glenn Gould performed Bach in a recording studio while engineers and directors followed the score and looked on from glassed-in booth, 1956.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A shoeless Glenn Gould listened to playback of his Bach performance at a Columbia recording studio; he would decide that he needed to do this section over, 1956.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Glenn Gould listened intensely to playback of his performance of Bach at a Columbia recording studio, 1956.

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Glenn Gould laughed as engineers let him hear how his singing spoiled his Bach recording. In response he offered to wear a gas mask to muffle the noises he made while performing, 1956.

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Pianist Glenn Gould at age 23, during a recording session in 1956.

Pianist Glenn Gould (right) ate a lunch consisting of graham crackers and milk cut to half strength with bottled sprig water while sitting at sound engineers table at Columbia recording studio, 1956.

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In 1951 LIFE showcased the sculptor Alberto Giacometti. Like Pollock, Giacometti’s works were instantly recognizable. His style was bluntly captured in LIFE’s headline: “Skeletal Sculpture: Artist Whittles Men to Bone.”

The story described how Giacometti arrived what it called his ‘stalagmatic style”:

Sculptor Giacometti, son of Switzerland’s foremost impressionist painter, started out 30 years ago producing conventional statues. But he lost his way among the innumerable details of the head and body which seemed to clutter up and conceal the underlying form of human beings. “I felt I needed to realize the whole,” he says. “A structure, a sharpness….a kind of skeleton in space.” To arrive at this “essence of man,” Giacometti gradually reduced his figures to pin size, then gradually stretched them out again to pipeline silhouettes whose slender fragility suggests the perishable nature of man himself.

For that story Giacometti posed for legendary LIFE staff photographer Gordon Parks. The meeting of these two artists resulted in one of the most popular images for sale in the LIFE photo store.

That image is part of this gallery, as are several other frames that Parks took of Giacometti and of his work. Also included here is a photo of a Giacometti work taken by Yale Joel that cropped up in the background of a LIFE story from 1960 about art collector G. David Thompson. He was one of the most prominent art collectors of the 20th century, and he owned 70 works by Giacometti.

Alberto Giacometti in his studio, surrounded by his sculptures, 1951.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sculptor Alberto Giacometti in Paris, 1951.

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Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti, 1951.

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Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti in his studio, 1951.

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Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti, surrounded by sculptures in his studio, 1951.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A Giacometti sculpture on a Parisian street, 1951.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

These Giacometti animal sculptures lived not far from Giacometti’s Paris studio, 1951.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sculptor Alberto Giacometti, 1951.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Art collector G. David Thompson, 1959, with a Giacometti sculpture; he owned 70 works by the artist.

Yale Joel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

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There are many ways to measure just how big a deal Maria Callas was during her heyday, and one of them is how many LIFE photographers took their turn shooting her. The list is an impressive one, and it includes Gordon Parks, Margaret Bourke-White, John Dominis, Thomas McAvoy, James Burke and PIerre Boulat.

On one occasion Callas appeared in LIFE not as a subject of a story but rather as its author. In 1959 she took the magazine to defend herself in a piece titled “I Am Not Guilty of All Those Scandals.” She had been accused of feigning illness when she didn’t want to go on, demanding exorbitant rates and other incidents related to her stage career. Callas wrote that all those claims were untrue. She did, however, acknowledge that she was difficult to work with—a label she accepted with pride:

Of course, I am difficult. An artist who tries sincerely to meet the demands of operatic music must work under extraordinary tension. Great music cannot be achieved without hard work and high standards. If I were willing to accept second-best opera, if I did not care about quality, I could very easily establish a reputation for always being sweet, charming and amenable to every suggestion, a completely docile soprano in every respect. But that is too high a price to pay for such a reputation…I see no reason to pretend I am happy and cheerful about second-rate music—or about those who are willing to see it performed.

After going through a point-by-point rebuttal of various claims that went on for several pages, Callas concluded “I am not an angel and do not pretend to be. That is not one of my roles. But I am not the devil, either. I am a woman and a serious artist, and I would like to be so judged.”

In addition to her storied opera career, the magazine also wrote about Callas’s personal life, including in 1959 when she separated from her husband, Italian industrialist Giovanni Meneghini, and was whisked away on a private jet by Aristotle Onassis. LIFE reported in ’59 that Callas got to know Onassis “when she and her husband cruised the Mediterranean in his yacht in a party that included Sir Winston and Lady Churchill and Onassis’s 28-year-old wife Tina.”

Onassis would in 1968 famously leave Callas for Jacqueline Kennedy. Callas’s relationship with Onassis is central to the Angelina Jolie’s movie—which is directed by Pablo Larrain, who also directed the 2016 biopic Jackie.

Maria Callas following a performance of Norma at the Civic Opera House in Chicago, 1954.

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Opera singer Maria Callas at a post performance gala following her opening night performance of the opera “Norma” at the Civic Opera House in Chicago, 1954.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Opera singer Maria Callas discussed her performance with director Nicola Rescigno, 1954.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Maria Callas performed in the opera Norma at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, 1956.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Maria Callas applied makeup to a mannequin version of herself, 1956.

Margaret Bourke-White/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Maria Callas spoke to the press after a U.S. performance of Medea, 1958.

Thomas McAvoy/LIfe PIcture Collection/Shutterstock

Maria Callas performed as Medea at at the ancient Greek theater Epidauris, 1961.

James Burke/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Opera singer Maria Callas during filming of movie Medea, 1969.

Pierre Boulat/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Maria Callas during filming of movie Medea, 1969.

Pierre Boulat/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Portrait of Maria Callas during the filming of the movie ‘Medea’, Turkey, 1969.

Pierre Boulat/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post Angelina Jolie’s Inspiration: Maria Callas in LIFE appeared first on LIFE.

The pages of LIFE chronicled the rise and rise of the legendary conductor. In its Jan. 7, 1957 issue LIFE ran a multi-page story on Bernstein headlined “Busy Time for a Young Maestro.” He was conducting thrice-weekly performances with the New York Philharmonic, while also dividing attention between one musical he had on Broadway, Candide, and another that was on its way and would elevate his star even higher—West Side Story. Bernstein also had ballets on his plate and five records in the pipeline in which he was either the conductor, composer or performer. “It’s perfectly possible to do all the things I have to,” he told LIFE, “but it’s a little hard doing them all at once.” The photos for that story, shot by Alfred Eisenstaedt, also gave a window into Bernstein’s personal life, showing Bernstein and his wife Felicia (played in the film by Carrie Mulligan) at home with their children around the piano.

In 1958 LIFE photographer Gordon Parks captured more memorable images of Bernstein when following him around for that year’s opening for the Philharmonic, including a lovely photo of Bernstein and Felicia dancing at the end of the night.

His further appearances included a 1969 article about Bernstein as he prepared to leave the New York Philharmonic at age 50. This was the end of a major chapter in Bernstein’s career, and the tone of the story, by Thomas Thompson, was elegiac. Here’s how it ended:

John F. Kennedy said, after a gala at the Washington Armory, that there was only one person he would never want to run against. Laurence Olivier once said that if he had the choice to be anyone in the world besides himself, he would choose but one other man. In the last hours of a long night in London, this envy of Kennedy and Olivier sat at a gleaming Steinway in his hotel suite, pounding out private crashing chords, wondering if 50 is halfway, the beginning, the end. This captive of the modern age, this effect and cause, this musician who could perhaps bring back the era of symphonic genius if there were the time but who wonders if there were the time would there also be the genius, this man, Leonard Bernstein, dreams of catching his breath and maybe his life.

Bernstein would in fact keep a busy schedule in the decades after he left the Philharmonic, and up through the last years of his life. His last major event was a historic one: on Christmas Day 1989, in Berlin, he conducted a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, not far from the Brandenburg Gate, to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall. He led his final concert at Tanglewood with the Boston Symphony Orchestra on Aug. 19, 1990. He died on Oct. 14 of that year, from a heart attack, at age 72.

Leonard Bernstein, 1955.

Gordon Parks The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Leonard Bernstein, 1954.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Leonard Bernstein, 1955.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Leonard Bernstein and wife Felicia played pianos at home while their children Alexander (left) and Jamie (third from left) joined in, 1956.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein with his wife, actress Felicia Montealegre, and children Alexander and Jamie, at the piano in their home, 1956.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Leonard Bernstein conducting a rehearsal of the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall, 1956.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra during a rehearsal for the ‘Mathis der Maler’ performance on December 20-21, Carnegie Hall, New York, 1956.

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Composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein walked past Carnegie Hall, where he would be conducting the New York Philharmonic’s performance of Paul Hindemith’s symphony ‘Mathis der Maler’, December 1956.

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Leonard Bernstein talking on the phone at Carnegie Hall after a New York Philharmonic rehearsal, December 1956.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Maestro Leonard Bernstein getting a cologne rubdown from his wife, actress Felicia Montealegre, during intermission for his concert conducting the New York Philharmonic orchestra at Carnegie Hall, 1956.

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Stephen Sondheim (left) discussed rehearsal schedules for the Broadway opening of West Side Story with composer Leonard Bernstein (center) and choreographer Jerome Robbins (right), 1957.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Leonard Bernstein on opening night for the New York Philharmonic, 1958.

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Conductor Leonard Bernstein (left) talking with composer Jules Styne on opening night for the New York Philharmonic, 1958.

.Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Leonard Bernstein and his wife on the opening night of the New York Philharmonic, 1958.

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Leonard Bernstein with his wife Felicia, 1958.

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Composer Leonard Bernstein dancing with his wife on opening night for the New York Philharmonic, 1958.

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Conductor Leonard Bernstein, 1959.

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Leonard Bernstein conducting vocal soloists and the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall, 1960.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Conductor Leonard Bernstein rehearsed Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony at Carnegie Hall, 1960.

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Conductor Leonard Bernstein, First Lady Jackie Kennedy (center) and John D, Rockefeller III (left) at the opening of the Lincoln Center Philharmonic Hall, 1962.

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Leonard Bernstein at the podium for the first performance ever at Lincoln Center’s Philharmonic Hall in New York, 1962.

Ralph Morse/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation

Leonard Bernstein, 1962

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Leonard Bernstein, 1967.

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Leonard Bernstein, 1968.

Alfrefd Eisenstaedt/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post Leonard Bernstein: The Maestro in LIFE appeared first on LIFE.

In 1956 he traveled to Havana for a beachwear shoot, at a time when the island was a popular travel destination for Americans, before FIdel Castro came to power and Cuban-American relations turned hostile. Enjoy, as the pictures capture not just the fashions of the moment but the feelings of playfulness and relaxation that come with a day at the beach.

Beach fashions, Cuba, 1956.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Beach fashions, Cuba, 1956.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Beach fashions, Cuba, 1956.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Beach fashions, Cuba, 1956.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Beach fashions, Cuba, 1956.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Beach fashions, Cuba, 1956.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Beach fashions, Cuba, 1956.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Beach fashions, Cuba, 1956.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Beach fashions, Cuba, 1956.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Beach fashions, Cuba, 1956.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Beach fashions, Cuba, 1956.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Beach fashions, Cuba, 1956.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Beach fashions, Cuba, 1956.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Beach fashions, Cuba, 1956.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Beach fashions, Cuba, 1956.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Beach fashions, Cuba, 1956.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Beach fashions, Cuba, 1956.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Beach fashions, Cuba, 1956.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post Gordon Parks, Beachwear, Cuba, 1956 appeared first on LIFE.

The dresses, from the storied French house Hermes, featured designs in the trompe l’oeil style. The dresses had come out the previous year in Europe and “were soon fooling eyes and causing conversations at France’s fashionable resorts,” LIFE wrote. In 1952 the dresses came to America via the shop of dressmaker Herbert Sondheim (who happens to be the father of composer Stephen Sondheim).

“Everything in the dresses is an illusion—pockets, collars, buttons are all printed on in carefully haphazard strokes; only the seams are real,” LIFE wrote. “Each master design is spaced out, then reproduced on fabric by a complicated screen printing process.”

The story featured pictures by Gordon Parks, and it’s no mystery why a photographer might be intrigued by fashion that was built on surface illusion. But the magazine, despite devoting several pages to the story, was stinting in its praise, calling the clothing “eye-catching but not functional.”

Indeed, given that a common complaint about women’s clothes is the lack of pockets, painting fake pockets onto dresses is borderline cruel.

A woman models a Hermes trompe-l’oeil raincoat in Paris. The decorations painted directly on the fabric included buttons, pockets and a hood on the back.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A model showed off a Hermes raincoat in the trompe l’oiel style with a painted hood on the back that sold for about $100 in Paris, 1952.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Hermes’ trompe l’oiel dresses, 1952.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Hermes’ trompe l’oiel dresses, 1952.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A belt that was part of the line of Hermes’ trompe l’oiel fashion, 1952.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

This Hermes trompe l’oiel dress sold for $29.95 in 1952 (the equivalent of about $340 in 2023).

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Hermes’ trompe l’oiel dresses, 1952.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Hermes’ trompe l’oiel dresses, 1952.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

This dress with a painted-on tie in the trompe l’oiel style sold for $39.95 in 1952.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Hermes’ trompe l’oiel dresses, 1952.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A model held the material that, when cut and sewn along the sides, would become a dress in Hermes’ trompe l’oliel line, 1952.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Hermes’ trompe l’oiel dresses, 1952.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Hermes’ trompe l’oiel dresses, 1952.

Gordon Parks/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post “Only the Seams are Real”: Painted Fashion From Hermes appeared first on LIFE.