Why was Leonard Bernstein so influential (and why I've changed my mind about him)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 พ.ค. 2024
- A brief look into the subject of the upcoming Bradley Cooper movie Maestro: Leonard Bernstein. How was his jump into conducting fame, his collaboration with Stephen Sondheim for West Side Story and his disruptive work merging television with classical music, plus some final thoughts about how my perception of his work did a complete 180 in the last couple of months.
00:00 Intro: Who composed the music of West Side Story?
02:04 Bernstein & conducting
04:55 Bernstein & television
08:11 Bernstein & composition
11:26 Final Thoughts
MORE INFO ON BERNSTEIN:
Here is a scribd link to the book I've read, if you have a subscription
www.scribd.com/book/472061587...
Or if you wanna buy it, its called : The Leonard Bernstein letters, edited by Nigel Simone
A EuroArts documentary on Bernstein
• Leonard Bernstein's Re...
Bernstein's TV show about Pop and Rock music
• Inside Pop: The Rock R...
Leonard Bernsteins TH-cam Channel, where you will find many extracts of his talks
• Young People's Concert...
Two very good analysis of West Side Story
Sideways • Why West Side Story is...
Inside the score • West Side Story: How M...
Bernstein affected my whole life because of those Young People’s Concerts. It was how an average, suburban, lower-middle class kid was introduced to classical music. I eventually played clarinet and the bassoon until I aged out of the ASYO. I didn’t go on professionally but I still experience the joy of music that Lenny introduced me to when I was a child. And yes, he would be all over social media today!
My parents were actually at that concert when Bernstein first conducted!!!
His complete conviction in everything he did was and is remarkable. Integrity.
Should have mentioned Mahler, his greatest legacy was reviving Mahler’s symphonies. He loved Mahler’s symphonies more than anything else.
Mahler was already enjoying a revival in Europe when Bernstein came along, but he did popularize Mahler in a way that the European conductors couldn't match.
My father's birth and death years were the same as Bernstein's. When I was young, my father once said, "When I was your age, I already had a job." I shot back, "When Leonard Bernstein was your age, he was already the conductor of a major symphony orchestra." It didn't go over well...
Thank you so much for this really profound video. Lenny will always be my Number 1.
Even after 33 years I miss him so much !
As a Jewish boy in Brooklyn who started composing at the age of 11, I grew up with Lenny - I attended his revival of Mahler 2 (not the first, but one of the subsequent performances), and witnessed him rehearsing his own "Age of Anxiety"! Those were experiences for a lifetime!
I've never listened to a Bernstein piece I didn't like. Heavy and solemn. That's how I like them all.
L.B. has long been one of my very favorite conductors because of the passion, excitement, and sense of freedom he brings (at least, to me). One thing that should be mentioned is his lecture series at Harvard (The Unanswered Question) - absolutely brilliant.
Oh, I enjoyed your video SO much! I'm 72 years old and a retired oboe player. I grew up on the televised Youg People's Concerts and Bernstein had a greater influence on my development as a musician than any other single peson I could name - including some of my teachers and I was fortunate enough to have had some good ones. I've read his profoundly delightful book, The Joy of Music, more times than I've counted and that has gladdened my heart since I first read it in my teens or early twenties. I do agree with what you say about his slow tempi and the "heaviness" of his conducting. I have two thoughts about that. First, someone said (sadly, I don't remember who it was) that as Bernstein aged he seemed to want to make music last as long as possible and that he was savoring it beyond what we would normally consider to be appropriate as far as the tempi are conderned. Maybe it was his way for striving for immortality. Have you ever noticed, in some of those later recordings, what a luminously ethereal effect he achieves this way (even while he is conducting with a tempo many might consider to be too slow)? How don't know how a person can draw out of an orchestra the ability to sound both heavy and ethereal at the same time but HE could. (I'm mainly thinking about Mahler here and mainly about Vienna. Simply magical, if memory serves me.) My other thought is that maybe he chose such slow tempi because he COULD! He conducted absolutely the best orchestras in the WORLD and those orchestras could manage what might well be the undoing of even truly excellent orchestras but that did not quite reach the level of Vienna or Chicago.
Finally, it somehow had escaped my attention that Dudamel was conducting the new West Side Story movie. WOW! I can't wait to see it.
He was simply the GREATEST educator of his time 👍
I love your enthusiasm for Bernstein! I sang under him once in a series of concerts in Washington and New York . If you have time, I'd like to tell you a story about his rehearsing Chichester Psalms with us.
He did a lot of work with Nadia Boulanger (Lily's sister), also arranged a fair bit of Bach for orchestra, and toured it with a youth orchestra. I think he generally adored music and people, and wanted more people to be exposed to music's beauty, and that is why he wrote tonal music. At the time, proponents of the new music were gaslighting everyone trying to build support for their choices to throw out everything that western music had evolved into, but the audience were largely not buying into it. As a humanist - a lover of people, I think Bernstein wanted to bring people to love music as he did. This is probably why he had that connection with Copland also.
Mahler, Shostakovich 's 5th, Rite of Spring. Impressive Bernstein. I love his rhythm in his recordings and his passion also...
Lenny had a DaVinci like mind. Gotta love Lenny. One of the most intense people I’ve ever seen…he prob never relaxed. He was the first director that gave me the feeling of “attacking” a composers work in total.
One of Bernstein’s greatest qualities was his excitement at sharing music. Listen to Bernstein’s earlier recordings with the NY Philharmonic. There is a sense that we are discovering this music with him for the first time. Even if he gets pedantic sometimes, he’s always eager to share with us what he has discovered about this piece that he’s recording. His desire to educate people extended to his concerts and recordings, particularly in his NY Philharmonic years. And those recordings are generally a lot less heavy and slow than his later ones with the Vienna.
Love this video! Leonard S. Burns is my favourite musician, who in my early teens introduced me to classical music and, subsequently, jazz. Still can't get over the fact that Kleiber, the very serious conductor who didn't let the production team merge his Neujahrkonzerts with the ballet and previously asked management so that the audience don't clap in Radetzky (before being vetoed out) because of his principle that any music he conducted is as serious as any other, asked Bernstein for an authographed copy of WSS. And I bet it was *totally* "for his kids" xD. Looking forwards to your new videos/projects!
I was surprised when I read it too! But I will say it was hilariously written, started with an Italian quote of Don Carlo (“non per me, ma per altri” : not for me but for others) and ended saying the CD would “lift up the moral all round”. Thanks for watching!
You mentioned not particularly caring for some of his recordings. It’s worth mentioning that his earlier Columbia recordings done in the 60s were more straightforward in his interpretation than those he made toward the end of his life with the Vienna Philharmonic. I recall listening to a performance of Tchaikovsky 6th on the radio (joining it in progress and listening to the end to find out who was performing) and it was so slow and overdrawn at the very end that I couldn’t stand it. I actually was thinking it was maybe Gergiev. I couldn’t believe it when it was announced that it was Bernstein. It was not at all like the reading of my Columbia recording from the 60s. People have philosophized that he knew his life was winding down and he just didn’t want the music to end, so his tempi became markedly slower.
I grew up with Leonard Bernstein's Young Peoples Concerts. I was fascinated. Even during the 60s and 70s, I was a great fan of the popular music. Underlining it all was the appreciation of "classical" music. I would turn off the top hits of the time and immerse myself with orchestral music. Though, now I prefer chamber music and quartets and quintets, Bernstein at the the time had a hundred piece orchestra at the Lincoln center. Leonard Bernstein established a root in my appreciation of music.
I didn't realize Bernstein was very 'tonal' in his approach to writing music. I really resonate with that. When I was taking music theory classes I couldn't stand atonal forms. They felt like brutalist architecture to me ears, harsh and anti-human.
His Mahler fifth, especially the difference and intensity of the Adagietto stands out from it's usual interpretation although Abbado's Mahler is what I listen to lately and he is brilliant.
Brilliant video!
10 out of 10
MY FAVORITE CONDUCTOR is Carlos Kleiber as well---magical, nuanced, and quite perfect, in my opinion. Closely followed by Herbert Von Karajan (actually HvK's favorite too). I would love to see you do a video on who you think top conductors are (in our lifetime)...Myung-Whun Chung, Claudio Abbado...among others...
Thanks for this interesting take on Bernstein; I didn't know all of that. So are you following in his footsteps? You have similar topics (like does the orchestra need a conductor) and you have similar strengths. What you said about Bernstein, I would say about your videos: "I am amazed at the way that he finds a simple way to explain something that's very complex without taking away any elements of it." :-)
Keep up the good work!
thank you for your comment! Very huge footsteps for anyone to follow, but I am definitely inspired by his approach to make music reach as many people as possible, and I too only found out later on just to what extent he contributed to this.
Speaking of his conductor -- one really has to think about his early period with NY and his later work with Vienna. The former were much faster than the latter. I am sure you know that. But it strikes as important to point out.
This video is so validating. I was 13 when I heard Bernstein on my record player conducting Beethoven. I thought there was something wrong with my record player because it was so slow. When I put Karajan back on it played perfectly, so I took the records back to the store and got my money back.
Thank you, so much, Anna! No words explaining, what your videos means to me! Would you be so kind to link a video, to see how You practice conducting? Thank you! Sandor (Hungary) C. Kleiber is the GOAT!!! 😊😊😊
Thank you so much! I would like to make a video one day that includes me conducting or in concert so I can show some practical things about conducting; haven't been able to yet but I'll keep it in mind.
your awesome
Try some of his pre-DG recordings. A lot more vitality!
Exactly! Leonard Bernstein was not always the same - his interpretations changed, and he was actually considered rather fiery as a young-to-mid-aged conductor. :) Plus his taste and extremely wide range of repertoire for the time justify checking out especially the recordings from the 50s and 60s with the NY Philharmonic.
Many remember him as the "grand old man" of the Classical tradition in the 80s, the "Berlin wall" concert and the like, where he was allowing himself certain "liberties" with interpretation - surely headed in another direction than the upcoming HIP movement... There was still value to Bernstein's late insights (btw, I really love that he did not record the same works a million times over, and when he did, he had a new, re-thought approach). But to really evaluate his lasting influence as a conductor, we need to capture the full span of the man's career.
Thank you for this video. You like much conductors in the tradition of Gustav Mahler. I would like to know what you think about Otto Klemperer.
A mi me gustan las los piano conciertos de Bernstein y Zimmerman.
Late Lenny is slow, but late celibidache is even slower😂. But man are his performances transcendental… Bernstein is one of my favs mainly because of his Mahler and American works, but his musical genius is shown in recordings of many other composers. His Brahms may not be the the best but he could excel in Beethoven Wagner etc. Also looking at his development from the 60s to the 80s is great insight, similar to many conductors including Celi who gradually slowed down in tempo preferences
thank you for your comment, you mention some really interesting points!
@@howimettheopera but in my opinion Bernstein was the obvious genius against Celibidache. Celi was often boring rather than inspiring in his performance, even in his narrow repertoire. Bernstein was able to excel in his own ways in a wide range of repertoire simply by his own always inspiring genius and vision, which hangs on naturally though completely different to what we have listened to. So Bernstein really deserves credit, Kleiber does Brahms better than Bernstein, but everything else Bernstein was always as good as Kleiber, if not better.
Where are you from?
Bruno walter el de la quinta sinfonía larga 👍del video anterior 🙀
el mismísimo!
Who is this woman speaking?
The description doesn’t say.
I don't think Bernstein's conducting before the 80s was slow & heavy. There are plenty of exciting Lenny recordings, like Beethoven 1 & 2 with Vienna or Dvorak 9 with New York. And even when he slowed down, he wasn't slow like Klemperer, Böhm or Celibidache. Of course, he wasn't Kleiber either. 😉
Pretty amazing to see Bradley Cooper with the Bernstein make-up. 😳
I will check those recordings out! and yes, the make-up department really outdid themselves with that
Two things: 1) You never mention Bernstein's conducting of Mahler, although it was one of the most important things he did as a conductor. 2) Who are you? I can't find your name anywhere, although I'm sure you don't intend to keep it secret.
it would be interesting to hear your take on his conversations with glenn gould, especially about beethoven
he was as you say an ambassador of classical music, and he loved that role every bit as much as being a composer. also interesting that it took a gay jewish american to stand up to the atonal woke socialists who resented him for being as he said, 'retrograde'
i grew up admiring him and still do in many respects but have never bought his 'love of people', all that effusive emotion, and i have zero interest in his correspondence with aaron copeland-- it's way too gay for my tastes-- although at his best those effusive qualities were part of his openness to jazz, rock and other forms, all of which comes to focus in his popular magnum opus, west side story
His movements when conducting are very silly. They can never be described as "the mysterious podium dance".
Why when talking about Bernstein you always refers or cleared whom you preffer as a composer ? You must understand his personality, he was not solemn and distant, he was very much warm, human and approachable.
Gotta confess, many years ago when I decided I needed to know the basics of the classical repertoire I listened to Bernstein's symphonies and wasn't impressed. However, more recently (2009) the great jazz pianist Keith Jarrett released a trio record ("Somewhere") with two Bernstein tunes -- "Somewhere" and "Tonight" -- that are terrific and made a real impression on me. I was bored by the new movie, but one has to admit that writing a couple of great, timeless, tunes, is a real achievement. Thinking about it now I think it's too bad Bernstein came up in the classical music world rather than the Broadway world. If we had another 4 or 5 Broadway shows full of tunes from him, he might be up there with Gershwin, Cole Porter, etc, rather than a very interesting personality in the classical music world.
Too slow and heavy? Really? I could not disagree more. But I agree with everything else you said.
Who the hell listens to atonal and aleatory music? Pretentious and unlistenable.
I like your explanations very much, but. Sorry for this "but". I find it difficult to watch your videos, you know why? It would give me more pleasure if your gestures did not distract me. Please try to reduce moving the constant movements of your hands. Forgive me the apparent rudeness of my sincere wish. Keep on going! Best regards.
I personally disagree, I think the gestures enunciate and communicate this lovely creator's passion
Early Bernstein recordings with New York Philharmonic are faster in tempo than his later recordings with the Vienna Philharmonic and Deutsche Grammophon.