Coming Up….Bernstein: The 20th century master musician’s 90th

你好 He was flamboyant, flashy and about as diverse musically as you can get, and yet Lenny Bernstein’s charisma has dominated music for over forty years. By October 14^th he will have been gone over 18 years, and as the man himself recedes a little but more, we’re better able to see his accomplishments a little clearer. – and the man’s recorded legacy is tremendous.

The composer Ned Rorem has said of Bernstein, “Lenny has brought to life a mountain of first-rte works of his own and a hundred colleagues….When performing my music, his metabolism is so in tune with my own, that he might as well have written the music himself. Other composer will attest to this – his bloodstream is theirs during the length of their piece.”

Which pretty much summarizes Bernstein, particularly his stint at the New York Philharmonic from 1958 to 1969, when he made the orchestra the most virtuosic and wide-ranging it has ever been. During that time Columbia under Goddard Lieberson gave Bernstein free range. For years he took his orchestra into the studio and produced the most comprehensive discography this side of almost anyone. According to John McClure, Bernsteins long-time producer, the conductors contract freed him to record whatever he wanted Bernstein not only took a New World spin on Old World music, he took up the cause of composer not very well known up to that time, namely Gustave Mahler, but also Nielson. And he played up American compoasers like no one had before – or since; Copland, Ives, Roy Harris, William Schuman, David Diamond as well as Barber, Carter and Bernstein himself

Despite the huge success of West Side Story and some of the best music Broadway has ever heard, Bernstein was haunted by the fact that he never composed what he and others expected would be his one serious masterpiece. His Mass and Symphoony No. 3 (Kaddish) were noble failures. Even his relative successes, Symphony No. 1 (jeremiah) and Symphony No. 2 (Age of Anxiety) disappointed him. Yet at his peak, Bernstein created created genuinely American, moving pieces as much loved as those of Gershwin or Copland. With NYPO he recorded amazing performances of his West Side Stiory: Symphonic Dances, Facsimile, the score from On the Waterfront, and his Candide Overture, surely on a level with anything Rossini ever wrote. As New Yor Philharminc clarinetist Stanley Drucker once said, “Lenny and the orchestra spoke the same language – New York.” With missionary zeal, we should add.

What’s on our player now: “West Side Story” (Original Cast Recording): Bernstein, (Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim), New York Philharmonic, Bernstein, cond. - Sony SK60724

A Broadway musical or an opera? Your guess is as good as ours. This masterpiece has first rate arias (“Maria”, “I feel pretty”, “A Boy Like That”; duets (Tonight”, “Somewhere” “One Hand, One Heart”, which is not to forget some great work for the orchestra , “Overture, Prologue, “Dance at the Gym”, “The Rumble”. It’s not that other works for Broadway shows don’t have some of these elements, it’s that Bernstein’s music has the weight and concert hall quality that makes it one of the best abd most enduring vocal works of the second half of the 20^th century. For directness and sheer dramatic power this version (Sony’s latest) can’t be beat.

Some other Bernstein music we wouldn’t want to live without:

Bernstein Century by Bernstein (Candide overture, Syphonc Dances from West Side Story, On the Water front – symphonic suite, Fancy Free – ballet,; New York Philharmonic, Bernstein, cond. - Sony SMK 63085

Copland: Appalachian Spring, Rodeo, Billy the Kid, Fanfare for the Common Man; New York Philharmonic, Bernstein, Cond.. - Sony SMK 63082

Ives: Symphonies No 2 and No. 3, New York Philharmonic, Bernstein, cond. – Sony SMK602022

Liszt: A Faust Symphony, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Bernstein, Cond., - DG 447-4492GDR

Mahler, Symphonies, Sogs, Assprted Soloists, Concertgebouw, NYPO, VPO, Bernstein, cond. – DG 459 081-2GX16

Nielsen: Symphonies No. 3 & 5, Royal Danish Orch, New York Phil, Bernstein, Cond. - Sony SMK 47598