Leonard Bernstein 1918-1990

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I had been watching Leonard Bernstein videos recently.  One of my favs is Bernstein upbraiding a student conductor for not admitting his own mistake.  Another of my favs is his telling of his experience learning under Reiner:

Thank you for posting those...quite interesting to watch!

PD

[Leo K.]

I didn't use to like Bernstein's 3rd Symphony "Kaddish" but I respected it, but now today, after again hearing his earlier recording with his wife as the speaker, just totally blew me away, and now I love love love it. It's like the clouds opened and I get it, the speaker is essential and almost a percussive element if done with intent. Because of much that I am hearing in the media lately, the text felt so relevant as ever. The music was crushing and beautiful.

[lordlance]

A new performance of Mass for those interested (a true rarity):

https://vk.com/video/@maximillianrichter?z=video737728344_456240076%2Fpl_737728344_-2

I can share the text for those interested.

[San Antone]

A new performance of Mass for those interested (a true rarity):

https://vk.com/video/@maximillianrichter?z=video737728344_456240076%2Fpl_737728344_-2

I can share the text for those interested.

Jubilant Sykes is one of the better leads in Mass.  His recording with Marin Alsop is probably the 2nd best performance.  I hope these concert forces end up releasing a recording; there are six available, and more new recordings are always welcome. 

Mass is one of my favorite works, of all - and definitely my favorite work by Bernstein.

[Roasted Swan]

I didn't use to like Bernstein's 3rd Symphony "Kaddish" but I respected it, but now today, after again hearing his earlier recording with his wife as the speaker, just totally blew me away, and now I love love love it. It's like the clouds opened and I get it, the speaker is essential and almost a percussive element if done with intent. Because of much that I am hearing in the media lately, the text felt so relevant as ever. The music was crushing and beautiful.

I must admit my "arc" with this piece is the reverse - I really used to love it but now less so.  However, I do think the 1st Bernstein version with Felicia Montealegre and Jennie Tourel is easily the best recording because both those performers are so completely committed to the work. That said a couple of the lines of the spoken text do rather make me cringe.  But somehow that is the deal with Bernstein.

[ando]

I had been watching Leonard Bernstein videos recently.  One of my favs is Bernstein upbraiding a student conductor for not admitting his own mistake.  Another of my favs is his telling of his experience learning under Reiner:

Thanks. YT posters have taken bits and pieces from the entire Kennedy Center Honors Interview to highlight points about Bernstein's career/viewpoint. But I wanted to watch it in its entirety. Inspiring!

[DavidW]

@ando Nice find!  I will give it a watch.

[vandermolen]

I must admit my "arc" with this piece is the reverse - I really used to love it but now less so.  However, I do think the 1st Bernstein version with Felicia Montealegre and Jennie Tourel is easily the best recording because both those performers are so completely committed to the work. That said a couple of the lines of the spoken text do rather make me cringe.  But somehow that is the deal with Bernstein.

I've never got my head round it. I've always loved 'Jeremiah' and 'The Age of Anxiety' has grown on me in recent years. Must try again with 'Kaddish'.

[Le Buisson Ardent]

I've never got my head round it. I've always loved 'Jeremiah' and 'The Age of Anxiety' has grown on me in recent years. Must try again with 'Kaddish'.

I'm also an admirer of Bernstein's 1st and 2nd symphonies, but I never have been able to get into the Kaddish. I suppose a lot of stems from the fact that I have a dislike for spoken parts (but also narration) in music. My philosophy seems to be either sing it or shut up.

[Karl Henning]

Mass has spoken to many over the years. Producer Roger Stevens reported that the audience greeted the conclusion of the premiere with three minutes of silence followed by thirty minutes of cheering.The next summer the work had another run at the Kennedy Center, and in New York City impresario Sol Hurok put Mass on successfully at the Metropolitan Opera House for a month. By July 1972 the original cast recording had sold an astonishing 200,000 copies. Although difficult to mount, Mass has become a work that institutions produce when they wish to make a statement. It will never be Bernstein's most frequently performed piece, but it is one of his most revealing, personal works. The composer said in an interview that the work's musical 'surprises', brought on by the eclecticism, 'came from somewhere very deep' within him, and it was a work he had 'been writing all [his] life'. Perhaps the most telling thing that he said in the interview, however, was his next comment: 'But in a way that's true of anybody's latest work, if it's a major one.' The 'latest work', like Mass, was a major composition that just had to come out. The man had dug deep and birthed a magnum opus, something he simply needed to do. Seldom did Bernstein's well-honed sense of the dramatic get quite such a public airing.

[Karl Henning]

Mass has spoken to many over the years. Producer Roger Stevens reported that the audience greeted the conclusion of the premiere with three minutes of silence followed by thirty minutes of cheering.The next summer the work had another run at the Kennedy Center, and in New York City impresario Sol Hurok put Mass on successfully at the Metropolitan Opera House for a month. By July 1972 the original cast recording had sold an astonishing 200,000 copies. Although difficult to mount, Mass has become a work that institutions produce when they wish to make a statement. It will never be Bernstein's most frequently performed piece, but it is one of his most revealing, personal works. The composer said in an interview that the work's musical 'surprises', brought on by the eclecticism, 'came from somewhere very deep' within him, and it was a work he had 'been writing all [his] life'. Perhaps the most telling thing that he said in the interview, however, was his next comment: 'But in a way that's true of anybody's latest work, if it's a major one.' The 'latest work', like Mass, was a major composition that just had to come out. The man had dug deep and birthed a magnum opus, something he simply needed to do. Seldom did Bernstein's well-honed sense of the dramatic get quite such a public airing.

From Paul R. Laird's Leonard Bernstein (Critical Lives)

[San Antone]

Mass has spoken to many over the years. Producer Roger Stevens reported that the audience greeted the conclusion of the premiere with three minutes of silence followed by thirty minutes of cheering.The next summer the work had another run at the Kennedy Center, and in New York City impresario Sol Hurok put Mass on successfully at the Metropolitan Opera House for a month. By July 1972 the original cast recording had sold an astonishing 200,000 copies. Although difficult to mount, Mass has become a work that institutions produce when they wish to make a statement. It will never be Bernstein's most frequently performed piece, but it is one of his most revealing, personal works. The composer said in an interview that the work's musical 'surprises', brought on by the eclecticism, 'came from somewhere very deep' within him, and it was a work he had 'been writing all [his] life'. Perhaps the most telling thing that he said in the interview, however, was his next comment: 'But in a way that's true of anybody's latest work, if it's a major one.' The 'latest work', like Mass, was a major composition that just had to come out. The man had dug deep and birthed a magnum opus, something he simply needed to do. Seldom did Bernstein's well-honed sense of the dramatic get quite such a public airing.

I am an unqualified admirer of Mass.  And I feel that it has been a misunderstood work, although opinions seem to have been shifting since the 2000s.  There have been five recordings of Mass since the original release in 1971: beginning in 2004 by Kent Nagano, and the most recent led by Dennis Russell Davies in 2020 (see my overview here). And happily, critical opinion has softened to the point where a number of critics have even come over to my side of the street, led by conductors such as Marin Alsop and Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

It is my belief that Mass is one of the 20th century's most rewarding works. 

[Karl Henning]

I am an unqualified admirer of Mass.  And I feel that it has been a misunderstood work, although opinions seem to have been shifting since the 2000s.  There have been five recordings of Mass since the original release in 1971: beginning in 2004 by Kent Nagano, and the most recent led by Dennis Russell Davies in 2020 (see my overview here). And happily, critical opinion has softened to the point where a number of critics have even come over to my side of the street, led by conductors such as Marin Alsop and Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

It is my belief that Mass is one of the 20th century's most rewarding works. 

Once I actually listened to it, I immediately loved it.

[Karl Henning]

Cross-post:

[Karl Henning]

Cross-post:

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

Cross-post:

Oh, Karl. I love Halil. This is a piece that is seldom discussed for some reason. I really ought to do a thorough survey of Bernstein's oeuvre at some point as it's been far too long.

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

Cross-post:

I dig this work, too. The first time I heard is was from the Bernstein Complete Works box set on DG with the composer at the helm. Fantastic performance.

[Karl Henning]

I dig this work, too. The first time I heard is was from the Bernstein Complete Works box set on DG with the composer at the helm. Fantastic performance.

I owe it a re-listen. Poe's poetry is quite personal for me, so I probably need to give Lenny space.

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

I owe it a re-listen. Poe's poetry is quite personal for me, so I probably need to give Lenny space.

Same here. Big fan of Poe, too.