A birthday commemoration of Leonard Bernstein
Can't let this day go by without a salute to Leonard Bernstein, born Aug. 25, 1918.
The conductor/composer set off wonderful sparks like no one before him, or since. He could achieve magic on the podium, generating performances that took the listener to new, unexpected heights and often into unusually deep emotional territory. His death -- Oct. 14, 1990 -- came much too soon.
I picked just a couple examples of Bernstein's brilliance on the podium as a little tribute, starting with a sublime performance of Mozart's "Ave Verum Corpus" (few conductors could make such a slow tempo sound perfectly right) and closing with a dynamite excerpt from the finale of Tchaikovsky's Fifth (here, you get the deliciously fast and arrestingly slow side of Bernstein's style all in one clip):
Comments
Yeah, Lenny could be a glacier _and_ a fireball, and he usually made complete sense in either case, even in music that many do not consider to be his absolute forte. (He certainly never bored _me_!) One thing's for sure: he brought a _tremendous_ amount of character to his interpretations. While we have a large recorded legacy, I definitely miss him.
(He also never talked _down_ to people when explaining music.)
Speaking of dynamic interpreters, I'm currently listening to the newly-released Bruckner cycle from Volkmar Andreae on Music & Arts (recorded in 1953), and I _must_ say that this is a _major_ reissue! Talk about loads of verve and character -- this man was, without question, a master Brucknerian, and these recordings are full of _very_ distinctive touches (Andreae was influenced by "early" Bruckner performance practice, so to speak). In short, this isn't your father's Bruckner, nor your grandfather's -- it's your great-grandfather's Bruckner, and my, oh my, is it positively _alive_! I've listened to 4-9 so far, and this man could give Furtwängler a serious run for his money...
Thanks for the report on the Bruckner recordings, which I do not know. One more discovery I'll have to make. TIM
Posted by: Doug Halfen | August 28, 2009 1:19 AM