Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Leonard Bernstein

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This is best news I had all weekend?

That John Malkovich will star in a film about the eccentric Romanian maestro Sergiu Celibidache. Celibidache, one-time conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, gained notoriety for his uncompromising pursuit of “the transcendent moment,” his exhaustive rehearsals, and his refusal to record.

Of course, the market is flooded with Celibidache recordings, many of them from his years in Munich, but these are all byproducts of actual live concerts. Few of them could be described as pedestrian.

Equally, few would be described as “definitive.” When Celibidache was “on,” he could be like nobody else; but when he was “off” – again, he could be like nobody else.

The film, titled “The Yellow Tie,” is scripted by Celi’s son. Shooting will begin in Romania early next year.

https://variety.com/2021/film/news/john-malkovich-the-yellow-tie-1235067250/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

The venture is the latest in a spate of movies about conductors. In the past week or two, it was announced that Cate Blanchett will play (the fictional) Lydia Tár, the first woman to conduct a major German orchestra. The Dresden Philharmonic will participate in the film, in which Blanchett will be seen conducting Mahler’s Symphony No. 5. The project is titled “TÁR.” Academy Award winning composer Hildur Guðnadóttir (“Joker”) will provide the film’s underscore.

https://theviolinchannel.com/cate-blanchett-plays-orchestra-music-director-in-upcoming-film/

And of course Bradley Cooper is headlining a Leonard Bernstein biopic, “Maestro,” initiated by Martin Scorsese, and co-produced by Steven Spielberg. Spielberg’s remake of “West Side Story” is due for release in theaters in December. It looks like “Maestro” quashed a rival Bernstein project, titled “The American,” that was to have starred Jake Gyllenhall, when the Bernstein estate opted to license Lenny’s music to Cooper, Scorsese, and Spielberg. Who could have seen that coming?

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/dueling-bernstein-biopics-how-bradley-cooper-took-baton-jake-gyllenhaal-1112599/

Movies about classical music and musicians are notoriously weak. I’m not holding my breath, but I am hoping at least one of these gets it right.

Celibidache has a fever, and the only prescription is more viola!

September 20, 2021
Leonard Bernstein Birthday Playlist

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LEONARD BERNSTEIN!

Enjoy a lovingly-curated Bernstein playlist (below).

“Rhapsody in Blue” from the keyboard, with the fearless Stanley Drucker on clarinet

Bernstein conducts “Prelude, Fugue and Riffs” on “Omnibus” in 1955

Bernstein and Aaron Copland create demo record of “Fancy Free” for Jerome Robbins. Stick around for commentary at the end, with self-incriminating interjection by Copland!

Bernstein’s sensational eleventh-hour debut with the New York Philharmonic, at 25, in 1943

An entire playlist of Bernstein rarities!

Conducting Haydn – with his face

Lauren Bacall sings “The Saga of Lenny,” lyrics by Stephen Sondheim (with apologies to Kurt Weill), for Bernstein’s 70th birthday celebration.

Bernstein’s death reported on ABC News in 1990.

Bernstein conducts his recently-composed “Candide Overture” on a televised Young People’s Concert in 1960

Bernstein conducts Mahler’s “Resurrection Symphony” as a memorial tribute, broadcast live, two days after the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qruHjywjE_g

Bernstein on the future of music, from one of his Harvard lectures. The answer is yes!

Bernstein celebrates the fall of the Berlin Wall with a multinational ensemble and Beethoven’s 9th

August 25, 2021
Louis Armstrong’s Real Birthday Surprise!

It’s not everyone who can choose the time and circumstances of their birth.

One of the most important figures in American music really had no idea when he was born. So he and his manager settled on July 4. What could be more American than that? Furthermore, 1900 signified the start of a new century, the beginning of a new era. Thus it was that Louis Armstrong was “born” in New Orleans on July 4, 1900.

It wasn’t until the 1980s, well after Armstrong’s death in 1971, that a researcher discovered Armstrong’s baptismal records and it was established that his actual birthdate was August 4, 1901. So Armstrong would have been 120 years-old today. He died fifty years ago, on July 6.

Here is a special document, indeed. Armstrong and his All-Stars perform “St. Louis Blues,” with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein (Bernstein’s name mispronounced by Edward R. Murrow!) at Lewisohn Stadium on July 14, 1956. The composer, W.C. Handy, is in attendance.

Happy birthday, Satchmo!

August 4, 2021
Carl Nielsen Awaits Rediscovery

Great Dane or Ugly Duckling? In the case of Carl Nielsen, the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

While Nielsen retains his status as Denmark’s most celebrated composer, internationally, he has had difficulty emerging from the shadow of that other great bard of the North, Jean Sibelius.

This is a shame, since, far from being a Sibelius knock-off, Nielsen forged his own, immediately-recognizable style – which can’t always be said, with as much conviction, about a lot of other fin de siècle Scandinavian composers. Not that I don’t love their music.

Leonard Bernstein believed Nielsen’s rightful place was as Sibelius’ equal.

“I think many people are in for pleasant surprises as they get to know Nielsen,” he said at a centennial celebration of the composer’s birth, “his rough charm, his swing, his drive, his rhythmic surprises, his strange power of harmonic and tonal relationships – and especially his constant unpredictability – all these are irresistible. I feel confident that Nielsen’s time has come.”

Here’s Bernstein, conducting the Danes on their own turf, in what may be my favorite Nielsen symphony, the Symphony No. 3:

That was in 1965. Sadly, fifty-six years on, with many more recordings and performances to choose from, Nielsen’s music remains, stubbornly, an acquired taste. But it is a rewarding one. There really is nothing else quite like it. The puckish wit, the ambiguity, the quirky juxtaposition of seemingly disparate melodies, harmonies, and key signatures, all very often shot through with a sense of hope and optimism that rises above the chaos.

Next to Sibelius, Nielsen doesn’t really have that many imitators. The English composer Robert Simpson was evidently a great admirer of both. This is Simpson’s centenary year. (He was born on March 2, 1921.) His own symphonies often resemble Nielsen’s, but without the big moments.

Simpson’s Symphony No. 2:

Simpson introduces Nielsen:

“Espansiva: A Portrait of Carl Nielsen” (featuring Simpson):

Rare glimpses of Nielsen on film:

Happy birthday, Carl Nielsen, and thanks for the advocacy, Robert Simpson.

June 9, 2021
Christa Ludwig Obituary: A Light Heart and Light Hands

In the words of Strauss’ Marschallin, “With a light heart and light hands, hold and take, hold and let.”

The great mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig has died.

In a career that spanned four decades, Ludwig was a fixture in the world’s major opera houses.

She was a principal artist at the Vienna State Opera during a golden age at mid-century. With the company, she sang 769 performances in 42 roles. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1959. There she sang 119 performances in 15 roles.

She was a versatile and remarkably consistent performer. Her repertoire embraced Amneris (“Aida”), Brangäne (“Tristan und Isolde”), “Carmen,” Charlotte (“Werther”), Dido (“Les Troyens”), Dorabella (“Così fan Tutte”), Eboli (“Don Carlo”), Klytämnestra (“Elektra”), Kundry (“Parsifal”), Ortrud (“Lohengrin”), Ulrica (“Un ballo in maschera”), and Waltraute (“Götterdämmerung”), to name a few.

Her technique and upper register were such that she was able to tackle the Marschallin in “Der Rosenkavalier” and the Dyer’s Wife in “Die Frau ohne Schatten,” parts almost exclusively sung by sopranos. Among the roles she created was that of Claire in Gottfried von Einem’s “Besuch der alten Dame” (“The Visit of the Old Lady”).

Her voice graced dozens of treasurable recordings. She sang Fidelio for Klemperer, Fricka in Solti’s landmark “Ring,” and Octavian in Karajan’s “Der Rosenkavalier,” with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. She was Adalgisa opposite Maria Callas in “Norma.”

She was a frequent collaborator of Leonard Bernstein. Together, they recorded much Mahler. On a lighter note, she also sang “I Am Easily Assimilated,” as the Old Lady in Bernstein’s “Candide,” in what the composer considered to be the work’s definitive recording.

I only saw her live once, at Carnegie Hall, but it was a memorable occasion. She sang the lamentations in Bernstein’s “Jeremiah” Symphony, under the composer’s direction. (The two recorded the work for Deutsche Grammophon.) Also on the program was Mozart’s Symphony No. 29 and Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5.

Ludwig died on Saturday at her home in Klosterneuburg, Austria. She was 93 years-old.

“Das Abschied” (“The Farewell”) from Mahler’s “Das Lied von der Erde”

Complete, with René Kollo – and subtitles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Npy4gjZ81F0

As Fidelio

The Recognition Scene from Strauss’ “Elektra”

Rossini, of all things – in German!

With her husband, Walter Berry, in “Des Knaben Wunderhorn”

Brahms, with Bernstein at the piano (and André Previn as page-turner!)

A bone to pick with Bernstein’s tempo in Mahler

“I Am Easily Assimilated”

April 26, 2021

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