"Reaching for the Note" is a PBS biography from their American Experience series. That credit should have been given with this. I have had a DVD of it for years.
No wonder he loved Mahler so much. There are a lot of parallels: Conflict between conducting and composing, joy and suffering being very close, being jewish....
I posted a new video about Leonard Bernstein titled "The Real Maestro." He took a wrecking ball to Beethoven's symphonies systematically changing the sound from good to bad by doing sinister things like adding more trumpets to create a noisy trumpet heavy sound and blaming the bad sound on Beethoven's lack of ability to orchestrate. He conducted Beethoven with three times as many strings as are appropriate, creating a harsh rough sound when the whole orchestra was playing and then used his television lectures to brainwash the public into believing that Beethoven intended it to sound that way.
Wonderful documentary, thanks for uploading. You can see the inherent 'clash' between a Jazz musician and a classical musician - Wynton often telling Nicola to go with it, to improvise, to change on the spot if necessary, and Nicola being very resistant to it - and understandably so.
RIP Leonard Bernstein, a giant of American music. Pianist, composer, conductor, educator, humanitarian, he will never be forgotten. Those young person's concerts must have been wonderful, we need someone doing that today, when classical music is being bad-mouthed and branded as too white, too patriarchal and other nonsense like that. Bernstein's great hero was Mahler and he indeed asked to be buried with a copy of the score of Mahler's 5th symphony in his coffin. I actually feel that Bernstein was a far superior composer to Mahler. I have yet to even hear all his works but have always enjoyed those I have heard eg "West Side Story", the symphony "The Age of Anxiety", "Kaddish", "The Chichester Psalms", "Wonderful Town". I was very sad when Bernstein died, I think it was cancer that took him. He was a genius in my opinion.
Too much other people speak here, in recordings which s shown as a audio, lenny speaks actually before camera...they should show them...A bad Reminiscent. Thumb down...
Lenny became the center of my childhood when I discovered him on television. He gave me the only musical education I ever had as a kid and invited me into that great joy of music. I got to meet him once, backstage at the Hollywood Bowl, a moment I will never forget. Thank you, Lenny!
Every musician, ALL musicians, have a hole in their skill set. A reason to be in awe of - or jealous of - another musician. A reason to feel humble - or inadequate. It forces you to work with other musicians and value the gifts of others.
Grant Park, Chicago, 1968. The Chicago Symphony had just concluded a performance of "Candide" when Bernstein made a surprise curtain call. As he was heading back to his limousine, surounded by dozens of people, he took time to sign the programs of two young sailors standing 20 yards away. I was one of them.
Como siempre hay que lamentar que este documental sólo esté en el idioma de los "yankees" y no en LA LENGUA de las LENGUAS: EL ESPAÑOL...🇪🇸 estoy harto de escuchar esa "jerga"...que aprendan a hablar como Dios manda...!!! Así de claro...🇪🇸😠😡🤬
He seemed like such a wonderful guy. I wonder if Bernstein had stuck with film scores he might have had a more personally satisfying compositional career. I love his educational series on the classics. No one is better!
