Candide - Make our garden grow (Groves/Chenoweth/LuPone/Allen/Blumenkrantz/LaManna) 

This was definately a high point in my career. I was playing tuba.

Perhaps we should remember that Candide is not a fairy tale about happy endings. It's a fairy tale about how to live in a world full of injustice, horrors, greed, stupidity, wars. & disease. The metaphor is" make our garden grow". Incrementally, make that life, make that garden better. There is no magic wand, no deus ex machina ending, no knight in shining armor, only the billion individual deeds that billions of individuals should do to grow our earthy garden.

This is the most sacred secular song of all time!

Holy cow, I never would have guessed Paul Groves voice was like that from his speaking voice (which sounds kind of high and squeaky). He is amazing.

I love how the morale is that the world isn't perfect or pure, but that doesn't mean you can't be happy.

This is one of the wisest and most beautiful songs ever written.

My health problems due to Ehlers Danlos syndrome are getting worse and worse, I did not want to celebrate my 28th birthday last month. We sang this song in college chorus when my symptoms finally got bad enough to lead to a diagnosis, and today it just came back to me, full of so many memories of that pain and meeting my wonderful and foolish husband who embraces all of me. I have barely heard it in 8 years. Now I am finding a lot of tears and comfort...and wishing my husband and I sung it at our wedding last august. But, we're planning a renewal down the road, so it will stay on our list.

Paul Groves has a voice like velvet, beautiful!

If we are to survive this deeply troubled world, we need to live these words.

I don’t know about the rest of you guys, but when the entire choir joins in, and it’s just voices, oh, it’s sooooooooo good!

This is the best finale in musical theatre. The best 1st act closer is A Weekend In the Country.

What an exquisite melody that is like an anthem to life itself. I was completely overawed by this beautiful performance. Bernstein ..... what a genius who like Copland, Ives and Barber can simply capture the very spirit of America in his music.

Hurray for Westminster Choir College Symphonic Choir! Stirring, stunning, and an amazing sound.

Yes. Listening during COVID-19 pandemic. Balm for the soul.

After 9/11, this is the song that kept coming to me.

I actually attended this performance of Candide with the New York Philharmonic years ago. Marin Alsop, Bernstein's last protege, was the conductor. The performance was a marvelous realization, with clever chorus eruptions and beautiful soloists.

Wow, both are so wonderful. I love how Kristin always is on the point of cheesing it up...which fits the Voltaire style perfectly. What a voice he has.

How beautifully Groves and Chenoweth harmonised!

An amazing ensemble, and chills every time when the chorus comes in.

after tragedy i always find myself back at this video. it brings me a lot of solace.

What a cast, what a choir... Such pure notes

The musicians are so excellent, and how they managed to keep a straight face is beyond me!

This is it. The perfect melody. Nothing finer.

Candide is my all time favorite!

This brought tears to my eyes, just... wow.

he acts like a disney animal from the time of Mickey Mouse . then starts to sing like an adult with subtlety and class ... welcome to the world of music theatre!

The stand out in all this is Alsop, she seems to be having the time of her life.

This is my favorite version of my favorite musical. Tears every time.

Touching.. brings me to tears.. To me,.. a true love song.

Gives me goosebumps!

What a great low range Paul Groves has!

Fantastic! This is the version I was looking for (which was broadcast on PBS stations about half a dozen years ago). It was wild and crazy (and had an amazing ensemble of soloists); I had never heard the entire piece before, so when they got to this final chorus, I literally had goosebumps! Just IMO, I thought it was a phenomenal production!

This is my favorite version- the best I’ve heard! I wish I could have seen THIS production!

3:34 always gives me chills

This finale always reduces me to cascading tears, but never more than in these plague years of The Thing in the Oval Office. I thank the gods Hope remained in Pandora's box before she slammed it shut.

As someone said below, this song gives me goosebumps every time I hear it. This was a great performance of the opera, with Kristin Chenoweth dazzling and genuinely funny at times as Cunegonde. I would love to have heard the ovation at the end! Bernstein's music is masterful and a joy from start to finish. Anyone new to this should really seek out the live version Lenny did toward the end of his life: music so full of fun and pathos, there won't be a dry eye in the house!

That song most be playit on my funeral!

In these times of such ugliness in the Whitehouse, let us overcome and build our house again and make our garden grow. A full house for all, a welcoming house.

I could not do this show. I'd be crying every night when this was being sung.

I would had loved for the video ending to be longer.....the cheers and the standing ovation must have been over the top and spine tingling. It left me with tears and chills.......

goosebumps. all over. every time.

Amazingly Beautiful!

I love this piece. I've sung it (4 different parts, from Cunegonde to soprano 1 and 2, to alto) and it gives me chills every time. It's perfection! And yes, it's about living in reality and making it work regardless - don't forget that in the show, immediately after this song the cow drops dead. My only quibble about this version? For me it's too slow - it needs a little more movement to work best.

Absolutely magnificent. Thrilling!

Sir Thomas Allen booming through the last "garden"!

I recently was in a performance that included "The Promise of Living" from Aaron Copland's opera The Tender Land. Since they were good friends, I wonder if Bernstein had that in the back of his mind when he wrote this?

incredible interpretation ...so natural in all sens!

Robert Rousenville and Barbara Cook were the first who sang this beautiful duet.TGhey were perfect. Groves and Chenoweth are very good too.I love this song very much

Here are the words and the ORIGINAL stage directions that may be a little surprising. The ending was not orginally meant to be quite as uplifting: CANDIDE You've been a fool And so have I, But come and be my wife. And let us try, Before we die, To make some sense of life. We're neither pure, nor wise, nor good We'll do the best we know. We'll build our house and chop our wood And make our garden grow... And make our garden grow. CUNEGONDE I thought the world Was sugar cake For so our master said. But, now I'll teach My hands to bake Our loaf of daily bread. CANDIDE AND CUNEGONDE We're neither pure, nor wise, nor good We'll do the best we know. We'll build our house and chop our wood And make our garden grow... And make our garden grow. (ensemble enters in gardening gear and a cow walks on) CANDIDE, CUNEGONDE, MAXIMILLIAN, PAQUETTE, OLD LADY, DR. PANGLOSS Let dreamers dream What worlds they please Those Edens can't be found. The sweetest flowers, The fairest trees Are grown in solid ground. ENSEMBLE (a cappella) We're neither pure, nor wise, nor good We'll do the best we know. We'll build our house and chop our wood And make our garden grow. And make our garden grow! (The cow dies) VOLTAIRE Ah, me! The pox!

Gorgeous!

Is there a more glorious moment in all of vocalism?

Heard on a decent HiFi system makes your hair stand on end - especially Kristin's.

Amazing!

One Performance only - in New York of course!

You've been a fool and so have I But come and be my wife And let us try before we die To make some sense of life We're neither pure nor wise nor good We'll do the best we know We'll build our house and chop our wood And make our garden growAnd make our garden grow I thought the world was sugar cake For so our master said But now I'll teach my hands to bakeOur loaf of daily bread We're neither pure nor wise nor good We'll do the best we know We'll build our house and chop our woodAnd make our garden grow And make our garden grow Let dreamers dream what worlds they please Those Edens can be foundThe sweetest flowers, the fairest trees Are grown in solid ground We're neither pure nor wise nor good We'll do the best we knowWe'll build our house and chop our wood And make our garden grow And make our garden grow

Than which there is nothing better!

Thrilling.

Damn.

There are a few versions of this finale but this one is my favourite. The reasons are firstly that Bernstein was a composer who crossed musical genres and the 'classical' performances are beautiful but the acting has much to be desired. Even if it's a concert version the singers need to act the parts (costumes help). The second is that the chorus aren't using scores which adds to the 'realistic' feel. The last reason is that the singers don't have huge classical vibratos which, for me, are an annoying distortion of their vocal line - especially in a 'musicals' genre. Anyone out there in You Tube land agree with me?

Kristen’s vocal teacher, Florence Birdwell, must be very proud of her.

I have loved this since watching the Bernstein at 70 video. This version is cleaner technically, but the Bernstein one - they're all paying tribute, they're all smiling and glowing, and Bernstein's three children are singing along with the chorus. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ey5e7buHfls.html

The garden they sing of is a post-lapsarian Eden.

🎶You say “N-EYE-THUR.” I say “KNEE-THUR.”🎶

epic

powerful

Groves' bravura performance was so much more appropriate to the role than Jerry Hadley's.

The best performers in this production are Paul Groves' legs.

I was in a chorus version.

3:46 CHILLS

THIS.

Like this? Then go listen to the last part of Mahler's 2nd Symphony "Resurrection."

Who is here 2018 or 2019

Can anyone tell me if the conductor is the same Bernstein? .He is turned back I have the version of Candide with Bernstein and the LSO. It is also Phenomenal .

Tikkun Olam

We are in 2024 and at least 50% of the population can't "tend to their own garden" as Voltaire said 😢

is this lip singing

wow Chenoweth is absolutely, laughably in over her head here! pathetically, epically bad. #WhenEgosBloat