# Music Composed by Bernstein



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I'm listening to my local classical radio station and a piece of his came on, it was quite Jazz inspired. I really enjoyed it! Unfortunately I don't recall the name of it.

What are some works you enjoy that were composed by performers?


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

It could have been _Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs_


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

SanAntone said:


> It could have been _Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs_


Yes, that was it! . Thanks.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Bernstein is one of my favorite composers.

Some of my favorite works, usually his original recordings are the best, IMO:

_Mass_
His three symphonies, especially the second "Age of Anxiety"
Of course _West Side Story_
_Candide_

His solo piano music is wonderful, he wrote a number of "anniversaries" which are short portraits of some of the people in his life.

His violin concerto - _Serenade after Plato's "Symposium"_ is really very good:


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## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

SanAntone said:


> Bernstein is one of my favorite composers.
> 
> Some of my favorite works, usually his original recordings are the best, IMO:
> 
> ...


Yes! Plus his On The Waterfront suite, made from his score that should have won the Academy Award, the ballet Fancy Free, On the Town, the hit Broadway show that preceded West Side Story, also made into a suite, and the more serious Chichester Psalms and Halil. Not considered a "master" by some of the authorities here, but should be.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

The Symphony No. 1 "Jeremiah" remains my favorite work by Leonard Bernstein. It's likely the work of his I've played most in my listening room over the years. I give it a spin at least once or twice a year. Sometimes more often than that. I never tire of the piece. The other two symphonies, on the other hand, have never much interested me.

Too, I rank the _Candide_ Overture high on my list of favorite overtures. It's an absolutely wonderful work with one of the best melodies to come from Bernstein's pen.

And of course I cherish the _West Side Story_ music, though I enjoy it most in the context of the stage play or the film version. Still, many of the selections are prominent on jazz musicians' recordings, and with good cause.

Too, as appropriately cited above, _On The Waterfront_ ranks with the great film scores of modern times.

I've had opportunity to hear nearly everything Bernstein composed, having the Deutsche Grammophon box set _Bernstein Complete Works_ in my current collection, and combing through it on numerous occasions.









Looking over the track list of that compilation of 26 CDs and 3 DVDs, I'm reminded that I greatly enjoy _Songfest_ (1977) A Cycle Of American Poems For Six Singers And Orchestra, _Symphonic Dances_ From "West Side Story" (1960), _Missa Brevis _(1988) For A Cappella Mixed Chorus (Or Octet Of Solo Voices) And Countertenor Solo, With Incidental Percussion, and several of the many _Anniversaries_ piano pieces Bernstein composed for/about friends and/or acquaintances.

I've never been a big fan of _Mass_, nor of some of the other "theatre" music and chamber works. But, any composer who writes a song titled "I Hate Music!" is well worth listening to.


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## MrMeatScience (Feb 15, 2015)

I have mixed feelings about his work. Candide, West Side, the Symposium, the Piano Trio, the Clarinet Sonata, and some of the Anniversaries are all a regular part of my listening diet, but some of his music leaves me cold (the symphonies), and at least one piece I have some active antipathy towards (the Mass, which is probably my least favourite work by any major composer). I'm no great fan of his as a conductor either, though, so I suspect we're just not on the same wavelength. Different strokes, different folks.


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

Like Sonnet CLV and unlike Mr.MeatS above, I love his 'Jeremiah' and it might well be the one work of his I've listened to the most too. The solo vox in the last mvt. is so haunting and moving. Powerful stuff indeed. I'm also a fan of his 2nd +3rd Symphonies. My first introduction to him was singing tenor in the 'Chichester Psalms' and have loved that work ever since, even though it is a bit twee to my tastes in places - notably Psalm 23, but I still like it anyway. The 'Serenade' too is wonderful as are a lot of his 'Anniversaries' for piano, many of which I've played through over the years.

Like Mr.MeatS and S CLV, I too have an aversion to 'Mass' which is far too eclectic and ambitious for me.
I have quite a few of his scores and for a significant birthday present, my wife bought me a hardback full score of West Side Story, knowing how much I admire that work.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

I want to plug _Mass_ a bit in the wake of the negative comments since I absolutely love the work and consider it his masterpiece, which is a revised critical opinion which has been trending somewhat. In the last two decades, I have seen some evidence of the tide turning in favor of this unique work. There have been several newish recordings, which I covered in a blog article:

*Leonard Bernstein's Mass : Newer Recordings*

I would urge any Bernstein fan to give Mass a new listen.


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## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

Virgil Thomson referred to Bernstein as a minor composer who mainly was a conductor, while he didn't try hard to disguise the fact that he considered himself a major composer. Yet, even if we limit the discussion to the Overture to Candide and the Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, both of which are in the standard orchestral repertoire everywhere, it is now clear that he was a major composer in terms of the long term recognition of his music as an important part of western culture, and Virgil Thomson, less so. And that is before we consider the questions of whether the 1st symphony or the Mass are masterpieces, never mind the clarinet sonata, which is a favorite of mine, and as a very early work both reflects his original influences and roots and anticipates his future triumphs.

I always think of that whenever anyone dismisses a contemporary or recently deceased composer as 'minor'. Their standing can change after 20, 50, or even 100 years.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

I really like "Jeremiah"....i also enjoy On the Town, Fancy free, facscimile, On the H2OFront...


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

I love Bernstein as a conductor. His earlier Columbia recordings of the 1950s, 60s and early 70s that he made mostly with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra are very robust and enthusiastic. Almost across the repertoire you really can't go wrong with a Bernstein recording from the Columbia years; the only exception being Debussy which Bernstein over-plays. Some of the later DG recordings that Bernstein made from the late 1970s through the 1980s and on until his death in 1990, are also very good but not for everyone. Instead of being vibrant, Bernstein is more meditative, reflective, and intense, on these recordings and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

As for Bernstein the composer, his finest creation is _West Side Story_. While the play itself, the lyrics and plot seem to be completely misunderstand juvenile delinquency, urban poverty, and Puerto-Rican culture; the music itself can't be faulted, and every one of Bernstein's tunes is a hit recorded over and over again by popular singers and jazz bands, and deservedly so. The _West Side Story Orchestral_ suite is also, therefor, fantastic; as are many other cute little things that Bernstein put together such as the snappy _Prelude, Fugue and Riffs_ for clarinet and jazz band. _Candide_ is also a wonderful musical, and in some ways it is even better and even more profound than _West Side Story_, though apart from the rollicking overture, nothing is as nearly catchy than anything from _West Side Story_.

But I don't think that musicals and clever little orchestral tricks was what Bernstein wanted to be known for, and I sense that this is not what this thread is about either. Bernstein wanted to be a composer like Beethoven, or Brahms, or at least something belonging to a great tradition of American composers which included the likes of Ives and Copland who Bernstein championed. So then, Bernstein, wanted to be known as a composer of symphonies, concertos, and religious works; "serious" music, if you will.

In this sense, I think that Bernstein identified mostly with Mahler. He identified Mahler as a man and a musician who was torn in different directions, as Mahler incorporates many musical elements into his monster symphonies. There is the Austro-German tradition of Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, and Wagner; the Vienna waltzes; the German folk music; and Bernstein himself made a convincing case that Mahler's music is heavily influenced as much by his own Jewish religious and musical heritage, as it was more outwardly reminiscent of the Catholic Church. Along this line, in the wonderful, _Das Lied Von Der Erde_, looks to Chinese philosophy, even if the scholars say that Mahler's full understanding of it was lost a bit in the translation.

This is also what I see in Bernstein's _Symphonies_, and in the _Mass_. Like Mahler, Bernstein was also a conductor and a cosmopolitan; and you see Bernstein doing what Mahler did, as Bernstein's music shows influences of Ives, Copland, Stravinsky, Jewish elements, Christian elements, Jazz elements, Broadway, and even a few serial passages here and there. But with Bernstein these elements never seem stick or feel one with the larger musical vision. Wherever Mahler goes, Mahler sounds like Mahler, the fact that it may be taken from a Vienna waltz, a Catholic Mass, a Jewish cantor, a German milk-maid, is almost along the lines of an afterthought because Mahler's larger musical vision is so powerful. Or maybe Mahler was just composing what he was feeling, with all these musical elements being part of his stream of consciousness (and those long, long, Mahler symphonic ramblings do sometimes sound that way to me); whereas Bernstein seems to try to hard at it.


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## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

Coach G said:


> ... whereas Bernstein seems to try to hard at it.


It may be that Bernstein's greatest strength and his greatest flaw were one and the same: His compulsive desire to do everything for, and be loved by, everyone. In music, he was formidably talented in every way: conductor, composer, pianist, teacher, lecturer, writer. When he accepted the position as sole music director of the New York Philharmonic, a position he already was sharing with Dmitri Mitropoulos, fulfilling his lifelong ambition of directing a major orchestra, he had misgivings, as he thought (I think correctly) that to a great extent he was sacrificing his composing career.

Late in life he became bitter over his lost opportunities as a composer. He had an angry and permanent break with David Diamond, a close friend for nearly his entire professional life. Diamond always was a difficult man, emotionally and financially demanding and needy. Bernstein long had championed his music nearly as much as his own and helped him in many other ways. The break came after it became clear that Diamond considered himself the composer in their relationship, and Bernstein merely one of the conductors.

But it wouldn't be Bernstein without that wonderful eclecticism, would it?


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Coach G said:


> As for Bernstein the composer, his finest creation is _West Side Story_. While the play itself, the lyrics and plot seem to be *completely misunderstand juvenile delinquency*, urban poverty, and Puerto-Rican culture; the music itself can't be faulted, and every one of Bernstein's tunes is a hit recorded over and over again by popular singers and jazz bands, and deservedly so.


Do be so quick to judge Bernstein and Sondheim's 60+ year old work. Juvenile delinquency has changed a lot since the late '50s. In it's time it was certainly stylized, but it was also very edgy and provocative. It's going to be interesting to see how Steven Spielberg handles that aspect in his upcoming movie. Will the gang have guns? Switchblades are no longer "cool".

The music is great - a genuine classic. I like his On the Waterfront score, too. The Dybbuk is sadly neglected. Can't stand the symphonies - any of them.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Steven Spielberg is doing a remake of West Side Story?


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

^^^so it would seem.....
https://amblin.com/movie/west-side-... direction and choreography by Jerome Robbins.

John Williams is doing the score...............................(joke)...No wait, reading on, the music has been 'arranged' by David Newman...uh oh. Maybe it's just been beefed up as it doesn't need to be pit size.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

mikeh375 said:


> ^^^so it would seem.....
> https://amblin.com/movie/west-side-... direction and choreography by Jerome Robbins.
> 
> John Williams is doing the score...............................(joke)...No wait, reading on, the music has been 'arranged' by David Newman...uh oh. Maybe it's just been beefed up as it doesn't need to be pit size.


I am not impressed with the photos of the cast, they look more like New York models than hoods. I'll probably pass on it, the original is too good and I don't need to see a remake.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Yes! It's cultural appropriation!!!!! They should have used real hoods in the cast! New York has plenty of them.


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## Eclectic Al (Apr 23, 2020)

I'm rarely convinced by Bernstein as a conductor.
I also don't listen much to vocal or choral works.

However, I really like his Chichester Psalms. Go figure.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

SanAntone said:


> Steven Spielberg is doing a remake of West Side Story?





SanAntone said:


> I am not impressed with the photos of the cast, they look more like New York models than hoods. I'll probably pass on it, the original is too good and I don't need to see a remake.


Of course, this is a theatre piece. It was written not for a single performance (or production) but as a blueprint for repeated and variously interpreted productions. Aren't we glad Shakespeare's _Romeo and Juliet_ was not proclaimed "too good" after its initial production, one in which the playwright himself likely participated and which featured a male youth playing Juliet, and thus never received a "new" production?

_West Side Story_ is readable in a script. Thousands of folks (many being theatre directors, designers, and performers) approach it this way each year, confronting words on a page, bringing to the reading their own inspired imaginations which may have little to do with any previous production, even one they may have themselves seen, to bring to life the characters, the settings, the actions of the plot in a new and original way.

No matter how much I enjoy the original _West Side Story_ film, I remain open to new productions. Fortunately there are many stage productions of the musical each year, in the professional and community theatre, in college and university theatre. I've worked on my share of such productions, each one unique though loyal to the script. I've seen a variety of competencies in the roles of Tony, Maria, Riff, Doc, Bernardo and Anita. I've seen set designs of "west side New York" that wowed me and others at which I shrugged off in disinterest. I've seen "America" sung and danced with lively vigors in so many ways, and a few times disappointingly. Never have I thought "I don't need this. That other one is good enough."

As one who has written plays, I know the value of having more than one production. I've seen my own shows done with different levels of interpretive values, sometimes with great improvements and other times with missteps. I never thought any production was enough, that any one production had captured the essence of all that the script allowed. Such is the dramatic art.

Let us rather welcome this new film production of the musical-play _West Side Story_. Let us rather approach it enthusiastically to see what it may have to offer in further illuminating the characters and the action and the settings and the musical numbers of this rather complex vehicle, based, as it is, on a Shakespeare play (and we know that playwright was no slouch). Who knows? You may not enjoy the production much. On the other hand, you may want to stand and yell "Bravo!" at the close. In either case, you should be open to the nature of the dramatic art, which, unlike a sculpture or painting or poem or novel, is not something "set in stone" or in any other single-ended and closed format. Though each individual is free to interpret a sculpture, painting, poem or novel how he/she will, the dramatic art (a written script) is only fully realized as a theatre piece with living actors in front of a setting, and all the various artistic interpretations that render the theatre piece "true" for that particular production.

In any case, I intend to see the production. But then, I like the Leonard Bernstein music it features. That seems strong enough reason to visit the production for yet another time.


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## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

SanAntone said:


> I am not impressed with the photos of the cast, they look more like New York models than hoods. I'll probably pass on it, the original is too good and I don't need to see a remake.


I'm not old enough to have seen the original Broadway show, but I did see the 1980 production, the last one directed by Robbins (and the movie, of course). Surprisingly, I didn't find it very inspiring, other than Debbie Allen in the role of Anita. It seemed too much like a strained effort to exactly reproduce the original, with tentative actors not being given enough freedom to express their own styles.

Robbins was notoriously demanding and difficult to work with, and was fired while the movie was being made, though he still got directing credit. But none of that can diminish Bernstein's music, in my opinion.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

SONNET CLV said:


> Of course, this is a theatre piece. It was written not for a single performance (or production) but as a blueprint for repeated and variously interpreted productions. Aren't we glad Shakespeare's _Romeo and Juliet_ was not proclaimed "too good" after its initial production, one in which the playwright himself likely participated and which featured a male youth playing Juliet, and thus never received a "new" production?
> 
> _West Side Story_ is readable in a script. Thousands of folks (many being theatre directors, designers, and performers) approach it this way each year, confronting words on a page, bringing to the reading their own inspired imaginations which may have little to do with any previous production, even one they may have themselves seen, to bring to life the characters, the settings, the actions of the plot in a new and original way.
> 
> ...


You can do what you want. I recently rented the original and watched it, that will do me for a while.

I also don't like Bernstein's DG "operatic" version with José Carreras, hopelessly miscast as the Polish gang member Tony. Pretty hard to get past his Spanish accent and inability to handle the syncopation of his songs. The clip of him rehearsing Something's Coming is gruesome.

So, no, I'll keep watching the original film and listening to the original Broadway cast album.


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## allaroundmusicenthusiast (Jun 3, 2020)

I don't know if the conversation's past it, but I want to back up SanAntone on his love for Bernstein's Mass. I think it's by far his most interesting work and, to me, his most appealing. I also have a profound dislike for his symphony 3: it wants to be Mahler, but falls absolutely short of the mark and it even has a narrator which says things that the music ought to express, like what happens in a Mahler symphony


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

If I can gain any real foothold I would like to get to know better the works Bernstein composed when he played around with numbers - _Jubilee Games_, _Dybbuk_ etc. - I like listening to them but, as with Schoenberg, I often think I'm merely scratching the surface because of the rarefied rules they set for themselves.


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

Guessing his DG symphony cycle would be the one to get? I've heard Mass and well, the musicals, but not his symphonies.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

fbjim said:


> Guessing his DG symphony cycle would be the one to get? I've heard Mass and well, the musicals, but not his symphonies.


The recordings of the symphonies with the Israel PO are fine but if you can snare them at a reasonable price I would still go for the NYPO on Sony.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

Bernstein's NYPO "Jeremiah" is very fine....so is the CSO archival release by Barenboim with Chicago...both. very excellent....mvt II is, imo, one of Bernstein's best creations...


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

SanAntone said:


> Steven Spielberg is doing a remake of West Side Story?


Yet another reason for *E.T.* to go home.

Hope this won't turn into a West Coast Suburban Story ...


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

For Bernstein's compositions:

LOVE
"Jeremiah" Symphony
Prelude Fugue and Riffs
Candide (all of it)
Mass
West Side Story
Slava
Fancy Free Ballet
On the Waterfront
On the Town


For LB's conducting and recordings, I tend to generally love them BUT I always have a non-Bernstein recording to compliment the Bernstein one. I find that whether I like the LB version or not, it is definitely special and uniquely different, which I find refreshing. I did once meet a cellist from the NY Philharmonic that told me "Anyone who didn't like Bernstein never played under Bernstein."


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

fluteman said:


> Virgil Thomson referred to Bernstein as a minor composer who mainly was a conductor, while he didn't try hard to disguise the fact that he considered himself a major composer...


Did Thomson say that while Bernstein was alive? No wonder Bernstein didn't record any of Thomson's music. As much as I love the American composers for, perhaps, patriotic reasons; I concede that very few (Ives? Copland? Barber?) rise to a level even possibly on par with our European counterparts. Even so, despite Bernstein's faults as a composer, he is still top-tier, or just shy of top-tier as an _American_ composer; as interesting, entertaining, and as enjoyable as Roy Harris, Walter Piston, William Schuman, Roger Sessions, Elliott Carter, Ulysses Kay, Alan Hovhaness, John Cage, _as well as_, Virgil Thomson himself and other American composers of that time period. Virgil Thomson's _Symphony on a Hymn Tune_ can be considered to be a great American symphony. If Symphony on a Hymn Tune and the two or three other things that I've heard by Thomson are representative of his oeuvre then his music is tonal, well-measured, pleasant, and very "Americana". Apart from this I don't know much else about Thomson that is memorable. Thomson wrote two operas, _Mother of Us All_ and _Four Saints in Three Acts_ with librettos by Gertrude Stein, that I've read are kind of good, though I still haven't come around to hearing them yet.


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

SanAntone said:


> I want to plug _Mass_ a bit in the wake of the negative comments since I absolutely love the work and consider it his masterpiece, which is a revised critical opinion which has been trending somewhat. In the last two decades, I have seen some evidence of the tide turning in favor of this unique work. There have been several newish recordings, which I covered in a blog article:
> 
> *Leonard Bernstein's Mass : Newer Recordings*
> 
> I would urge any Bernstein fan to give Mass a new listen.


If it's possible to like and not like a piece of music at the same time; then for me it's Bernstein's _Mass_. Parts of it sound dated, derivative, and tacky. Other parts of it are quite beautiful and moving, such as _The Word of the Lord_ which is a beautiful expression of faith that is at once rebellious, stubborn, but also submissive. I think that _Mass_ needs a make-over to get away from the _Godspell_/_Superstar_ mode. I like the approach Marin Alsop took to the _Mass_.


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

SanAntone said:


> ...I also don't like Bernstein's DG "operatic" version with José Carreras, hopelessly miscast as the Polish gang member Tony. Pretty hard to get past his Spanish accent and inability to handle the syncopation of his songs. The clip of him rehearsing Something's Coming is gruesome...


I like the part where Bernstein yells at the guy in the control room: "JOHN! Please don't DO this!"


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Coach G said:


> If it's possible to like and not like a piece of music at the same time; then for me it's Bernstein's _Mass_. Parts of it sound dated, derivative, and tacky. Other parts of it are quite beautiful and moving, such as _The Word of the Lord_ which is a beautiful expression of faith that is at once rebellious, stubborn, but also submissive. I think that _Mass_ needs a make-over to get away from the _Godspell_/_Superstar_ mode. I like the approach Marin Alsop took to the _Mass_.


While I don't share your opinion of the work I do agree that the Alsop recording is among the best.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

If there is one single work by Bernstein that stands out from the rest, then it is _West Side Story_. Here you can see for yourself the composer and conductor enjoying himself:


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

Coach G said:


> I like the part where Bernstein yells at the guy in the control room: "JOHN! Please don't DO this!"


That Bernstein/WSS video is really great...so wonderful to see a great conductor at work in the studio with a terrific studio orchestra....the Carreres stuff is entertaining, to say the least....but there are some other wonderful touches as well -
The first of the Dance numbers features the bass saxophones, who are blasting away with great gusto...John McClure, the recording engineer, asks Lenny to have them play out a bit more, louder, they aren't coming thru!! Lenny explodes!! <<the loudest instruments in the world, you're not picking them up, and you want them louder??!!>> reposition your mikes or whatever...then, in "America" - Bernstein tells the girls <<this is just a run-through, for balance, let loose, relax, have fun, no pressure>>
So the wonderful orchestra takes off, the girls start really whooping it up, having a wild time, the girls get rowdier, the orchestra gets crazier, the girls respond and a wonderful spontaneous rendition is produced....McClure tells Lenny <<that's a take, great!! One marrocha part needs to be dubbed in>> a percussionist didn't make the change in time...thanks ladies, you're all set!! The girls love it!! They're done on one take (the $$ is the same)...


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