On November 14, 1943 Bernstein subbed at the last minute to conduct the NY Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall, replacing an ailing Bruno Walter. Friday night at Carnegie Hall celebrated the 65th Anniversary of that historic debut. My knowledge of Bernstein is limited. I watched two episodes of the very informative Young People's Concerts. It was a series of TV shows he hosted to instill in children (and adults) a better understanding of music. I saw the film West Side Story for which he composed the music. A musical kinship between Brian Wilson and Leonard Bernstein cemented Leonard on my radar.
Brian Wilson is the pop heir to Leonard Bernstein. He appeared on a CBS special of Bernstein's in 1967 singing Surf's Up. Leonard introduced the song: "There is a new song, too complex to get all of first time around. It could come only out of the ferment that characterizes today's pop music scene. Brian Wilson, leader of the famous Beach Boys, and one of today's most important musicians, sings his own Surf's Up. Poetic, beautiful even in its obscurity; Surf's Up is one aspect of new things happening in pop music today. As such, it is a symbol of the change many of these young musicians see in our future." Brian wrote small or pocket symphonies (as Good Vibrations was once called). Had he not left planet earth for a few years, Brian's output may have rivaled that of Bernstein.
Bernstein's music is implanted in pop culture, which became apparent to me during the NY Philharmonic's performance of West Side Story Concert Suites No.1 and No.2. The first notes of I Feel Pretty brought to mind Madelyn Kahn's Bride of Frankenstein singing to a mirror in an SNL skit.
It was very powerful to hear the music of West Side Story performed by the NY Philharmonic. At times I was taken by the score, which seem to rival the best of a Western film. Like Westerns, West Side Story was about rivalries and turf wars. Note of trivia: Originally it was called East Side Story and based the Romeo and Juliet story around the conflict between Catholics and Jews on the Lower East Side. A streak of gang-related violence in 1956 on the Upper West Side changed the course of the musical. Maria featured tenor Paul Graves, who conveyed the song's hopefulness and enchantment. He made you remember how good a song it is. A revival of the play is planned for Broadway in the beginning of 2009.
A year after the film On The Waterfront was released, Bernstein debuted his Symphonic Suite from On The Waterfront, which is the way he intended his music to be presented. Only 35 minutes of the film contain his music. Leonard originally turned down the chance to score the film. The director Elia Kazan had finished the film before he thought about the music. The film's producer first approached Leonard, who declined. He was not a fan of Kazan who had a reputation as a willing informant to Senator McCarthy's House Committee on Un-American Activities. Bernstein on the opposite side, was one of 50 celebrities who in 1947 signed a manifesto condemning those hearings. Apparently the FBI had a 700-page document on him. Never having seen the movie, I felt the grittiness of life in NY on the docks at that time. The music at times was foreboding, signaling something wasn't right, yet life goes on .
The middle piece, Serenade (after Plato's Symposium) for Violin, String Orchestra, Harp and Percussion, was perfectly juxtaposed to the Waterfront Suite: Calming and meditative. Glenn Dicterow was the soloist. According to the Playbill, he first learned the piece for a 1986 Bernstein-led US Tour. Dicterow remembers, "at one point during a rehearsal, Lenny turned to me and said, 'This is the best piece I ever wrote.' " The evening was filled with "best pieces".
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