Bernstein, Leonard

On the Town

On the Town New York New York it's a wonderful town - especially when sailors Gene Kelly Frank Sinatra and Jules Munshin have a 24-hour shore leave to see the sights - and when those sights include Ann Miller Betty Garrett and Vera-Ellen. Co-Directed by Kelly and Stanley Donen based on the Broadway hit and set to an Academy Award winning adaptation score On the Town changed the landscape of movie musicals opening filmmakers' eyes to what could be done on location. And when brilliant location and studio production numbers are blended it could be - as here- ebullient up-and-at-'em perfection. The Bronx is up and the Battery's down but no one can be down after going On the Town.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY/CLASSICS UPC: 883929005956 Manufacturer No: 1000036353

New York, New York--it's a helluva town; the Bronx is up and the Battery's down; the people ride in a hole in the ground.... Well, you get the idea. Those lyrics (by Betty Comden and Adolph Green), set to Leonard Bernstein's music, have made On the Town a permanent part of the psychological landscape of New York City. The story (inspired by Jerome Robbins's ballet Fancy Free) is pretty slight: Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Jules Munshin play sailors with 24 hours' leave to take their bite out of the Big Apple. When they meet, and then lose, this month's Miss Turnstiles (Vera-Ellen), they scour the town in search of her, bumping into a lady anthropologist (Ann Miller) along the way. Shot mostly in the studio, but with location exteriors all over town, from Coney Island to the Statue of Liberty to Central Park, this 1949 gem was the first of three great musicals codirected by Kelly and Stanley Donen, followed by Singin' in the Rain (1952) and the underrated It's Always Fair Weather (1955). --Jim Emerson

Beethoven - Ode to Freedom (Symphony No. 9 )/ June Anderson, Sarah Walker, Klaus Konig, Jan-Hendrik Rootering, Leonard Bernstein

Beethoven: The Piano Concertos [DVD Video]

The Unanswered Question - Six Talks at Harvard by Leonard Bernstein

Always absorbing and frequently brilliant, Leonard Bernstein's The Unanswered Question is a very lucid and convincing discussion of music's history and forms, with particular emphasis on modern music. It addresses the average intelligent listener who is not musically trained but wants to know what makes music work--what is meant, for example, by "tonal" and "atonal." It requires some concentration, but Bernstein, a superb teacher, keeps technical jargon to a minimum, illustrates what he means with musical examples and graphics, and repeats key points.

Delivered in 1973, the talks were transcribed for a book, but in it Bernstein insists "The pages that follow were written not to be read, but listened to," really an endorsement of the video edition. The talks are, in fact, performances. Television was always kind to Bernstein; he had magnetism and knew how to use it. To illustrate various points in his analyses, he plays the piano frequently, sings occasionally, and conducts significant works of key composers: Mozart, Beethoven, Berlioz, Wagner, Ravel, Debussy, Ives, Mahler, and Stravinsky.

Bernstein traces the development of music from its origins to the 20th-century struggle between tonality (championed notably by Stravinsky) and atonalism (represented mainly by Schoenberg). The last two talks, devoted to these composers, are particularly enlightening, but all six are outstanding. He argues persuasively that humans are born with an ability to grasp musical forms, and that rules of musical syntax are rooted in nature--in mathematically measurable relations between tones and overtones.

These talks are a key document. They coincide chronologically, as cause and/or symptom, with the movement of America's leading composers back from Schoenbergian forms toward a tonal orientation. Bernstein predicts and promotes this movement, which is still in progress. He is clearly an advocate of tonality, but he discusses atonal music with sympathy and understanding. --Joe McLellan

Little Drummer Boy: Essay on Mahler by Leonard Bernstein

The Making of West Side Story - Leonard Bernstein

Filmed in 1984, the feature-length documentary Leonard Bernstein Conducts "West Side Story" follows the composer as he records the first-ever complete recording of his musical-theater masterpiece. Virtually the entire documentary takes place in a New York recording studio with a pick-up orchestra, session singers, and headliners Kiri Te Kanawa (Maria), José Carreras (Tony), Tatiana Troyanos (Anita), and Kurt Ollmann (Riff). The 89-minute program alternates rehearsal footage with complete final takes of the main numbers--including "Tonight," "America," and "Maria"--with limited comments from the principal players. Te Kanawa explains how much the music means to her, Troyanos notes how she grew up in the very streets depicted on stage, and Carreras provides a rare moment of tension when a session ends unsatisfactorily. Bernstein himself is by turns commanding, charming, enthusiastic, and weary. This is a fascinating insight into what happens as a major album is recorded. --Gary S. Dalkin

1. Arrival of the principal singers, blending off 2. I feel Pretty (Piano rehearsal) 3. First session: introduction of the principals 4. Tonight (ensemble) (rehearsal) 5. Jet Song (recording) 6. Cool (recording) 7. Tonight (Piano rehearsal) 8. Something's Coming (recording: take, playback, retakes) 9. Troyanos on working with Bernstein "Tonight (Ensemble)" (recording) 10. Tonight (Ensemble) (recording- contd.) 11. Bernstein talks about the orchestra, "I feel pretty" (recording) 12. Te Kanawa on working with Bernstein 13. Problem passages, "Dance at the Gym" (recording & playbacks) 14. Bernstein talks to the press "Dance at the Gym" (recording-contd.) 15. Recording Nina and Alexander Bernstein ("Meeting Scene" - "Dance at the Gym") (recording- contd.) 16. Te Kanawa on West Side Story, "Somewhere" (recording) 17. Troyanos on recording, "America" (rehearsal and recording) 18. One Hand, One Heart (recording) 19. Te Kanawa on singing Bernstein's music 20. Maria (piano rehearsal) 21. Maria (recording) 22. Carreras on the Interruption, "Maria" (recording- contd.) 23. Te Kanawa on working with Berstein 24. A Boy like that "I have love" (recording) 25. Gee, Officer Krupke (recording) 26. Balcony Scene (recording) 27. Berstein on recording West side Story, "Balcony Scene" (recording) 28. End titles

Bernstein: Candide

Mahler - The Symphonies plus Das Lied von der Erde Boxset / Leonard Bernstein, Wiener Philharmoniker, London Symphony Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra

Mahler: Lieder

Bernstein in Rehearsal & Performance: Shostakovich Symphony No. 1 [DVD Video]

With a recording made by the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival Orchester in 1988, Medici Arts celebrate Leonard Bernstein's (1918-1990) recorded legacy in their series of DVDs by this outstanding musical personality. The DVD brings together three of the constants of Leonard Bernstein's protean career: his involvement with education projects, his complex relationship with the music of Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) and his desire to leave a filmed testament to his work. In 1987, Bernstein had established the Orchestra Academy of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival at Salzau Castle, a teaching and learning centre for young musicians, where he taught for several summers. He ensured that there would be cameras present in 1988, as he explored the subversive nature, exposed nerve endings and unseemly fervour of great art - and Shostakovich in particular. Bernstein begins his rehearsals by explaining his interpretation of the score of Shostakovich's first Symphony written between 1924 and 1925 when the composer was 19 years old. Leonard Bernstein had a particular gift for providing young people with an inspirational and enthusiastic introduction to music. And few others could immerse themselves in Shostakovich's world in so incomparable a manner. These recordings bring together three of "Lenny's" great passions in an altogether unique way!