Some Thoughts on Bernstein

As an undergrad I took a seminar on Leonard Bernstein. We covered his life, loves, successes and failures. I knew how he struggled to decide between a career as a performer, conductor, and composer. I knew that he had problems in his personal life that haunted him until his death. I knew he'd found success suddenly at a very young age but had suffered serious setbacks along the way. I left that class feeling like I really knew Bernstein on a personal level.

Now I'm sitting in the St. Louis Philharmonic and we're rehearsing the overture to Candide for our next concert (April 30th! 8pm! 560 Music Center in the Loop!). I've played this piece before but not since taking that seminar. It's a great piece but I'd never realized how you can see Bernstein in the work. Humphrey Burton's biography of Bernstein (which I HIGHLY recommend reading) gives you the impression that he was someone truly filled with life and vigor, so much so that it spilled out into his music. The Candide overture whizzes by at a mile a minute but still incorporates at least three major themes, a lot of different tone colors, and some really tough technical passages for the instrumentalists. The piece is exciting, lyrical, quirky, and fun. Maybe like Bernstein himself. Only someone as alive as Bernstein could do all the things that he did while life, like the tempo in the overture, was flying by.

For those of you unfamiliar with Leonard Bernstein's career, know that he rose to fame after conducting the NY Phil at a moment's notice when the scheduled conductor fell ill. He was in his 20's at the time. His career was split between conducting and composing, with performances as a concert pianist sprinkled in. He was an advocate for the newly formed state of Israel, a father of 2, the composer of West Side Story (along with several symphonies, a Mass, an opera, and smaller works), and a champion of music education (his Young People's Concerts with the NY Phil are still used in music classrooms). He did everything, saw everything, embraced everything.

Candide is an interesting part of Bernstein's career. It's a Broadway adaptation of Voltaire's satire and it was a flop. The story was too fragmented to work well as a musical despite Bernstein's brilliant score. Luckily for us the overture has become a standard part of the orchestral repertoire and is performed regularly across the country. You can even hear it performed right here in St. Louis by the STLPhil.

It's a fun piece to play. I think everyone in the orchestra enjoys rehearsing it and you'll surely enjoy listening to it. It's fast and furious but has its tender moments too. When you're listening, see if you get the impression that I have- that Bernstein is in this piece like he is in all of his compositions.