Leonard Bernstein as a Conductor of Beethoven
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As a conductor Leonard Bernstein considered Beethoven, "of all composers", to be "the most interpretable" (Bernstein, 1982, p. 292). As with his various approaches to most of the classical and romantic repertoire, however, Bernstein's interpretations of Beethoven met with a range of responses. Yet the responses could be favorable or extremely unfavorable even when they came from the same source. Harold C, Schonberg, once chief music critic for the New York Times, wrote of a 1960 performance of the Leonora Overture No. 3 and the Piano Concerto No. 1 that they featured "a couple of moments that were absolutely bizarre" and that the latter "was a highly personal and rather vulgar performance" which he disliked a great deal (quoted in Peyser, 1987, p. 303). But of a 1979 performance of the Ninth Symphony Schonberg wrote that although "some" might call it "vulgar" or "self-indulgent . . . this performance simply pulsated with life [and he] admired it no end" (quoted in Secrest, 1994, p. 356). The question of what accounts for such widely differing responses cannot be answered merely by reference to Bernstein's flamboyant posturing and overwhelming self-promotion. These attributes did sometimes get in the way of critical appreciation. They also, as they were intended to do, helped make him the most famous classical musician in America. The answer to the question lies instead in the fact that Bernstein frequently conducted the same pieces in completely different ways. Scho
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not in the communication of sound, but in the sound of communication" (Rorem, 1988, p. 31). Bernstein felt that this was his basic mission -- and it was a very personal one. As he put it, his conducting derived "from that impulse to share what I feel, the excitement, the enthusiasm, the mystery, whatever insights I have about all music with as many people as possible" (quoted in Chesterman, 1976, p. 71).
He certainly managed to communicate his enthusiasm to the musicians with whom he worked. This is a constant theme in the literature. Schonberg (1967, pp. 352-353) and Lebrecht have commented on the fact that on his arrival at the New York Philharmonic the Bernstein "made music come alive again" for the orchestra's "hard-bitten professionals" (Lebrecht, 1991, p. 181). Porter reported that this spell could still be cast when, in 1984, Bernstein was enthusiastically welcomed back to the Philharmonic by "playing [that was] more exuberant and more ardent than usual" (1989, p. 119). Bernstein always stressed the importance of players who were attuned to the work of the moment rather than sunk into the reproduction of their own orchestra's identifiable "sound." If an orchestra has its own sound, then "it cannot have the sound o
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