Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is a wonderful example of Bernstein's genius., June 24, 2000
If you have ever wondered what Leonard Bernstein feels when he conducts then you need to watch this video. Every down beat he gives is a view into the heart and soul of Bernstein. Schumann's first is a pretty strait foward piece but when Bernstein adds his magnificent touch, you can't help but watch and listen over and over again. Shostakovich No.5 is a must see for Bernstein fans. I won't ruin it for you, but let me say that I have a new sense of musicality from watching this performance. Bravo!
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
great synergistic mixtures, July 26, 2001
I agree wholeheartedly here that watching a performance, the gestures,how the music is given shape and direction is a pedagogical excursion in and of itself. And always the inclusion of powerhouse synergetic mixtures as Lenny and Shostakovich is an inspiration,forever. Shostakovich preferred Lenny for his music's interpretation, rather than anyone else,even Mravinsky,who although close friends most of their lives had a falling out toward the end. I can't get too excited about Robert Schumann's Symphonies,Four of them. He was a lousy orchestrator,and frequently depended upon what he had already had heard. There is no sense of mystery in his music, and the timbral world he fashions is fairly a bland,one-domensional and severe one.I believe Mahler had re-orchestrated these symphonies. Perhaps Schumann was too damn close to Beethoven, The Viennese Master casting his powerful shadow over the remaning Romantic era. I think what Schumann learned from Beethoven was how a motive or melody or theme can cast its own shadow over an entire piece of music, something with the architectural vigour of a symphonie. You really need to impart a sense of violence and extremity of gesture to make Schumann's Symphonies, All of them, come to life. Herbert von Karajan does this admirably well, imparting that massive cathedral like timbre. Lenny and New York Phil, scale the sound backwards a bit, allowing a nice sense of discipline, of balance and shape to take effect. Musical phrases dovetail into each other congruently. However, Schumann,for me anyway doesn't have much to say,no matter how much one cares and attenates what he had written. The Shostakovich Fifth is now a staple of the repertoire, also a neatly compact work, filled with all the violence, anxiety,transgressiveness,hope, spirit whatever was left in Soviet Russia of the last 20th Century.The classical dimensions is what gives this Symphony its power,Dmitri wasn't never afraid of simply allowing orchestral colours to work their own charms and magic.But it's all recapitulated in his grandiose tuttis. I always find the string timbre of the Largo here as the ultimate expression of the state of the lifeworld.Yes, somewhat despairing,deeply down,singing as a lament on the state of things. Shostakovich symphonies are like a document of our time. They must speak unpretenciously for all, not simply those oppressed at a particualr time, in a particualr year.As by the apparatchik designs,the mindlessness of Stalin's henchmen, who wanted culture ultimately to serve them first.Recall that Shostakovich was a committed socialist, and believed in marxism, not Stalin's interpretation of it, but a belief in the eradication of oppression exploitation and greed wherever present within society. This is often overlooked by complaisant Western critics, who simply profile Shostakovich as the oppressed tortured Soviet artist,nothing more nor less.The opening Moderato is built powerfully around the minor sixth interval,I cannot help always thinking of the sensitivity to sound now in the the industrial 20th Century, the smoke stack like timbre from the brass.But the oppression of this interval imparts itself, it doesn't convey a sense of freedom. In fact the entire Symphonie comes across very much like a gigantic question to ponder. Wonderful solos as well, Shostakovich here rendering discrete voices, humanities I guess emanating from the surface of tyranny. Fine playing by New York Phil allstars, as Julius Baker, Flute, Stanley Drucker,Bb Clarinet, Jospeh Alessi trombone.And I believe Anthony Corigliano on violin.Lenny gives it everything, this is/was his kinda music,powerful,direct,colourful,virtuosic,with questions,pointed upwards.
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