Haydn began writing the oratorio “Die Schöpfung” (The Creation) in 1795; it was given its first performance at the palace of Prince Schwarzenberg in Vienna in 1798. Haydn’s life’s work reached its climax and its conclusion in The Creation and in the oratorio The Seasons, written in 1801. Shortly before his death in 1808, Haydn attended another gala performance of The Creation which was received by the audience with wild enthusiasm. Leonard Bernstein’s recording of this work was made at the Benedictine Abbey of Ottobeuren in 1986 with the chorus and Symphony Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio with soloists Judith Blegen, Thomas Moser, Kurt Moll, Lucia Popp and Kurt Ollmann. Bernstein himself said of The Creation: “In the beginning of this awesome musical version, Haydn created one of the supreme music dramatizations of all time: the depiction of chaos, as he entitled it – that pre-terrestrial chaos depicted in Genesis by the single line: ‘And the Earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the Deep’. This musical depiction is of a beauty almost frightening in its chromatic and dissonant texture – something outside of Time, and certainly outside of the 1790s, when it was written. … Haydn’s The Creation gives us time to remember – and rejoice in – the purity and grace and fortitude of Nature, to saunter blissfully through that Garden of Gardens along with Adam and Eve; to restore our souls, to recover our moral strength, and to rediscover our power to praise.”
A Quiet Place
In 1986 Bernstein conducted a refined version of his own opera A Quiet Place in Vienna. It contains singable late romantic melodies as well as Broadway musical sounds, syncopated jazz rhythms and well-tempered modernity and, of course, a masterful instrumentation. Estranged family members recall the history of their relationships with each other and with their dead mother. The next morning, after breakfast and games in the garden – the “quiet place” –, they find that their hostility has given way to reconciliation.
Mahler, Symphony No.8 in E flat major “Symphony of a Thousand”
Leonard Bernstein conducted the work at the Salzburg Festival in 1975 and shortly thereafter in Vienna’s Konzerthaus, where it was recorded. The stage of the Konzerthaus was enlarged to make room for the unusually large orchestra, the two choruses, the children’s choir and the soloists. Bernstein was the first conductor ever to record all of Mahler’s symphonies not only on disk, but also on video. The Mahler cycle was the first project in the more than 20-year-long association between Leonard Bernstein and Unitel. The leading Mahler interpreter of our time, Bernstein recorded all of Mahler’s symphonies between 1971 and 1985, chiefly with the Vienna Philharmonic, producing a unique musical document and triggering a major reappreciation of Mahler’s works. “All Mahler symphonies, all Mahler works for that matter, deal in extremes, extremes of dynamic, of tempo, of emotional meaning. When it is bare, it’s extremely bare, when it is thick and rich, it’s thicker and richer than anything in ‘Götterdämmerung’, and when it is suffering it suffers to a point that no music has ever suffered before.” (Leonard Bernstein)
The Love of Three Orchestra
Leonard Bernstein’s relationships with the orchestras he conducted were always intense. At their best, he felt that they were somewhere between a love affair and a family in which he played the role of the father. In more than 40 years on the podium, he enjoyed this special kind of relationship with a number of orchestras in the Old World and the New. “The Love of Three Orchestras” is an account of that experience, but concentrates on the three great orchestral families closest to his heart: the New York Philharmonic, the Israel Philharmonic, and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras. Bernstein begins by looking back to that moment in 1943 when he made his triumphant debut with the New York Philharmonic at age 25. Among the landmarks he recalls are the Young People’s Concerts and his twelve years as musical director. Bernstein’s association with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra began in 1947. His reminiscences include stories of performances during the early battle-torn days of the foundation of the State of Israel. Bernstein’s relationship with the Vienna Philharmonic began in 1966. He tells how the relationship got off to a disastrous start and recounts some of the difficulties he found in playing the music of Gustav Mahler with them. The music sequences and examples which illustrate Bernstein’s reminiscences are taken from Unitel films and videotapes directed by Humphrey Burton.
The Little Drummerboy – A TV-Essay on Gustav Mahler by and with Leonard Bernstein including excerpts from Mahler’s symphonies and song cycles
In this musical essay, Leonard Bernstein recollects and relives his experiences with the music of the great Viennese composer and conductor Gustav Mahler (1860-1911). Bernstein filmed all of Mahler’s ten symphonies for Unitel as well as Das Lied von der Erde and the Songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn. The vocal soloists of these productions, Dame Janet Baker, Christa Ludwig, Edith Mathis, Lucia Popp and Walton Groenroos, underscore Leonard Bernstein’s elucidations with appropriate music examples. The recordings with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra were made in Tel Aviv, those with the London Symphony Orchestra in the Cathedral of Ely and those with the Wiener Philharmoniker in the Grosser Musikvereinssaal in Vienna, in which Gustav Mahler himself conducted. The Little Drummer Boy illustrates the fundamental concepts of Leonard Bernstein’s interpretation of Mahler’s works, and exposes not only the building material and framework of Mahler’s brilliant structures, but also the tensional pulls within them. Searching for the musical roots and the hidden truths guiding the composer, Leonard Bernstein discovers the key to Mahler’s music in the composer’s repressed Jewishness. Starting from the song Der Tambourg’sell (From Des Knaben Wunderhorn, written in 1899), Leonard Bernstein spans a broad arch over all the symphonies and concludes with Mahler’s last and greatest song, the Lied von der Erde (1910).
Mahler, Songs from “Des Knaben Wunderhorn”
Gustav Mahler claimed that he had known the collection of poems called “Des Knaben Wunderhorn,” compiled by Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano, since his earliest youth. In fact, no fewer than half of his songs draw on verses from this collection, including quotations found in Symphonies Nos. 2-4 and other works. Between 1892 and 1895, the young conductor of the Hamburg Opera set to music 12 poems from this collection – the songs “Revelge” and “Der Tambourg’sell” followed in 1899. The Wunderhorn settings administered the death blow to the late-Romantic literary and psychological art song. Mahler felt the Wunderhorn lyrics, the expression of a collective subconscious, to be “essentially different from all kinds of literary poetry, being more nature and life – that is, the sources of all poetry – than art.” Leonard Bernstein leads soloists Lucia Popp (soprano) and Walton Groenroos (baritone) along with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in this recording of all twelve songs.
Leonard Bernstein conducts “West Side Story” – The Making of a Recording
“West Side Story” is perhaps Leonard Bernstein’s most popular work and contains songs that have achieved enormous popularity throughout the world. The film version won no less than ten Academy Awards. In 1984, 27 years after the premiere, Bernstein finally conducted the work for the first time, with singers of his choice. “The Making of West Side Story” won the Prix Italia and the British Academy’s Robert Flaherty Award in 1985.
Haydn, Missa in tempore belli (English introduction included)
The title of the work “Missa in tempore belli” (Mass in Time of War) recalls the war conducted by the Austrian Emperor Franz against France, whose young general Bonaparte was then rushing from one victory to the next. In August 1796 Vienna had to mobilize its troops. The subtitle “Paukenmesse” or Kettledrum Mass, comes from the prominent timpani and brass instruments in the last section of the Mass. The dramatic military sounds are made all the more striking as Haydn transforms the music into a fervent prayer for peace. Leonard Bernstein led this performance of the Mass at the Basilica of Ottobeuren on 30 September 1984 with the Chorus and Symphony Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio. The soloists were Judith Blegen (soprano), Brigitte Fassbaender (alto), Claes H. Ahnsjö (tenor) and Hans Sotin (bass). Bernstein said: “How does it feel to conduct a Haydn mass in this extraordinary, deeply impressive setting of the Ottobeuren Basilica? It feels perfect. If I had to imagine this mass visually and translate it into architectural terms, from one art to another, or in decorative terms – this is what I would imagine. It is the Haydn Mass.”
Beethoven, Missa solemnis in D major, op.123
This work is part of the complete cycle of Beethoven symphonic and choral works featuring the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam conducted by Leonard Bernstein. In this recording with the Dutch orchestra, Bernstein also conducts the soloists Edda Moser, Hanna Schwarz, René Kollo and Kurt Moll, along with the Chorus of Radio Hilversum.
Mahler, Symphony No.7 in E minor
Leonard Bernstein was the first conductor ever to record all of Mahler’s symphonies not only on disk, but also on video. The Mahler cycle was the first project in the more than 20-year-long association between Leonard Bernstein and Unitel. The leading Mahler interpreter of our time, Bernstein recorded all of Mahler’s symphonies between 1971 and 1985, chiefly with the Vienna Philharmonic, producing a unique musical document and triggering a major reappreciation of Mahler’s works. ‘All Mahler symphonies, all Mahler works for that matter, deal in extremes, extremes of dynamic, of tempo, of emotional meaning. When it is bare, it’s extremely bare, when it is thick and rich, it’s thicker and richer than anything in ‘Götterdämmerung’, and when it is suffering it suffers to a point that no music has ever suffered before.’ (Leonard Bernstein)