Word: bernsteining
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...Central Line. At 38, Bernstein must tell himself that his talents have so far produced great excitement but no great works. He has leaped and dived and didoed like a scintillating porpoise in the mainstream of musical life, without having changed its course. Neither has any other contemporary musician of his age?but Bernstein insists that he must follow "that central line." as he once called it, "the line of mystery and fire" that, as he believes, is followed by all truly dedicated artists...
After one of Bernstein's more dramatic evenings, an onlooker remarked slyly: "It was really a shame tonight. The composer was unable to carry out Bernstein's intentions." Yet Bernstein probably violates the composer's intentions far less often than his manner may suggest. His style is neither insincere nor imprecise. It is particularly effective with modern music, with which Bernstein has had consistent success, and whose complex rhythms he feels perhaps more deeply than he feels the serenities of the classics...
Sullivan Sans Gilbert? As a composer, Bernstein has suffered one curious fate: his serious music, at least, is almost never played by others. If Conductor Bernstein did not come to the aid of Composer Bernstein, it might never get played at all. The main case that can be made against his music is that it is eclectic?and Bernstein knows it. Sometimes, when he hears a piece of music he particularly likes, he will exclaim: "God, that's wonderful. I must write something like it." He can put on any musical mask he chooses: he has successfully written boogie-style...
...compositions to date have no common voice, they have several common denominators. There is almost always a strong, healthy pulse of percussion. There is drama and wit. There is an invitation, even in solemn moments, to the dance. And there is song. In his first symphony, Jeremiah, Bernstein offered, along with Biblical rumblings and stylized Semitic murmurs, some beautifully sad and soaring melodies for soprano. In his most recent serious work. Serenade for Violin Solo, String Orchestra and Percussion, the Bernstein song ? immensely more mature now ? has been transferred to the violin; it is a highly impressive piece...
...score for the movie On the Waterfront, some critics heard a new note in Bernstein's music, a curiously piercing purity that seemed to burst from a hot core of originality. Extravert Bernstein needs the outside inspiration of a theme, a script, a plot to be at his best ? which suggests that he is at his best in the musical theater. "I am the logical man," Bernstein himself has said, "to write the great American opera...