Leonard Bernstein

Film Review: “Maestro” — Scenes from a Marriage

December 24, 2023
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“Maestro” is raw and unsparing but also full of understanding, grace, and honesty. This compelling drama brings to life the man and woman behind an extraordinary amount of musical activity, with many of their shortcomings and contradictions fully intact.

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November Short Fuses — Materia Critica

November 1, 2023
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Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, television, film, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.

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Listening During Covid, Part 7: Celebrating the Diversity of American Music

October 31, 2021
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New CD releases provide splendid performances of remarkable American music, from Barber and Bernstein to recently rediscovered Black composers Florence Price and William Grant Still.

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Arts Reconsideration: The 1971 Project — Celebrating a Great Year in Music (June Entry)

June 16, 2021
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Arts Fuse writers continue their countdown of great music celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and this month’s list includes Leonard Bernstein, Leon Russell, The Faces, Carla Bley, and Rod Stewart.

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Classical CD Reviews: “Aspects of America: The Pulitzer Edition,” Morton Gould “Symphonettes,” and Lindberg conducts Bernstein

March 18, 2020
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Lovers of American music, don’t miss Aspects of America: The Pulitzer Edition ; Lindberg’s recording of Leonard Bernstein’s first two symphonies lacks a compelling command of the musician’s singular voice; the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra tackles four pieces by Morton Gould.

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Book Review: “Leonard Bernstein and the Language of Jazz” — Prominent from the Start

February 25, 2020
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Perhaps the book’s most impressive accomplishment is to make a kind of systematic case for Leonard Bernstein’s larger compositional output.

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Classical CD Reviews: Gerald Finzi’s Orchestral Music, Bernstein’s “Wonderful Town,” and Arvo Pärt’s “Works for Violin”

October 9, 2018
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Violinist Viktoria Mullova supplies one of the year’s most programmatically-cohesive and thoughtfully-executed albums.

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Book Review: “On the Road and Off the Record with Leonard Bernstein”

September 28, 2018
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If Charlie Harmon’s story jumps around a bit and reads rather like a series of diary entries, it’s at the very least engaging and, for the most part, entertaining.

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Classical CD Reviews: Tesla Quartet plays Haydn, Ravel, and Stravinsky, Michael Tilson Thomas conducts Bernstein, Aspects of America

August 26, 2018
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Aspects of America, from the Oregon Symphony and its music director Carlos Kalmar, is at once superbly played, astutely programmed, and aesthetically necessary.

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Classical CD Review: A Superb Version of Leonard Bernstein’s “A Quiet Place”

July 13, 2018
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Garth Edwin Sunderland’s new chamber adaptation of this opera’s score, is, to date, the Bernstein Centennial Year’s best and most important recording.

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