Join us as we take a look at this (and recent) weeks’ top stories from the Leonard Bernstein Centennial around the globe. Find more using the hashtag #Bernsteinat100.
1. Steven Spielberg to lead Bernstein biopic?
Spielberg — who earlier this year was reportedly looking at a remake of West Side Story — is now said to be working on a Leonard Bernstein biopic. No further details have been released, but Variety reported last week that Spielberg hosted a table read for the project. This begs the question: who should play Lenny on film?
2. The Royal Ballet and Bernstein’s danceable music
When I perform Beethoven’s Seventh, something inside me is always dancing.
– Leonard Bernstein
As The Royal Ballet opens a triple bill of Bernstein, Sarah Kirkup examines what makes Bernstein’s music so eminently danceable. In her opening paragraph for Gramophone, Kirkup quotes Jerome Robbins, who said:
The one thing about Lenny’s music which was so tremendously important was that there always was a kinetic motor – there was a power in the rhythms of his work, or the change of rhythms in his work and the orchestration – which had a need for it to be demonstrated by dance.
The Royal Ballet’s Bernstein Centenary triple bill runs from March 15 to April 9, including a live cinema screening on March 27.
3. A life of dance and color: Chita Rivera reflects
Rivera recently spoke with Parade journalist Jeryl Brunner about her fabulously storied career. “I love doing a show eight days a week. I love it,” she said. “There is nothing like it.”
4. Pi Day with Bernstein and Mahler
For March 14, also known as Pi Day, our friends at the Leonard Bernstein Office built a playlist of Bernstein conducting movements of Mahler’s Symphonies nos. 3, 1, 4, 1, 5, 9, 2, 6, 5, 3, 5, and 9. Listen here:
5. Philadelphia Orchestra records Mass
A brand-new recording of Bernstein’s “Mass” with Yannick Nezet-Seguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra was released March 16th on Deutsche Grammophon!
Bernstein’s Mass by @nezetseguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra will be released next week. Requiring two orchestras, rock band, marching band, multiple choirs and musical singers, the monumental work is rarely performed and even rarer on disc. Learn more: https://t.co/liw3rg2UUZ pic.twitter.com/zNmofFIZMk
— Deutsche Grammophon (@DGclassics) March 15, 2018
More #Bernsteinat100
- Find something you love about Bernstein this week? What are your favorite or fun Bernstein mentions? Tweet or FB message us @ClassicalOrg. And remember, if you go to an event, tag @ClassicalOrg on Twitter or Facebook and use the hashtag #Bernsteinat100.
