I was looking for something else and Bernstein's "Mass" popped up...

[TreasonousBastard]

https://www.pbs.org/video/leonard-bernstein-mass-a3doys/

Completely forgot about it, but when Jackie K asked him to write something for the opening of the Kennedy center, this is what he came up with.

Apparently, some upturned noses (like the Times music critic) had a problem with this nice Jewish boy from Massachusetts daring to write such a thing but the public seems to have felt differently.

As the legendary Duke Ellington once said-- "If it sounds good, it is good".

[wcmagumba]

1. I watched this last night...

and quite enjoyed it (as a good old fashioned zen atheist should do). Lenny did some great stuff...although
Mass apparently wasn't one of his most popular...I guess Nixon turned down attending on opening night
(supposedly in deference to Jackie but really because the FBI viewed Bernstein as a radical anti war something
or other).

[TreasonousBastard]

6. Yeah-- some people are terrified when a genius like Bernstein appears to get out of his...

back yard and clear the cobwebs off of his eyes.

Jewish and brilliant at what he does-- definitely left wing and dangerous. Look, he already had the country enthralled with "Maria", so what else could this commie do?

Send him back to the confines of the classics and let the Rudolph Bings of the world deal with him.

(I mention Bing because he would never let a Jew sing at the Metropolitan Opera. That meant no Beverley Sills at the Met until he was dead, or retired. Or both.)

A Met without Sills seems unimaginable these days, I am not going to be bothered to look it up, but I would like to think that Bubbles took over not only the Met, but the whole of Lincoln Center, while he was still alive and with the charm and grace she was known for to not ram it down his miserable throat.

[catrose]

2. I was a teenager when he wrote and presented this

And as a budding classical musician, I'd grown up with Bernstein's presentations for young people. I still remember the photo of Bernstein weeping at the premiere over "the effect he imagined his work had on the audience." I couldn't then and I still can't imagine writing something that nasty for publication.

I did think that the joke going around was funny. "What's he calling it? Mitzvah Solemnis?"

Not a bad name, actually.

Now I'll go listen to it to pay tribute to Lenny and raise a finger to his critics.

[MyOwnPeace]

3. Quite the eclectic piece.......

and some very beautiful moments in it.
Thanks for the reminder - I've got BOTH an LP (from when it first came out!) and a recent CD.
Time to chill and listen!

[PJMcK]

4. If you liked that piece by Leonard Bernstein...

...perhaps his Third Symphony (Kaddish) will interest you. It's written for Soprano, Narrator, Chorus and a big orchestra.

Like most of Bernstein's music, it's stylistically eclectic and highly emotional. The Kaddish is a traditional Jewish prayer for the dead and in this piece, Bernstein dissects his relationship with God. It's quite powerful and moving.

When I was finishing my Master of Music degree, I had the good fortune to intern for the maestro for about six months. One evening he was conducting the NY Philharmonic in performances of Brahms' Third Symphony and his own. Incredibly, he conducted the entire evening from memory!

P.S. Note my sig line.

[TreasonousBastard]

7. Saw him shed a tear there. Good fortune indeed to work with him.

[stopbush]

5. Mass is embarrassing to listen to.

Possibly Bernstein’s most-pretentious work.