January 18, 2024
#474
Gentle reader,
This is a still image from Steven Spielberg's outstanding 2021 release of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim's Broadway musical West Side Story. A 20th Century retelling of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, set in 1957 in a poor neighborhood of New York City.
The story began in 1949, well, I'll let the Maestro himself tell you this part.
The play opened September 26, 1957, at the Winter Garden Theatre, ran to 732 performances; reopened April 27, 1960, at the same theater for another 249 performances. The main characters, Tony and Maria were played, danced and sung by Larry Kert and Carol Lawrence. And no, it's not the same Carol Lawrence of The Carol Burnett show fame.
Front and back covers of Sony Music's re-release of the original 1957 Soundtrack.
The nice thing about this CD is that it has room the 1957 LP could never have had to include nine additional tracks which completes the score.
If you are multiple decades old, as I am, you have likely seen on television the Hollywood production which came out in 1960 starring Natalie Wood as Maria and Richard Beymer as Tony.
Unlike all the other recordings I am showing you, neither of those actors could sing and thus they "lip-sinked" the words sung by actual singers: Marni Nixon and Jim Bryant. Rita Moreno (who also stars in the 2021 redux) also did not sing and Betty Wand did Anita's singing.
This 1992 re-release by Sony also includes music not found on the original LP: The Overture, Finale and End Credits.
But, the late Leonard Bernstein was SO much more than just the musical creator of West Side Story, as pointed out in this scan of a portion of the back cover of Philips LP recording of John Williams and the Boston Pops performing selections from: West Side Story, Simple Song from Mass, three dances from On the Town, the Overture from Candide, Divertimentos for Orchestra, and a selection from Wonderful Town.
The two books below are but a small portion of my library about music recordings and music appreciation and instrumentation I have as for both reference and enjoyment.
1001 CLASSICAL RECORDINGS YOU MUST HEAR BEFORE YOU DIE, lists but five Leonard Bernstein compositions, two of which I present herein. THE GRAMOPHONE CLASSICAL MUSIC GUIDE 2011 goes into much greater depth of all the composers and their best sounding recordings. Under Bernstein they list: Symphony No. 1 "Jerimiah", Symphony No. 2 "The Age of Anxiety" and Symphony No. 3 "Kaddish" and many more. For a complete list of his compositions go here: List of compositions by Leonard Bernstein - Wikipedia That being said, here are two more digital recordings of West Side Story. The musical has been performed countless times in North America and translated and performed around the world too.
I could find little about this recording online. Except for this Wikipedia article about the label: N-Coded Music - Wikipedia It's very good and very well done. I am listening to it right now as I write this article. I have all of Dave Grusin's Jazz recordings and a number of his film scores as well.
It amuses me that this 2001 AMERICAN CLASSICS CD was made in Canada. Granted, the ENTIRE connected Western Hemisphere IS called America. But, as you can see, their logo is a stained US flag. This performance is also very good.
In 2009, West Side Story went back to Broadway and this is the recording of that show. It too is very well performed.
None other than a fellow American Icon who happens to be Jewish, as Bernstein was, Steven Spielberg stepped up to the bat and did his own version of West Side Story, which came out in theaters in 2021.
Front and inside pages of the cover of the 2022 Blu-ray video of the film.
Unlike Natalie Wood, the petite young woman who played and sang the role of Maria was played by Rachel Zegler, who was born in 2001 and looks like a girl recently turned 18.
That's it for digital disc recordings of West Side Story. Below is a series of images of all the LP and CD recordings I have of Bernstein as COMPOSER. Starting with the LP records.
I, as a lover of Classical music, have many recordings of Bernstein as conductor. For an excellent reproduction of Bernstein as conductor check out Netflix's excellent: MAESTRO. Watch Maestro | Netflix Official Site Yes, indeed, the Maestro wrote a book! It came out in 1954, two years before I was born. This is the 1959 edition.
Not only that, he also TAUGHT, not just in classrooms, but on television. For more on that, go here: Educator | About | Leonard Bernstein
As is often the case, I cannot find a year on this VOX recording of the excerpts from West Side Story. The Internet states it was done in 1962. Looking at it just now, I see that I have not played it yet! It is in excellent condition and was made in Holland. It does have singing, was performed by the American Radio Symphony and conducted by D. Dawson.
In 1985, Leonard Bernstein thought it would be a good idea to redo West Side Story with OPERA signers! Having listened to almost all of the recordings I have recently, I found it odd to hear such operatic singing of what were supposed to be inner-city people. But, it is still a joy to listen to. To see a documentary which was made OF this rebooting, go here: The Making of WEST SIDE STORY (1985) - YouTube I've always shown you Dave Grusin's Jazz version of West Side Story, long before that happened, 1962 to be specific, Oscar Peterson and his Trio decided to do their own version of it. This particular VERVE recording was made in Brazil on the Copacabana label. It too is a lot of fun and well done.
I chose to have the image above be full sized so that you can see details of each recording closer.
Joshua Bell is a world famous classical violinist. Yet, he performed inside various Washington D.C. subway stations a few years ago and not ONE person took the time to even LOOK at him, let alone recognize just who was serenading them! My guess is most were looking at their phones. Zero situational awareness!
That's it for my treatise upon one of the United States most epic gifts to the world of music. Thank you for taking the time to read it. Feel free to leave a comment below or on Facebook.
Scott Robb
January 18, 2024
#474
