#Bernstein

[scherzokinn]

Things To Never Say To Someone Who Just Came Out - Composers Edition!

[the-spirit-of-yore]

Château du Bernstein, Alsace, France

[sixty-silver-wishes]

hi classical music tumblr. it has come to my attention that not enough of you are aware of the fact that leonard bernstein wrote poetry. specifically a poem called “life is juicy.” from 1947. and it’s. it’s really one of the poems ever

[blackswaneuroparedux]

I think that if I were required to spend the rest of my life on a desert island, and to listen to or play the music of any one composer during all that time, that composer would almost certainly be Bach.

- Glenn Gould

Glenn Gould plays Bach's Keyboard Concerto in D Minor. In 1960.

Glenn Gould made his television debut on CBS's Ford Presents "The Creative Performer" with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic.

[senfonikankara]

Mozart | Piano Concerto No.17, Allegro (Bernstein)

[postcard-from-the-past]

Bernstein Monastery by Sulz am Neckar, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

German vintage postcard

[allthedesiredusernamesaretaken]

" The key to the mystery of a great artist is that for reasons unknown, he will give away his energies and his life just to make sure that one note follows another…and leaves us with the feeling that something is right in the world. "

- Leonard Bernstein

📷 Ruth Orkin

[littleshopofhorrors-confessions]

If we're still talkin bout Sibling headcanons—I HC that Orin is half-siblings wit Mr. Bernstein, Mrs. Luce n Skip Snip cus I think it's funny.

Those three are all very competitive siblings, n why not throw a sadistic dentist into the mix?

I have a bit more information if anyone wants t' hear bout my headcanon more lol — the headcanon is mostly jus, projectin source memories n allat though. But I still think it's fun.

( - I decided I'll probably not be anonymous anymore when sendin in confessions or ask or whatnot, but we'll see how long that lasts 💀)

~~~

[victorlaby]

[jazzandother-blog]

When Miles Davis named the five geniuses of American music

(Credits: Far Out / Tom Palumbo)

Dale Maplethorpe (Far Out Magazine):

Miles Davis will go down as arguably one of the most honest musicians who ever became famous, perfectly personified by his attendance at an awards ceremony at the White House. When asked by someone he described as a “politician’s wife” why America is so keen on neglecting jazz, he answered, “Jazz is ignored here because the white man likes to win everything.”

The woman asked in retaliation, “What have you done that’s so important in your life?”, to which he responded, “Well, I’ve changed music five or six times.” 

He’s not wrong, either. The release of specific Miles Davis albums, from Birth of the Cool to Kind of Blue to Bitches Brew, are viewed less as good moments in musical history and instead as defining moments in American culture. He is the most influential trumpeter and one of the most influential musicians to ever take to the stage, with a sound and style that would shape how America – and subsequently the world – viewed the production of sound. 

His honest attitude towards himself and his music contributed to his success. He could critique himself to the extent that he could bring out the best in his music. He could also look at the music surrounding him to see what was missing and pick out what was wrong with the current musical landscape. That often led to him getting in trouble with some artists, but it also meant when we see the names of those he refers to as geniuses, we can take it at face value.

Davis had previously rubbed American composer Leonard Bernstein the wrong way when he refused to play anything from West Side Story, saying he thought it was “corny shit”. However, when he wrote to Bernstein on his 70th birthday, with decades to reflect on the music and see its impact on the world, he was willing to admit that Berstein was a genius. In doing so, he listed the five people who shaped American music, changing it for the better forever. 

Davis dismissed his previous comments in his letter, confessing West Side Story “turned out to be a classic.” He also noted that Bernstein is one of the great geniuses of American Music. “You are one of America’s true geniuses, along with Monk, Gillespie, Mingus and Parker,” he said.

There is no doubt, looking back, that Davis’s comments on Bernstein are correct. He was one of the first composers whose music expanded outside of America, leading to him cementing himself as one of the greats with a plethora of accolades attached to his name. The same can be said about Thelonious Monk, who worked with Davis previously and had a unique improvisational style that broke barriers and showed musicians how limitless their sounds could be.

The other musicians Davis refers to are Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus and Charlie Parker. All of them were musicians who had worked well with Davis in the past and helped contribute towards the musical landscape that eventually enveloped American culture. There is no doubt that Miles Davis changed music about five or six times, as he professed during that White House dinner, and Bernstein, Monk, Gillespie, Mingus and Parker are four or five musicians who helped him change it.

Credits: faroutmagazine.co.uk

[shosty-we-understand]

Fun fact! Did you know that Dmitri Shostakovich was nominated for two Grammy Awards during his career?

His Piano Concerto no. 2, Op. 102 (though the Grammy website lists it as op. 101) was nominated at the 2nd Annual Grammy Awards in 1960 for Best Musical Composition First Recorded And Released In 1959 (More Than 5 Minutes Duration), specifically the Leonard Bernstein recording; and his Symphony No. 4, op. 43 was nominated for Best Classical Composition By A Contemporary Composer at the 6th Annual Grammy Awards in 1966.

Unfortunately he didn't win either nomination.

Pictured above is Shostakovich smoking a cigarette with legendary conductor/composer Leonard Bernstein, during Bernstein's trip to Moscow with the New York Philharmonic in 1959, the same year as Bernstein and the Philharmonic's Grammy-nominated performance of Shostakovich's second piano concerto.

[orarosarium]

[the-spirit-of-yore]

Château du Bernstein, Alsace, France

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Music, of all the arts, stands in a special region, unlit by any star but its own, and utterly without meaning. . . without meaning, that is, except its own, a meaning in musical terms, not in terms of words, which inhabit an altogether different mental climate. . . If it could be told in words, then why would Chopin have found it necessary to tell it through notes in the first place?

- Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein at Frédéric Chopin's piano in Warsaw, Poland, 1959.

[mc-posts]

Biden had ‘15-20’ episodes of cognitive decline in last year, Carl Bernstein said on CNN.

Biden had ‘15-20’ episodes of cognitive decline in last year, Carl Bernstein said on CNN. Biden has allegedly been observed experiencing mental decline on as many as 20 occasions over the past year — suggesting his disastrous debate performance last week was “not a one-off,” sources close to the president told legendary journalist Carl Bernstein. Journalist Carl Bernstein discusses President Joe…

[neubad-plakate]

Grafik: Michael Speranza