Bernstein Peter

This is a work tailor-made for a choreographer, and once again I am struck by how visually Kverndokk composes, and with what agility.The source of inspiration here is stated by the composer himself: it is a tribute to Leonard Bernstein, inspired by maestro Bernstein’s symphony “The Age of Anxiety”.But what is impressive and fascinating is this: despite the nod to his hero in his themes that touch upon scenes in “West Side Story, such as “Mambo” and “The Rumble”, it is Kverndokk through and through, and not Bernstein.When all is said and done, I would like to quote Stephen Sondheim, who also wrote the lyrics to “West Side Story”, and the protagonist of his musical, “Sunday in the Park with George”: Finishing the hat, mapping out the sky! That is always what it’s about.The work was written during the pandemic, but it would be inappropriate to associate it with this period, for the dramatic scope of the work is larger than what the lockdown of the country gave us.

Mike LeDonne has appeared on over 100 CDs as a sideman with so many jazz giants it is hard to keep count: Art Farmer, Clifford Jordan, Dizzy Gillespie, Stanley Turrentine, Milt Jackson, Christian McBride and others. LeDonne made his first recording as a leader on the B-3 for Savant in 2003 and has since added seven additional records to his discography on the label. To his regular band, The Groover Quartet (Eric Alexander, Peter Bernstein and Joe Farnsworth) Mike has added guests Jeremy Pelt on trumpet and the venerable bassist, Bob Cranshaw. With such an illustrious line-up there are few jazz combos that burn hotter, swing harder or generate more excitement than this all-star aggregation.

Mike LeDonne has appeared on over 100 CDs as a sideman with so many jazz giants it is hard to keep count: Art Farmer, Clifford Jordan, Dizzy Gillespie, Stanley Turrentine, Milt Jackson, Christian McBride and others. LeDonne made his first recording as a leader on the B-3 for Savant in 2003 and has since added seven additional records to his discography on the label. To his regular band, The Groover Quartet (Eric Alexander, Peter Bernstein and Joe Farnsworth) Mike has added guests Jeremy Pelt on trumpet and the venerable bassist, Bob Cranshaw. With such an illustrious line-up there are few jazz combos that burn hotter, swing harder or generate more excitement than this all-star aggregation.

Leonard Bernstein a composer he wrote in many styles encompassing symphonic and orchestral music, ballet, film and theatre music, choral works, opera, chamber music and pieces for the piano. Many of his works are regularly performed around the world, although none has matched the tremendous popular and critical success of West Side Story.

This is a work tailor-made for a choreographer, and once again I am struck by how visually Kverndokk composes, and with what agility.The source of inspiration here is stated by the composer himself: it is a tribute to Leonard Bernstein, inspired by maestro Bernstein’s symphony “The Age of Anxiety”.But what is impressive and fascinating is this: despite the nod to his hero in his themes that touch upon scenes in “West Side Story, such as “Mambo” and “The Rumble”, it is Kverndokk through and through, and not Bernstein.When all is said and done, I would like to quote Stephen Sondheim, who also wrote the lyrics to “West Side Story”, and the protagonist of his musical, “Sunday in the Park with George”: Finishing the hat, mapping out the sky! That is always what it’s about.The work was written during the pandemic, but it would be inappropriate to associate it with this period, for the dramatic scope of the work is larger than what the lockdown of the country gave us.

His fame derived from his long tenure as the music director of the New York Philharmonic, from his conducting of concerts with most of the world's leading orchestras, and from his music for West Side Story, Peter Pan,[3] Candide, Wonderful Town, On the Town, On the Waterfront, his Mass, and a range of other compositions, including three symphonies and many shorter chamber and solo works.

On his upcoming album "Sapphire" the trombonist Peter Steiner and pianist Constanze Hochwartner present the unusual combination of piano and trombone. The program of the album combines both arrangements of Mozart and Puccini with melodies of Bernstein and contemporary trombone literature with film music from The Godfather. A foretaste of the interaction between the two artists and their instruments was provided by the first single release, Mozarts' Rondo "Alla Turca".

It was in these terms that Ferruccio Busoni greeted the publication in 1908 of the 14 Bagatelles, in which Béla Bartók conveyed the violent aesthetic impact of his discovery of authentic Hungarian peasant music. Over the next 20 years, up to the magisterial Sonata of 1926, he indefatigably refined an innovative pianistic language: pungent, dissonant, percussive, with multiple new playing techniques, that was to influence the entire 20th century. A master of every style, from Haydn to Boulez by way of Chopin and Chabrier, Alain Planès stands revealed here as a Bartókian of the front rank.