Bernstein rehearses "Nimrod" from Elgar's 'Enigma Variations'
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- Опубликовано: 3 июн 2021
- Leonard Bernstein made his one and only concert appearance with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 1982, his programme including Elgar's "Enigma Variations." The Royal Festival Concert was filmed for television and so was the first rehearsal. Excerpts from this have been issued on DVD and here is the first play-through of Bernstein's controversial reading of one of Elgar's most famous pieces. He and the orchestra didn't hit it off at all, so once he'd recorded the "Enigma" and three Elgar marches for DG the following day, he let it be known that he didn't wish to work with them again. The feeling was mutual! ... From 'ICA Classics' DVD ICAD 5098. The concert performance of "Nimrod" is also available here on RUclips as per this link ... • Bernstein conducts Elg...
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I honestly don’t understand why people prefer this piece being played faster… I’ve heard so many versions where it’s just being rushed through. The whole point of this piece is the strings floating in the air to really feel each and every chord. Bravo Bernstein 🎶
You don’t have to understand, it’s subjective to the individual listener.
This is about 18bmp, I think, so Elgar might disagree, having asked for around 60bpm...
Even allowing for recording distortions typical of the period, Elgar himself didn't take it at a donkey's pace.
It’s the build up that counts. The way the air is electrified when the violins play on their own! Bernstein was a genius ❤❤❤ Just open your heart and listen xxx
That's real art - keeping the life and tension in the music at such a tempo. Amazing.
I'm not worldly wise in the terms of music , but what I am sure of is the brilliance of this interpretation, and its incredible emotive content.
he never, never, never...looks at the score...everything in memory. Amazing !!!
Not really.
Lenny was some character. You may not have agreed with everything he did but he was never boring. He was always passionately involved in the making of music. At this tempo you get to relish every note and the dynamics create a better climax.
What I think too
I don’t agree but obviously there’s room for differences. This, to me enhances Elgar’s music in a way maybe he could never have thought of.
There are so many differing interpretations of Shakespeare, for example ,so a different take on Elgar is nothing that new - Bernstein allows the music to breathe, sustain and sing out. For me, it wrenches even more emotion out of a heavenly composition.
@@jeffhunt2475no room for disagreements…Lenny was the best and his interpretation is the ONLY one to be cherished!
The real-life "Maestro" at his best. Bravissimo, Lenny!
This is what life is about.
I recall this being broadcast on tv - in the days when the BBC actually believed in classical music - when I was a young musician already in love with Lenny Bernstein. I've always felt he had a supreme gift for communicating and have treasured the many LPs, CDs and DVDs I have of his work for many years. This interpretation of 'Eddie's' Enigma Variations was controversial from the outset. The tempo chosen for 'Nimrod' was deemed ridiculously slow and almost a mockery of such a 'sacred' piece of English orchestral music. I've always disagreed with this viewpoint. I often go back to Bernstein's recording of the Enigma Variations and, if you let it, the tempo shouldn't bother you as, I believe, the music can take it. Live with it and it actually flows. I remember musical acquaintances then and now asserting that Bernstein 'Mahler-ised' this variation. I don't think so. I think Bernstein treats the work with huge respect. Some members of the BBCSO behaved in a very disrespectful way towards Lenny. More than likely jaundiced by the then prevalent attitude that only English/British conductors could successfully conduct British music. However, the recordings of Elgar's music - and that of other British composers - by such conductors as André Previn, Leonard Slatkin and Bernard Haitink, to name but a few, prove that such opinions are nonsense. If you don't like this interpretation then don't listen to it; but I feel anyone doing so is missing something important. Personally, I'd rather have Bernstein's Elgar than the insensative way Barenboim does it any day!
The tempo is utterly ridiculous. Poor orchestra. Poor Elgar.
@@sebastiandangerfield9933 Not so!!!!
Yep I saw this BBC broadcast and thought it way too slow way back then...now I have not changed my mind!
Simply beautiful interpretation
I remember seeing the rehearsal on TV. It was electrifying and immediately went out and his recording which is still my favourite version. I watch the rehearsal often. Pure magic
For all of the detractors and Elgar purists ,you need to watch the entirety of this rehearsal/masterclass which lasts for hours. Bernstein was conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra ,whom he greatly admired and in an intermission ,when interviewed ,he referred to Elgar as a genius. He deconstructed and then reconstructed each variation ,all with the full enthusiasm of a truly professional orchestra. Again for the detractors, when your canon of composition and conducting is comparable to the maestro's ,then I'll pay attention !
BEAUTIFUL 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 for ever leonard Bernstein
yall are tripping this tempo is PERFECT
Ficou espetacular!
Wow. it 'isn't easy', as he says to play it so slow, but it's beautiful, it forces us as listeners to 'tune in'. bravo.
#OdedFriedGaon #OdedMusic #Audioded
A lot of people say it's too slow but I disagree...everything after this seems too fast - this CD is still my favorite.
Indeed he did not get on well with the BBC but from the clips I have seen he was very polite to them but got a lot of disrespect (trumpets and even the concertmaster complained about temp in one mov) in return.
To me it appears some of the more inflexible players did simply not like being "shown" how to play Elgar (their music so to speak) in a different way - certainly not from a New York Jew.
My soul longs for thee o lord
I love this tempo. Drink it in and be inspired and taken to another musical plateau by LB.
Fabuloso Bernstein🎧🎼🌹
If I had been in the orchestra, I'd be thinking, "This is fun, really different and unusual. I'll never do it again, but hey it's fun".
Simply Irresistible!!!
Very educational description to this video. I never was a Bernstein groupie.
Leo genius like Carlos Kleiber this version restores all the intensity of Elgar and reminds me of Kleiber's Tristan and Isolde version. Magnificent
Who was the orchestra player that said. "it's too slow " to which Bernstein said "too slow for who "? To which the musician retorted "Elgar"
Escuchar esta musica es como un sueño precioso !!!!
it's magnifying!
I think it’s divine.
guys, it's a REHEARSAL... he can take whatever tempo he wants. lol
Exactly. He’s exploring the gorgeous harmonies and the haunting counterpoint of Elgar’s masterpiece. It’s learning the music.
In the actual recording this tempo is actually implemented. It's incredible. Whether it is incredibly bad or good depends on the listener.
It's really amazing how an interpretation makes so many people either love it or hate it. Played to norm and custom always creates the same sentiment, but Bernstein as was often the case went overboard. Mahler Adagietto being another example. But is his tempo too slow, or are the player's muscle memory too fast? I can't commend loving this performance but I can condemn hating it. And for a piece that has been played the exact same way thousands of time, one that is different from the rest is a breath of fresg air. Oh and yeah, it's too slow.
Thank you.
Dave Hurwitz Nimrod is this.
"It' damn close."
The actual concert wasn’t this slow. It’s here on RUclips. Unless
Someone sped it up slightly but I don’t think so. It’s a tad faster than this. At the end he said it’s not quite how it will go but damned close.
If you have ever experienced love that cannot be returned in the same way but is appropriate and appreciated then the tempi is perfect - you can only like this tempi if you let yourself hurt and listen / if you just want to hear music this is not for you / if you want to hear thanks and gratefulness for a unique friendship that only comes ( if your lucky ) once in a lifetime / you will hear and understand what Bernstein is doing
A sound meditation.
it takes true professionalism to execute this difficult but incredibly beautiful interpretation
Wow!
Verdaderamente grandioso.
Supremo.
I actually quite like this tempo and i k now it is increxibly difficult to play this slow...
Interesting. It builds. Wonder what Elgar would think.
Do you have the full rehearsal?
There are 25 minutes of the rehearsal on the ICA Classics DVD but someone has uploaded the hour-and-a-half BBC documentary on this performance, as per the link below. Unfortunately the audio level is very low and the screen ratio is squashed width-ways ...
ruclips.net/video/ax5i0xrdrQo/видео.html
@@adam28xx yeah i forgot about that video, I even comment on that video and you're the one that answered my question 10 months ago, lol. Just hope someone would upload the entire rehearsal at higher quality. Thank you for your response!
Before PaulStretch, there was Bernstein.
Personally I enjoy this recording; if it's not to everyone's taste there are countless other performances to listen to - why must they all be interpreted the same way?
🤣
Sir Leonard Bernstein's enthusiastic direction is all of a piece with the intent discipline of the players. Wonderful!
Adam Warren Since when was Maestro Bernstein a "SIR?".
How to be a great conductor 101.
Was it just this slow in rehearsal, or did they perform it this way?
Here is the concert performance and once the woodwind come in, the tempo picks up noticeably ... ruclips.net/video/_8NOVGHJmRs/видео.html
This is like a 0-0 baseball game in the 9th, or a nil-nil football game in the 80th minute. The tension is incredible!
damn why is everyone cooking him for the tempo? lol
The master
Ah Jaysus he's killing it
Any interesting failure. His beat is so imprecise they have difficulty articulating such a slow speed and the tension of the music drains away through the tension and uncertainty (and admittedly resentment) of the players.
Huh?
At least he let them play the whole movement right through, and praised the playing of the BBC orchestra. I really thought it was so slow that the tune and emotion was lost. However this is all been said before.
Tempi absolutamente erróneo, Lenny. Muy, muy lento!.
Mr.Bernstein bit them all.
As always, LB' makes his musical goal clear, but I don't agree with it. Nimrod isn't an English Romantic "Bolero"; instead, the climax arrives like a burst of light out of the forest, as it were, with little crescendos and decrescendos here and there along the way.
truly great.
What did he think he was? Celibidache?
he was Bernstein.
Yes, the first part is really too slow- but that“s Bernstein‘s conviction.
I would have found it hard not to walk out of this rehearsal, but the professionalism of the orchestra, and their ability to endure this artistic insult, is miraculous.
You would never walk out of Leonard
He's a god but in this case you have no tension because the tempo is too slow
I dunno ..... it's not all that horrible.
oyyy… too painfully slow!
Agreed !!
Too slow.The best version -Barenboim and Chicago Symphony Orchestra 🔥
If I were playing that tempo, I’d go to sleep! 🎼🎶🎶🎶🎻.
Too slow.
Not sure about this. Too much grandeur and emotion. No, Elgar is not Hollywood.
I think it's wonderful. Thank about what Benjamin Wallfisch did with Variation 15 in Dunkirk! Elgar CAN be Hollywood!
Ridiculously slow. Sorry Maestro, but you’ve sucked the life out of a piece of music that is noble in character, not dying its last dying breath.
Bernstein is too theatrical for my stomach to endure this session, presumably with slow tempos and the Maestro being moved by Maestro.
...Elgar meets Mahler...
I think Bernstein was an amazing conductor, but this is way too slow for my taste
Elgar is not Mahler and this is a distorted view of the noble composition. Way overdone and milked. More Bernstein than Elgar. Eccentric and egocentric.
I've never heard this piece till now - I'm blown away by the interpretation - it was stunning. Glorious, sublime, poignant, heart-wrenching - what it means to be a thinking, feeling human being in life. He (Maestro) did not do badly.
@@doreenbrodmerkel8521 Thank You! And everyone here who has expressed negative comments needs to read this. I submit that if this were the first time anyone on this page was hearing this music their reaction would be the same! I wish Bernstein had taken this tempo in performance. He was 1 minute faster!!
I love both Bernstein AND Elgar. But "Nimrod" here sounds as if it's reflected through the prism of Mahler 5's Adagietto. And i dont believe that's what Elgar intended. I understand people saying a great conductor is allowed to "deconstruct" a piece in his image, but surely this is too much. Bernstein tells the orchestra to play "nobly" but they can't - nobility doesn't mean without energy or momentum
What does the score say about the tempo?
In the score, "Nimrod" is marked 'Adagio' which in musical terms means "played slowly." Of course, every conductor will have his own ideas of what "played slowly" actually means in practice and Bernstein's Mahlerian approach clearly doesn't please everyone!
That was painful to listen to.
Great!
Painful. Not one of Bernstein's better moments
Far too slow.
I was at the concert. It's too slow. Period. Try Toscanini or Stokowski to hear how it should be done. Sorry Lenny mate, I love a lot of what you did but this was ill conceived.
Painful to listen to. The pace is just WRONG. Sounds as if it's about to expire at any moment.
Pace???? 🤣😉
Elgar would have been horrified at this butchering of Nimrod.
Did you know him?
@@matthewbbenton Good reply.
@@doreenbrodmerkel8521 SET AND MATCH.
Sludge, like molasses. Oy.
Laughable. Full marks to the orchestra for not falling down in fits of laughter at this ridiculous interpretation.
If you cant feel this then you don’t know it
The LSO are struggling at this tempo, you feel their resistance!! ..... In the performance, they nailed it!
so right
I ask something, why the statement like this? What’s so wrong about it? It seemed quite beautiful to me
There’s no context to this clip of the rehearsal. With that said, a fairly common rehearsal technique is to take the really slow pieces slower, and the fast pieces faster, so that when you bring them to the performance tempo, the tempo feels more relaxed and natural.
May or may not be what’s happening here.
A completely horrible butchering of Elgar!!!
Very subjective. Personally, I think it is the best ever.
This is anti-chamber music. Without Bernstein conducting every note, it would completely fall apart. At this tempo, the music has lost all tensile strength and energy. What a mistake.
Elgar himself stipulated the tempo, in a manner of speaking. He said it wasn’t meant to be a funeral dirge- it was meant to be stroll in his beloved Malvern Hills . This is pure indulgence from a narcissist .
Maybe it's a stroll in the Malverns with a zimmer frame. Those things are a bugger to get over big stones.