West Side Story Act II Ballet - some music I've never heard- Page 2

[Unknown User]

Posted: 3/18/09 at 10:37pm

I have this CD now--my grandma did have it. It's largely really good, the tempi are a bit slow for me but this does allow you to really listen to the music (and to be fair it's no slower than the slow tempi Bernstein conducted it at for the opera recording). the performances are much better than the opera one for my tastes, although at some parts you can tell they weren't from a real staged performance.

Anyway at the back it says that this recording is the whole score as written before the Broadway opening--is that why it uses the original America lyrics but with guys and girls? We know that it wasn't till rehearsals that they re-conceptualized it to be only women.

[morosco]

Posted: 3/21/09 at 8:36pm

I was just watching the the motion picture and realized that the passage of music that was cut from the ballet was interpolated into the film's prologue.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 3/22/09 at 3:06am

It's largely really good, the tempi are a bit slow for me but this does allow you to really listen to the music

Eric, if you - like me - are used to the OBCR the correct tempi will sound slow because Goddard Lieberson had them increased to fit as much of the score onto one Lp as possible and to create a little more excitement for the home listener who was not seeing the dances.

I have the same problem when I listen to John Yap's masterworks editions. I know his are technically correct, but Lieberson's albums have more vibrancy. Of course if you know the correct version, Lieberson's will sound rushed.

[marknyc]

Posted: 3/22/09 at 2:02pm

"I was just watching the the motion picture and realized that the passage of music that was cut from the ballet was interpolated into the film's prologue."

The unspoken truth about the "Prologue" - Irwin Kostal's version for the film is better than Bernstein's original. Not just in the size of the orchestra, but in the stuff Kostal added.

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 3/22/09 at 3:13pm

Ouch Mark, completely disagree.

Adding so much of what comes in the score later, as most of the additions to the Prologue does, takes away from the careful build-up of the elements of the score. In the show, the Prologue establishes the musical language -- the tritones, lowered sevenths, major & minor tone clusters, and hemolias -- in the way they should be introduced. I know to say the music of the Prologue is simple seems absolutely ridiculous, but compared to the rest of the score...the elements are "simply" introduced and then built upon throughout the score. They become more easily heard and more dominant, complicated, and sound uglier in some of the later songs like Cool, Tonight, and A Boy Like That. It's a whole building block, and each song builds on the previous. But the movie Prologue puts lots more of the later elements in the first song, so the same build-up doesn't occur -- like the tritones so infamous in Cool are heard in the movie Prologue. It's more effective to hear the less obvious Tritones in the Prologue and then hear them completely built out in Cool.

And I hafta say I'm shocked to learn about the OBCR tempi. It took me 2 years to play The Rumble "up to tempo..." and now I learn I tried so hard to learn to play it faster than it needs to be played. Oh well.