Bernstein Overture to Candide
Bernstein Symphony No.2, The Age of Anxiety
Bernstein Symphonic Dances from West Side Story
Leonard Bernstein would have been 100 years old on Sat 25th August, if he hadn’t sadly shuffled off the mortal coil in 1990, at the age of 72. Being Bernstein, he will have most likely swung off the mortal coil to a jazzy little number, rather than shuffle! A superstar composer, pianist and conductor, his music is loved across the world, with West Side Story amongst his most celebrated shows. Happy Birthday Bernstein was part of the ‘Bernstein at 100’ world-wide celebration of his 100th birthday, with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, resident conductor and music director, Alondra de la Parra and the Swiss piano soloist, Andreas Haefliger.
The brilliant Morning Masterworks series concert featured three of Bernstein’s most eclectic works, starting with a bang in the Overture to Candide. It opened on Broadway on the 1st December in 1956 highlighting the optimism of 50’s America with the dark undertone of the McCarthy witch-hunts. Bernstein drew similarities with Voltaire’s 1759 novel Candide, on the oppression of Catholicism balanced with Leibniz’s optimistic philosophy of the time. The overture has a comical crazed introduction until the strings seem to bring the orchestra under some sort of control, with waltzing melodious tunes interspersed with the crash of cymbals and the blare of the brass.
It was immediately apparent by Alondra la Parra’s energetic conducting style, that Bernstein is one of her favourite composers. She jumped and jived before the orchestra, as if she was simultaneously playing all of the instruments herself. During Symphony No.2, The Age of Anxiety, based on W.H. Auden’s forty-five page poem, Alondra leaped and shimmied up a storm during the fourteen variations of Part One, divided into the Seven Ages and the Seven Stages and the concluding three pieces in Part Two. The musical styles varied wildly throughout, as the music depicts the story of four vague characters who meet in a New York bar during wartime and discuss their varying philosophies on life, fuelled by alcohol and jazz. In the grandiose Epilogue, they realise that their faith is easily found “in their backyard.”
The QSO was swollen to gargantuan proportions, with two grand pianos, two harps and a celeste all helping to portray the musical story. Andreas Haefliger was fantastic on the piano, playing what is effectively a diverse piano concerto of large-scale structures, mingled with twelve-note serialism, and a sprinkle of jazzy Americana. After a particularly intense solo, he appeared to shrug and shake his hands, relishing a brief rest whilst the orchestra took over the fevered tempo. In Part Two, Tim Corkin on three Timpani drums was joined at the front of the stage by Phoebe Russell on the double bass to accompany the piano and celeste (Mitchell Leigh), and create a ‘crazy Scherzo’ in The Masque. The audience were transported to an apartment for more drunken philosophy and Bernstein-styled jazz, with slapping strings and funky xylophone and glockenspiel riffs. This part was a big favourite, as the whole QSO and Alondra swung to the syncopated rhythms of Bernstein’s 50’s jazz.
The Symphonic Dances from West Side Story provided a coruscating conclusion to Bernstein’s 100th celebration. Bernstein wrote it with lyricist Stephen Sondheim to be a popular world-wide Broadway show based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The warring families of the Capulets and Montagues were transformed to the gangs of the American Jets and the Puerto Rican Sharks and a forbidden love between Tony and Maria. All the favourites were there, including Somewhere, Mambo and Cha Cha. As the musicians clicked their fingers and shouted “Mambo” between plucking and playing, Alondra conducted in a pogo-style fashion. As the concert faded to the haunting tune of Somewhere, it was evident by the joyous energy that Bernstein was a favourite not only of the audience, but also of the QSO, delivering a breathtaking testament to Bernstein and his brilliance.
Conductor Alondra de la Parra
Piano Andreas Haefliger
Concert Hall, QPAC 24th August 2018
Dr Gemma Regan