Conducted, performed, written and narrated by Leonard Bernstein. In this documentary portrait prepared for the anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s 200th birthday, Leonard Bernstein illustrates his analysis with excerpts from his performances of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major and the "Ode to Joy" from the Ninth Symphony (Soloists: Gwyneth Jones, Shirley Verrett, Placido Domingo, Martti Talvela; Vienna Philharmonic and Vienna State Opera Chorus), together with rehearsal and performance scenes from Fidelio (Soloists: Gwyneth Jones, James King, Theo Adam, Franz Crass, Lucia Popp, Adolf Dallapozza, Karl Ridderbusch).
Leonard Bernstein was the entry into classical music for legions of fans who experienced his multiple personalities as conductor, composer, teacher, and pianist. He became a veritable father figure not only to his considerable progeny of students but also to a whole generation that learned the joy of music from his influential televised Young People's Concerts. Bernstein remains probably the most effectively telegenic personality classical music has yet produced. The nine DVDs in The Concert Collection offer a fascinating time capsule of the later glory years, reminding us of the unique charisma that was Bernstein on the podium. At each location in this peripatetic collection, the moments before the maestro actually lifts his baton unfold as a powerful ritual. Just a glance at the reactions from audience and players gives you a sense of the hypnotic pull Bernstein commanded. His famously physical manner on the podium reveals a psychokinetic connection to the music. Every concert ends in a torrent of sweat. Sometimes gracefully balletic, at others outrageously exaggerated, Lenny's movements tempt you to air-conduct along with him. (Many who met Bernstein in person were startled to discover a relatively short man, so imposing is the presence he projects from the podium.)

The repertory here concentrates on the romantic, along with a few examples of 20th-century music (including Bernstein's own). Those familiar only wit his later Mahler cycles will find some intriguing seeds for the hyperromantic approach he would come to embrace. One of the unquestionable highlights involves Bernstein's efforts (covering two discs) during the 1970 Beethoven anniversary year. His famous Beethoven documentary--which includes a moving summation of what Beethoven means to him--gives us the best of Bernstein as teacher and communicator. And rehearsal scenes for his Viennese production of Fidelio are invaluable. The Ninth Symphony is of course a grand affair (it makes an interesting contrast with the later, highly publicized Ninth performed to mark the fall of the Berlin Wall), but don't overlook the thrills and beauty of Bernstein in the first Beethoven piano concerto, performing as conductor and pianist (he does likewise for Ravel's Concerto in G).

Bernstein also shows tremendous affinity for Berlioz, leading a no-holds-barred performance of the Requiem in Paris's St. Louis des Invalides. Here--as in many other moments--you realize how Bernstein's greatness as a conductor arises from an uncanny ability to identify with a composer, to endow the act of music-making with the rare conviction of being present at its creation. A number of the programs were directed by Humphrey Burton (a later biographer of the conductor). Inevitably, much of the camera work has a dated feel, especially compared with the most sophisticated jump cuts and angles of contemporary technology. Yet it still conveys that powerful empathy that is at the core of Bernstein's musical communication.

Perhaps the most dated element here, ironically, is the sometimes awkward 1973 production, in association with London Weekend Television, of Bernstein's one-act operatic satire from 1951, Trouble in Tahiti. Its cartoonish sets reveal a '70s take on a retro-'50s look of soulless conformity. But there's a lot of terrific music here, and the opera itself is ripe for rediscovery--as are the Bernstein symphonies also included in the set, music that has remained underrated in part because many conductors of today are reluctant to vie with Lenny's own seemingly unsurpassable interpretations.

Unfortunately, the set comes with neither subtitles nor printed texts for the Requiems and Trouble in Tahiti, and audiophiles will need to make accommodations for the boxy television sound of a bygone era. But these are minor failings in a set that offers extraordinary perspectives on a great conductor at work in the act of interpreting music. Bernstein himself said it best when he summed up the act of conducting as "the closest thing I know to love itself." --Thomas May

More from Bernstein

Young People's Concerts	The Unanswered Question	Mahler
Beethoven: The 9 Symphonies (Collector's Edition)	Mahler: The Complete Symphonies & Orchestral Songs	The Making of West Side Story

Customer Rating:
Summary: Him Again
Comment: As I went through music school in the eary fifties I was confronted with "Lenny". Now at 72 I still have this pleasure. There are people in the NYP that are legendary as are the performances. This set will give me a huge amount of pleasure for what ever time I have left. It is a wonderful historical document but most of all a tribute-legacy that people will be wondering about many years in the future. Bob Allshouse from the Dana school of Music 1952-57

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A tribute to Lenny, Vienna and Beethoven
Comment: I wouldn't go as far as the other reviewer and call this one of the greatest music videos ever made, but it is excellent and well worth your investment. I taped this program when it aired on A & E a few years back, then bought the prerecorded product when it became available on VHS; not it's available on DVD.

Bernstein's pilgrimage to Vienna is documented through playing a piano concerto and symphony before getting to practice and performance for "Fidelio". The latter section of this program is what separates it from others of its type, in my opinion. The interplay between conductor, producer, floor director and the artists is an insider's view of a classical music demonstration at the stratosphere of world-class performance.

Bernstein's well-known passion is unleashed in the performance of Beethoven's heroic opera, as well as the manner is which he swings his hips a la Elvis while conducting the choral episode of Beethoven's 9th Symphony.

There were a great many artistic endeavors during the Beethoven bicentennial in 1970 including Deutche Gramophon recording every piece of his music extant. But there wasn't much done then that has the lasting value of this production.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: One of the greatest classical music programs ever made
Comment: The following is not a review of the entire Bernstein Concert Boxed DVD Set, which was released in 2005. It is a review of "Bernstein on Beethoven: a Celebration in Vienna" only. It was written before the Boxed Set ever appeared on DVD:

This 1970 Emmy Award winning program was languishing in the CBS vaults, almost forgotten, until the memorial tributes to Leonard Bernstein began appearing shortly after his death, and it was finally rebroadcast, this time on A & E. Now it is available on video. It was, believe it or not, first broadcast as a prime time special on commercial television. It may be one of the two or three greatest television programs ever made.

It was intended as a commemoration of the 200th anniversary of Beethoven's birthday. Filmed entirely in Vienna, it is a documentary detailing the preparation of several musical works that Bernstein performed on that occasion with the Vienna Philharmonic, as well as several soloists.

Unlike the Young People's Concerts, this is intended for older audiences, but it is just as fascinating as any of Bernstein's programs. Fortunately, Bernstein himself provides the voice-over narration, and not some anonymous narrator, so we are able to relish his insights into the works.

We first hear him narrating a quick sketch of Beethoven's life, as well as an assessment of why Beethoven was at the same time a great composer and an impossibly difficult man. There follows a short excerpt of Beethoven's First Piano Concerto, with Bernstein both conducting and playing the solo piano part. Then we get the single longest portion of the film, a blow-by-blow account--from rehearsal to opening night-- of Bernstein's 1970 production of Beethoven's only opera, "Fidelio",and unlike other "rehearsal" segments in other documentaries which could easily turn dull, this one doesn't, demonstrating Bernstein's uncanny (and previously undocumented) ability as a stage "director", giving his cast of singers pointers on how to add dimension to their characters.

The finale is a complete performance of the "Ode to Joy" from the fourth movement of Beethoven's immortal "Ninth Symphony", preceded by an eloquently written and spoken (by Bernstein, of course) introduction to the piece.

Nothing I have "given away" in this review will spoil your enjoyment of the program. This is one program that needs to be experienced to really appreciate it. It is a milestone in musical appreciation programs, and one that deserves to be around forever.

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