Did you ever see the Dead in concert?
Like I said, a GD concert was phantasmagorical. Their recordings are, with two exceptions, meh.
The problem with the symphonies is less that the music is bad (it isn’t) and more that they’re riddled with angsty self-flagellating twaddle. Symphony No. 2 “The Age of Anxiety” is a musical setting of a Auden text about alienation in the modern world and Symphony No. 3 “Kaddish” is Bernstein railing against God, but they both get deeply awkward in places (for those not familiar with the latter work there is narration throughout and some chorus) and are very much of their time. His “Mass” (which is a theatre piece and not a Mass) is a far better manifestation of the same concepts and deservedly gets performed more (I recommend it if you don’t know it - the music is really very good).
I disagree that Bernstein’s works were performed just because he was a “celebrity”; they got performed because he was a talented composer. A lot of them have dated badly (most notably the above symphonies) but that’s true of many composers. Prelude, Fugue and Riffs was groundbreaking but any performance today is going to sound old-fashioned (and be overshadowed by Benny Goodman’s performance - not that another clarinetist couldn’t play it well, but there will always be a comparison).
As for his other works of note, let’s not forget the excellent On The Town and music for On The Waterfront. Fancy Free still gets done on occasion (both the ballet and the orchestral variations). And Chichester Psalms is a solid part of the choral repertoire that gets performed several times a year.
Bernstein of course also gets rated highly for his conducting (particularly Mahler) and his advocacy of classical music to the general populace via the new and exciting medium of television.
Yes - Shoreline Amphitheater with Bruce Hornsby on keys. Backstage passes. It’s what led me to appreciate the whole community aspect.
Every single word of this.
Kanye was a marginal lyricist from the jump. But you lived with it because the music was so good. I don’t mind him experimenting more now with his sound, but his lyrics have deteriorated terribly. To the point that I can no longer live with it.
AND it’s propaganda.
‘Ulysses’ by James Joyce, read it recently expecting a masterpiece but actually as Father Dougal would put it, “Its a big load of bollocks, Ted”
Stream of conciousness, do other people actually think like that or is it another made up ‘fact’ like men supposedly thinking about sex every five seconds (or whatever ludicrously low number its supposed to be).
Most modern art, note I said ‘most’ as some really is mind-blowingly fantastic, but the other 99% is absolutely boring, obvious and pretentious nonsense for people with too much money and time on their hands trying to impress other people with too much money and time on their hands. Its the biggest confidence trick in history.
Yes, I definitely should have mentioned On the Town. My bad. On the Waterfront is also great, and shows that Bernstein easily could have had a stellar career in film music if he had wanted one.
Just to clarify, let me say that I do think there’s a lot of good stuff among Bernstein’s “serious” output (such as the clarinet sonata, which I’ve performed). HOWEVER. The subject of this thread is “Acknowledged greats in the Arts that you ‘don’t get,’” which implies some divergence from popular opinion. People upthread have mentioned disliking Mozart and Shakespeare; I hear that and I think “Whoa, really? What’s wrong with you?” But there’s nothing particularly controversial or contrarian about panache45 not liking Leonard Bernstein’s non-Broadway compositions. I’ve heard similar sentiments many times.
Oh, I thought of another one. Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. I read it during my exploratory, globetrotting, wandering phase of my early 20s and was absolutely bored by it. Tried it a second time a few years later. Couldn’t get past about thirty pages or so. I really am having difficulty understanding what people see in this book.
Agreed. For example, I appreciate and respect Mozart’s genius, but he just doesn’t float my boat.
On the other hand, I’ve always felt that Jimi Hendrix is absurdly overrated, a performer who was wonderful to watch but an underwhelming guitarist to listen to.
The one who puzzles me is Bob Dylan. I don’t consider him a musician, and his prose/poetry/commentary/lyrics (or whatever it is) does nothing for me. I just don’t get him, but wonder if there’s anything to get.
I think it was Truman Capote said of On The Road: “It’s not writing, it’s typing.”
Yeah, Hendrix is one I love and is incredible to listen to (so, counter to your opinion), but I can get with you about Dylan. He’s never done anything for me, and I just don’t understand why he’s so revered.
Yep…that’s exactly how I felt.