Elgar "Enigma Variations" - Bernstein conducts (Part 3 of 3)

Elgar's "Enigma Variations" were played by the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a controversial reading by Leonard Bernstein at the Royal Festival Hall, London, on 14 April 1982. In this final part we hear Variations Nos 11 - 14. The announcer at the end states that this was the first time Bernstein had conducted the BBC Symphony. It was also the last.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Elgar
• Enigma
• Variations
• Bernstein
• classical
• orchestra

[adam28xx]

The Gramophone wrote of the LP that Bernstein & the BBC SO made after this concert: "Nothing short of a caricature .. 'Nimrod' so slow it threatens to come to a halt .. the finale sounds ever more sluggish." As to Bernstein, "He arrived late at rehearsals, was boorish and rude, and took the view that he alone knew how the work should be played .. He told the orchestra he never wanted to work with them again and the feeling was reciprocated. (Meryle Secrest's biography of Bernstein pp 388-9.)

[townsendjean]

@ToryBoy55

Karajan is hardly an appropriate foil ... a most over-rated conductor and musician.

Almost all his recorded renditions are ho-hum, lacking imagination and depth. Granted, he did commercialize himself well ... too bad the results never met advanced billing expectations.

[quelbop]

"Bernstein was a clown of a conductor"...no way. Have a listen to him conducting Beethoven's Missa Solemnis or Stravinsky's Les Noces.

Yes,he was prone to exaggeration from time to time,but on balance he was a good thing,and a FANTASTIC educator as well.

[ToryBoy55]

Bernstein was a clown of a conductor and nowhere near the calibre of Karajan. For Elgar, perhaps it takes a British Conductor to understand how it should sount?

[corusa]

Pretty awesome for being controversial. During Nimrod I was convinced it was too slow....BUT, at the end I was proven wrong by the perfect pace...it makes sense and works. By the way, BBC SO are notoriously tough on conductors. They eat them up and spit them out for breakfast. Lenny would have no part of that.

[scabycat]

@udayanchandra There was a fantastic documentary made about the concert and its rehearsals. I remember the leader ( was it Rodney Friend ?) trying to introduce Bernstein for the 1st time and Bernstein would not even allow that! He just shouted NO INTRODUCTION !! I am afraid , no matter how brilliant Bernstein was, he showed himself to be a very rude, arrogant and nasty person during those rehearsals. I have since seen other instances on tv where Bernstein was not a nice person- regretably

[udayanchandra]

Why is this a controversial reading & how come Maestro Bernstein never conducted the BBC Symphony again ?