[Dixielandjazz] Leonard Bernstein: Omnibus

[Robert Ringwald]

A bit off topic.  However, I know some musicians and fans, members of DJML also like classical music
.   

(E1 Entertainment, $49.98)
by Mick LaSalle
San Francisco Chronicle, February 7, 2010

"Leonard Bernstein: Omnibus" was an educational series that aired on Sundays in the
1950s. This DVD set -- 449 minutes on four discs -- brings together the seven programs
that conductor-composer Bernstein made for that program from 1954 to 1958. By the
standards of television, these shows are highly sophisticated. In one, Bernstein
lectures on Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, conducting the orchestra to play various
motifs that Beethoven wrote and discarded. He has a program on jazz, opera, American
musical comedy, the art of conducting and the music of Bach. Bernstein is engaging
and highly intelligent, has an infectious enthusiasm and is the farthest thing from
a musical snob. These live shows -- the videos are kinescopes of the original broadcasts
-- go surprisingly smoothly, though there is the occasional glitch, which, of course,
makes them all the more interesting. One very obvious thing is that TV performers,
before videotape, didn't have much of a chance to see themselves and improve their
performances. Alistair Cooke as narrator is zombie-like compared to his polished
manner as host of "Masterpiece Theatre" two decades later. It's also rather fascinating
to watch Bernstein transform, in style and appearance, from a young dynamo at 36
to a middle-aged sage at 40 over the course of these episodes.


--Bob Ringwald K6YBV
rsr at ringwald.com
Fulton Street Jazz Band
916/806-9551

Check out our latest recording at www.ringwald.com/recordings.htm

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much
government.  -Thomas Jefferson


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