By Steven Suskin
02 Jan 2011
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Leonard Bernstein always seems to be jumping back into view, and fans of the Maestro's conducting might want to take a look at the five-DVD set Leonard Bernstein: Beethoven Brahms Bruckner Franck Milhaud Mozart [Medici Arts]. These concerts are well chosen; for the music, for the performances, and for the Bernstein-watching. They span 17 years, showing us the 55-year-old composer at the height of his powers in 1973 — between the premiere of Mass and the first Hal Prince production of Candide — and at 72 in March 1990, seven months prior to his death. First comes Brahms, Symphonies No. 1 and 3 with the Israel Philharmonic (1973); then three items with the Orchestre National de France, Franck's Symphony in D minor (1981) and 1976 performances of Milhaud's "La Creation du monde" and "Le Boeuf sur le toit." Disc three is Mozart, the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 17 in G major (with Lenny at the keys) and Symphony No. 39 (1981). Next is Bernstein's historic performance of Beethoven's 9th in Berlin on Christmas Day 1989, celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall. Finally, we have Bruckner's Symphony No. 9 with the severely-aged conductor leading the Wiener Philharmoniker. The collection is nicely packaged, with a handsome 32-page booklet (in English, German and French) including some striking black & white photography.
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Finally, we catch a strong flavor of Las Vegas — circa 1960 — with Frank Sinatra and his Rat Pack in Ocean's 11 [Warner]. Frank is Danny Ocean; ten of his WW II buddies join him for a daring New Year's Eve heist at the Strip's five major casinos. It is all tripe, yes, but nostalgically enjoyable tripe. The sets, the furnishings and especially the colors — which show up with dazzling pizzazz on the Blu-ray disc — could serve as a template for "Mad Men." Bonus features include a much later interview featuring a very casual Sinatra (as guest host on "The Tonight Show") reminiscing with co-star Angie Dickinson. I was never much of a fan of these Rats — Sinatra, Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop. As a kid growing up in the '60s, they just seemed to be a bunch of really old guys playing at acting. So much so that I never bothered to watch "Ocean's 11" or its cinematic cousins. Viewed today, the film provides whimsical entertainment with attitude.
The director of this mindless buddy movie was someone you might not suspect: Russian immigrant Lewis Milestone, who had won two early Oscars — one for the classic "All's Quiet on the Western Front" — some 30 years before. What's more, one of the two screenwriters was Charles Lederer, nephew of Marion Davies and co-producer/co-librettist of the Tony Award-winning 1953 Broadway musical Kismet. If the "Ocean's 11" screenplay has punch, though, it seems to come from doctoring by Billy Wilder.
(Steven Suskin is author of the recently released Updated and Expanded Fourth Edition of "Show Tunes" as well as "The Sound of Broadway Music: A Book of Orchestrators and Orchestrations," "Second Act Trouble" and the "Opening Night on Broadway" books. He can be reached at ssuskin@aol.com.)
