New recording of "To Lenny, To Lenny"

[Miguel Andrade 1,262]

From the Marin Alsop complete Bernstein recordings box set on Naxos records:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bernstein-Marin-Alsops-Complete-Recordings/

Performed by the São Paulo Symphony.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

The US Marine Band, "The President's Own," are releasing a Leonard Bernstein album this month that will include a wind band transcription of "To Lenny! To Lenny!"

 

https://www.marineband.marines.mil/bernstein/

 

The Marine Band releases an album annually and they're almost always posted to Youtube by the first or second week of December, I'll post the piece here when it is.

 

Here's the blurb from the liner notes.

 

Quote

Like Bernstein, the work of John Williams has also become an important part of the American musical lexicon, and Williams’ works have proliferated popular culture across the globe on a similar scale. His music for film, television, and the concert stage, as well as countless national and international events, has played a major role in defining the most recent chapter in the evolution of the “American sound.” In longtime collaborations with directors such as Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, Williams has composed the scores for many of the most popular and enduring films of the last fifty years.  He ranks among the most honored film composers of all time, with five Academy Awards, four Golden Globes, twenty four GRAMMY awards, and seven British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards. In addition to his multiple wins, his fifty-one Oscar nominations are the most ever received by a living person.

 

Williams and Bernstein enjoyed a personal friendship through the years of their parallel careers as both conductors and composers. Upon the occasion of Bernstein’s seventieth birthday in 1988, Williams dedicated a brief piece to his friend in the form of variations on some of Bernstein’s most popular themes. Originally titled “To Lenny! To Lenny!,” and later changed to “For New York,” the work quotes “New York, New York” and “Lonely Town” from Bernstein’s early Broadway hit On the Town, as well as fragments of “America” from West Side Story and a hint of “Happy Birthday” in honor of the occasion. The piece was premièred for Bernstein on August 28, 1988, at the Tanglewood Music Center in Lennox, Massachusetts, by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer.

 

[Thor 7,479]

So they're back to calling it "To Lenny! To Lenny!" again? I thought "For New York" was its new official title now.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

4 minutes ago, Thor said:

So they're back to calling it "To Lenny! To Lenny!" again? I thought "For New York" was its new official title now.

 

Well the Marine Band has it on the tracklisting as "To Lenny! To Lenny! (For New York)"

 

I think I've seen that other places too, including both titles.

 

The program for this album is pretty neat, by the way.  I like that it includes Rozsa and Britten as tributes to Bernstein's career as a conductor, not just a composer.

[Miguel Andrade 1,262]

"To Lenny, To Lenny" was actually premiered under the baton of Seiji Ozawa, as part of the Bernstein Birthday Bouquet, that included contributions by other composers like Toru Takemitsu and John Corigliano.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Just now, Miguel Andrade said:

"To Lenny, To Lenny" was actually premiered under the baton of Seiji Ozawa, as part of the Bernstein Birthday Bouquet, that included contributions by other composers like Toru Takemitsu and John Corigliano.

 

Take it up with the Marines!  

[Miguel Andrade 1,262]

Honest mistake, I'm sure. It happens to the best