Lots of people love Leonard Bernstein and lots of people hate him. To know him (well - he’s dead, but to know about him) is to have an opinion. Me - I think he was great for classical music - his charisma brought people to it in ways we have not seen recently. I also think he’s a brilliant conductor - his Brahms’ Fourth Symphony with the New York Philharmonic is awesome.

However, I have never been a huge fan of his music. His writing has always felt fragmented and dated - even “West Side Story.” It seemed to me he was sticking tricks into the score for the sake of intellectual achievement rather than musical necessity.

But then I watched my sons listen to “Overture to Candide” and my opinion changed. They were so engaged and enlivened by this little piece that I was able to overlook anything I thought of as artificially high brow; for them, it’s just plain fun.

Lukas Foss does a really nice job with this version. The recording is a bit quiet, but acceptable. And Lukas Foss is one of the most musical composers I have ever known. For him it must first make sense musically then intellectually. And one of the things I picked up from him is that music must have humor - which I took to mean (in addition to humor) - personality. You have to include as much personality as possible in your music. Which he does - check out Thirteen ways of looking at a Blackbird.

And I think Lukas’ version of Overture to Candide captures that sense.

Originally published on WordPress on July 02, 2007. Migrated to this blog on May 29, 2025.