PROGRAM NOTES cont.: Thoroughly enthused about Candide , Bernstein persuaded Hellman to adapt it as a neo- Classical operetta, rather than the play with incidental music that she had envisioned. After a few out-of-town performances, the new work opened in New York City December 1, 1956. It closed less than three months later, after 73 performances. For a contemporary opera, that would have been a phenomenal run – for a Broadway show, it was a flop, for which Hellman’s book received most of the blame. Bernstein quickly moved on to other things, such as West Side Story and the music directorship of the New York Philharmonic. Candide had a few different performances in the 1950s and ’60s, and a new complete production in 1971 (with some new music by Bernstein), which opened in San Francisco and reached Los Angeles and Washington DC, but not New York. In 1973, however, it got a complete makeover, with Bernstein’s permission but not his participation. Harold Prince directed a cut-down and rearranged one-act version, with new orchestrations and a new book, for which Hugh Wheeler won a Tony Award. This version was then expanded back into two acts, with much of the cut music restored (although also reordered) in orchestrations by John Mauceri. It was premiered by New York City Opera in 1982. Mauceri then began yet another version for Scottish Opera, this time with Bernstein’s help. They restored much of the original order, with new work on the book (and connecting narrations) by John Wells (Wheeler having died). This was first performed in 1988, and provided the basis for the 1989 concert version that Bernstein conducted and recorded as his final thoughts on the work. Whatever the travails of Candide as a whole, its overture has become a hugely popular concert classic. Though it does touch on some of the show’s great tunes, the dashing overture is also a shapely sonata form with points of canonic imitation and a sparkling Rossini crescendo to close. - program notes by John Henken SYMPHONIC DANCES FROM "WEST SIDE STORY" by Leonard Bernstein COMPOSED : The musical West Side Story was composed principally from autumn 1955 through summer 1957, and Bernstein assembled portions of the score into the Symphonic Dances in early 1961, overseeing the orchestration for this version as it was carried out by Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal. The Symphonic Dances are dedicated “To Sid Ramin, in friendship” WORLD PREMIERE : The musical was premiered on August 19, 1957, at the National Theatre in Washington, DC; the Symphonic Dances were first performed on February 13, 1961, with Lukas Foss conducting the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall, in a pension fund gala concert titled “A Valentine for Leonard Bernstein”. INSTRUMENTATION : 2 flutes and piccolo, 2 oboes and English horn, 2 clarinets plus E-flat clarinet and bass clarinet, alto saxophone, 2 bassoons and contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bongos, suspended cymbal, cymbals, tenor drum, snare drum, bass drum, four pitched drums, xylophone, trap set, three cowbells, timbales, conga drum, police whistle, vibraphone, chime, woodblock, triangle, glockenspiel, tom-tom, guiro, maracas, finger cymbals, tambourine, harp, piano, celesta, and strings
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