July 12, 2019
8:00PM
Film with Orchestra
Leonard Bernstein was working on the music for his two best-loved stage works, West Side Storyand Candide, around the same time—fortuitously, as it would turn out. Before each show hit the Broadway stage in the mid-1950s, their respective songs celebrating the wedded bliss of the central characters were swapped. The stark difference of ideals in “Oh, Happy We” better lent itself to the rapier wit of Candide, while “One Hand, One Heart” forecast the wrenching tragedy awaiting Tony and Maria in West Side Story.
Leonard Bernstein was working on the music for his two best-loved stage works, West Side Storyand Candide, around the same time—fortuitously, as it would turn out. Before each show hit the Broadway stage in the mid-1950s, their respective songs celebrating the wedded bliss of the central characters were swapped. The stark difference of ideals in “Oh, Happy We” better lent itself to the rapier wit of Candide, while “One Hand, One Heart” forecast the wrenching tragedy awaiting Tony and Maria in West Side Story.
Ravinia Festival
Program
Bernstein: Score to West Side Story
Performers
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
David Newman, conductor
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