Exceptional Things
Exceptional Things
"Dedicated to putting a spotlight on exceptional works created by exceptional people in all walks of life"
– David Pack
Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story Remake Masterpiece
Excerpt from Bernstein Newsletter Dec ‘21
Dear friends,
At long, long last, Steven Spielberg's new film adaptation of WEST SIDE STORY has arrived in theaters nationwide and around the world. We are truly thrilled about all the rave reviews coming in, thick and fast. The Bernstein family had an unforgettable evening at the NYC premiere — albeit rendered bittersweet by the sudden loss, a mere handful of days before, of Stephen Sondheim, Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story collaborator, perennial word game sparring partner, and beloved family friend. News of his passing has hit us all very hard.
In this issue, as part of the premiere festivities, we share ABC's behind-the-scenes special Something's Coming; West Side Story, as well as a fascinating webinar exploring the creation of the 1957 musical, featuring rare facts and artifacts from the Library of Congress. And for your listening fun, we provide a link to the new 2021 West Side Story motion picture soundtrack, which already sits at #9 on the iTunes charts. Now available on digital and CD.
As part of our celebration of the 50th anniversary of MASS, we're announcing a free livestream panel discussion, to be co-presented by the Leonard Bernstein Office and Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music You'll also find an article from our archives on MASS in Philadelphia.
In additional news, Deutsche Grammophon has released a new vinyl of Bernstein's only appearance with the Berlin Philharmonic. We also invite listeners to get into the festive season with Bernstein's much-beloved 1963 recording, The Joy of Christmas.
—Jamie Bernstein & Craig Urquhart, editors
The Buzz Begins... 11 Critics Choice Nominations & 4 Golden Globe Nominations
"Staggeringly Great" - David Elrich, IndieWire
"A love story as relevant as ever." - Brian Truitt, USA Today
"An Exuberant Modern Fairytale" - Stephanie Zacharek, TIME
"West Side Story is Steven Spielberg's most exhilarating movie in years." - Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times
“a dazzling display of filmmaking craft” - A.O.Scott, The New York TImes
"Bernstein’s score remains one of the glories of musical theater: all thunder and lightning one moment, all tender whispers the next." - Don Aucoin, Boston Globe
“thrilling, romantic, drenched in movement, life and color" - Ann Hornaday, Washington Post
Morning Glory on the Vine: Early Songs and Drawings
By Joni Mitchell [Houghton Mifflin Harcourt - 2019]
A gorgeous compendium of Joni Mitchell's handwritten lyrics and watercolor paintings, originally handcrafted as a gift for a select group of friends in 1971 and now available to the public for the first time.
In 1971, as her album Blue topped charts around the world, Joni Mitchell crafted one hundred copies of Morning Glory on the Vine as a holiday gift for her closest friends. For this stunningly beautiful book, Joni hand-wrote an exquisite selection of her own lyrics and poems and illustrated them with more than thirty of her original paintings and watercolors. Hand-crafted, signed, and numbered in Los Angeles, the existing copies of this labor of love have rarely been seen in the past half-century.
Now, as Joni celebrates her seventy-fifth birthday, Morning Glory on the Vine: Early Songs and Drawings is available widely for the first time. In this faithfully reproduced facsimile edition, Joni's best-loved lyrics and poems spill across the pages in her own elegant script. The lively, full-color watercolor paintings depict a superb array of landscapes, still-lifes, portraits of friends, self portraits, innovative abstractions, and more. All the paintings from the original book are included, along with several additional works that Joni had intended to include for her friends in 1971. Finally, the refreshed volume features an original introduction written by Joni herself. Morning Glory on the Vine is a gorgeous and intimate keepsake and an invitation to explore anew the dazzling, visionary world of Joni Mitchell.