Experiencing Leonard Bernstein

Starred review from November 1, 2014
On the next-to-last page of his survey of Leonard Bernstein's compositions, LaFave says, I fully expected Bernstein the composer to shrink as the book burgeoned. The reverse occurred. Bernstein's music revealed more and more structural glories, such as the informing use of the tritone in West Side Story, as well as an overall profile at once traditional and avant-garde. Bernstein clung to tonality and argued against atonal and 12-tone composition per se while exemplifying how to use 12-tone rows within tonal works. He leaped into the orchestral percussion revolution that led to minimalism, and he pioneered injecting pop-music styles, performance techniques, and instruments (electric guitar, Hammond organ) into otherwise classical orchestral and singing ensembles to produce the sui generis Mass, the best-selling multiple-disc classical recording in the industry's history. LaFave's greater-than-anticipated enthusiasm for his subject shows in the liveliness of his engrossing readings of Bernstein's scores, which include thorough plot pr'cis of the composer's dramatic works, including the musicals, the movie On the Waterfront, Mass, and even the violin concerto Serenade after Plato's Symposium (based on a drama of sorts, after all). Reading his descriptive analyses seems the next-best thing to attending actual performancesquite an achievement for a series book.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)