Leonard Bernstein

Plus: Since the world needs music, I'm tackinga bit on at the end of this post. Here's a tease:Nobody could be more surprised than your humble author to find himself a practicing Zoomer.-by Ken I imagine that Howie and Noah have covered this by now.

COMDEN, GREEN, and BERNSTEIN: On the Town: Act I opening: "I Feel Like I'm Not Out of Bed Yet"; Introduction; "New York, New York"John Reardon, Gabey (and First Workman); Cris Alexander, Chip (and Workman); Adolph Green, Ozzie (and Workman); 1960 studio cast recording, Leonard Bernstein, cond.

For the 1960 recording, Betty and Adolph reprised their1944 roles, anthropologist Claire de Loon and sailor OzzieBERNSTEIN, COMDEN, and GREEN: On the Town:Act I, "Carried Away"Betty Comden, Claire; Adolph Green, Ozzie; 1960 studio cast recording, Leonard Bernstein, cond. Columbia-CBS-Sonyby KenOn a daily basis we're assaulted by so much slop and slime that I worry about insufficient attention being paid when we're given worthwhile stuff.

In June 1992, lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green narrated a famous London concert performance of On the Town at the Barbican Centre with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas.

by KenI love this theme.

In which we watch part of a cartoon, then listento an overture, and then another overture, and then --can you imagine? -- drift off into other, er, stuffA nice chunk of Chuck Jones's Baton Bunny (1959) -- from the confident-looking start, things deteriorate pretty quickly.by KenAs I mentioned most recently Friday night, New York City's Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, is currently hosting a grand exhibition devoted to one of the giants of animated film, Chuck Jones.

For the final stanza of "In diesem Wetter," the last of the Kindertotenlieder, Mahler switches from minor to majorThomas Hampson, baritone; Vienna Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein, cond. DG, recorded live, October 1988