WEST SIDE STORY

Reissue of original soundtrack from the masterpice musical WEST SIDE STORY. Contains 15 tracks. French import.

Leonard Bernstein is considered to be one of the twentieth century’s most celebrated composers.

When Jerome Robbins decided to make the big screen version of West Side Story many considerable changes were made.

These are detailed in the outstanding booklet that accompanies this very special Fiftieth Anniversary Edition with exclusively commissioned new notes by Bernstein biographer Nigel Simeone, author of the recently published book “Leonard Bernstein: West Side Story” (Ashgate, 2009). We quote from that book’s cover blurb:

West Side Story is one of the very few Broadway musicals for which there is a complete published orchestral score, as well as two different editions of the piano-vocal score. The survival of the original copied orchestral score, and the reminiscences of Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal, reveal details of the orchestration process, and the extent to which Bernstein was involved in this. Simeone's commentary considers: musical characteristics and compositional techniques used to mirror the drama (for example, the various uses of the tritone), motivic development, the use and reinvention of Broadway and other conventions, the creation of dramatic continuity in the score through the use of motifs and other devices, the unusual degree of dissonance and rhythmic complexity (at least for the time), and the integration of Latin-American dance forms (Mambo, Huapango and so on). The stir the show caused included the response that it was the angular, edgy score that made it a remarkable achievement.

Simeone’s notes for the release “carry on” from where his book ends in 1961 and discusses the important contributions of Ramin and Kostal.

1. Prologue
2. Jet Song
3. Somethings Coming
4. Dance at the Gym
5. Maria
6. America
7. Tonight
8. Gee, Officer Krupke !
9. I Feel Pretty
10. One Hand, One Heart
11. Quintet
12. The Rumble
13. Cool
14. A Boy Like That et I Have a Love (Maria et Anita
15. Somewhere (Finale)