Like many orchestral players I first came across Candide when playing the overture with my youth orchestra. This was my first step up into a senior youth orchestra and I still remember the programme
Bernstein - overture to Candide
Strauss - suite from Der Rosenkavalier
Berlioz - Royal Hunt and Storm and Trojan March
Mussorgsky orc Ravel - Pictures from an exhibition
That was quite a step up from simple arrangements in the school orchestra! What on earth must it have sounded like
I remember in particular struggling with the cross rhythms at the end of the overture - which are of course used in Glitter and be Gay.
I vaguely remembering hearing one of the ensembles (I think it might have been I am easily assimilated) on desert island disks and being hooked. I got hold of the original cast LP soon after wards and it was one of my most played recordings.
It is a piece of real genius - worth to stand with the finest of lighter operas - in fact with any sort of opera. The inventiveness is astonishing and Bernstein's ability to send up grand opera in an affectionate way is never shown to greater effect than in this aria. It is hard to listen to the Jewel song from Faust or the Bell song from Lakme without a smile once you know this parody.
But Candide also has one of the most spine tingling moments I know in all music. The final number builds to a great climax and then
the chorus is left on their own
I remember the hairs rising on the back of my neck when I heard this at ENO a few years ago.
Much as I love parts of West Side Story , Candide is undoubtedly Bernstein's masterpiece.
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