Bernstein: Mambo / Metzmacher · Berliner Philharmoniker

Leonard Bernstein: Mambo from West Side Story / Ingo Metzmacher, conductor · Berliner Philharmoniker / Recorded at the Berlin Philharmonie, 8 September 2012.
The Berliner Philharmoniker's Digital Concert Hall:
Subscribe to our newsletter:
Website of the Berliner Philharmoniker:

[lurkingdeath]

Wonderfully crisp and precise sound this orchestra always gives. Bernstein and Dudamel both loved this group.

[shinnicko]

The shot of Rainer Seegers (Timpani) shouting Mambo is hilarious. Looks like he's genuinely going to fight someone. Cracking stuff.

[OlavoLuisatto]

Principal Trumpet Gábor Tarkövi. A human machine. Wow. Bravo Mr. Tarkövi. BRZ

[cancaragold]

Some of the comments are saying the orchestra is bland, but this is one of the very few performances that is true to the original and the only one I have heard that has got the trumpet part right.

[minjaejameskim]

Wow....the trumpet player at 1:51 really nailed the solo part.

[enesberkel]

This little part of the recording is absolutely perfect. I liked this tempo and expression of the music...

[TheStockwell]

The full concert is astonishing. Besides being a brilliant collection of American works - avoiding pop concert standards - Metzbacher and the BPO introduced me to Charles Ive's Symphony Nr.4, a brilliant and bizarre work. Starting the program with Gershwin's rarely performed "Cuban Overture/Rhumba" was another smart piece of programming. How often is Gershwin represented by "An American in Paris" and "Rhapsody in Blue, " a work he didn't orchestrate? Too often. Adding Antheil's "Jazz Symphony" made it a full evening of great, powerful music. These are very detailed performances that avoid the odd "rule" that you have to blast and run through jazz inspired music. Tearing through the "Mambo" from "West Side Story" so fast that it becomes a percussive blur isn't just wrong-headed - it's silly!

[ildefonsomarquesportocorte]

A orquestra é super.Aqui, alem das tradicionais cordas, madeiras, sempre apreciadas, há um show  de metais e percussão. .Bernstein, alem de grande regente que foi, é compositor contemporâneo excelente.

[donaldspaulding]

The trumpets did their homework! Unfortunately no one else did the same.

[ulisesshiffer]

Que bueno que una filarmónica con tanto prestigio como la de Berlin se abra a ser tan eclécticos. Saludos desde México.

[johnflorio]

That’s absolutely amazing. The high register on a C trumpet is very hard to play.

[shnitzeedumple]

Holy shit, we played this in concert band twice as slow and it was very hard, props to this symphony

[brynjarhoff]

THINK THAT A GREAT KLASSIK KONDUKTOR HAS MADE THIS FANTASTIC MUSIC. Bernstein FOR EVER!!
BRYNJAR HOFF

[tommorrissey]

Not dirty enough but amazing on its own terms.

[hironakamakikogmail]

I was so moved!  This perfomance  was far surpassed  from others which  I’ve ever heard!!!!

[GeometricMason]

The next time a teenager you know laments that their high school never does a production of West Side Story show them this video and ask "Do you think your school's band could pull that off?"

[Anul]

Bravo, Joaquín Riquelme, orgullo de la música clásica española.

[dmitrishostakovich]

Dudamel will always be the best version, but this version also deserves more credit! The trumpet absolutely killed that part lol

[OrionBelt]

Why are they playing with those piston valve trumpets as opposed to the rotary valved ones.

[billsullivan]

A number of these statements about this Mambo need some enlightenment. First of all at least one of the Berlin Philharmonic members played many years in Dudamel's Simon Bolivar Orchestra. He plays double bass. There may be others that Dudamel knows, here.This is an international orchestra. Where the members come from is unknown to you, unless you do some work. Salsa can be a problem for many musicians. Some conductors just ignore it, because they do not want feel that way. Bernstein played this suite with this orchestra. If this orchestra could not play it the way he composed it, he would not have conducted it. Seems that some people here, know Bernstein better than the composer. Salsa by a Jewish composer seems very well liked all over the Latino world.