How Bernstein ACTUALLY Conducts vs. Bradley Cooper in Maestro

0:00 Intro
1:18 Entschweben
2:49 Downbeat
4:58 Choir Entrance
5:27 Preparation
6:11 Balance
7:08 Windmill
7:38 Closed
8:17 Pointing
8:34 Climax
8:59 Mahler
9:40 Bradley Cooper
10:57 Communication
12:58 LSO
13:40 Storyteller

Bradley Cooper took a huge risk to conduct like Leonard Bernstein for 5 straight minutes recreating a concert of Mahler's 2nd Symphony that we have film footage from! So we can actually see how Leonard Bernstein conducted this moment versus how Bradley Cooper portrays it in the Oscar-nominated film Maestro. As you will see, the two are similar in some ways but different in others. Let me break it down for you.

Videos discussed:

Deutsche Grammophon - Bernstein conducting Mahler's 2nd Symphony

Netflix - Maestro

Omnibus - The Art of Conducting

Two Set Violin - Bradley Cooper Didn't Practice 40 Hours

Other images by Pixabay and Pexels.
Use of copyrighted music is licensed under fair use.

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#bradleycooper #maestro #bernstein

[emptynestingdad]

this was amazing commentary. I have a master's degree in conducting from the Eastman School of Music and I learned a lot from this video. Bravo

[tommasorossi]

You shoukd really do more conducting analysis, its really interesting and you are really great at explaining why great conductors do what they do

[bityew]

GREAT analysis, Howard! Thank you so much for that insightful glimpse into "actual" vs. "ACTED" and why is kind of NEEDS to be different for the film.

[mygoat]

As a chorister who sang this very piece with Berlin Phil under Simon Rattle and have since been hating Rattle's conducting with a passion, thank you for showing us how Bernstein got it right.

[philaeew]

This was a great video! Super good analysis.
I am once again azed how as a player, I really couldn't have told you exactly Bernstein was doing, but I swear if I was sitting on the other side of that baton I would have known intuitively what all of this is supposed to make me do.
Communication between conductor and player is, when executed well, such an intuitive and natural process it's almost subconscious.

[cz]

This was a wonderful analysis. I play in a community orchestra and we have now for the first time in the 80 year history of it, have a new conductor who is a young genius musician who I think has a chance to move up to a really great orchestra. I came here because I am intrigued by how a person learns the art of conducting and you have pointed out many subtleties that are helpful to keep a look out for.

[eowawrzkiewicz]

"The whole choir has had a rest 😴" omg that picture you used made me laugh so hard 😂🤣

[thomaslaubli]

This video shows that Bernstein was not only emotionally driven, as the critics decried him, but just as much an analytical conductor.

[emilgilels]

Wow - fantastic breakdown and analysis, both of Lenny's original performance, and of Bradley Cooper's cinematic recreation.
Also, your recognition of the fact that Cooper's aims are different than Bernstein's (due to Cooper being an actor doing a portrayal in a movie and not actually a real conductor) leads you to a very "humane" analysis of Cooper's performance, which is admirable on your part.
It would perhaps be possible to do a tougher review of Cooper's attempt to depict this particular performance of Bernstein, but there isn't a great reason to do so. We should be thankful that he made this movie, and applaud what he did manage to achieve.
To really get to know Lenny the musician and musical genius, one really just has to go back to the original material, which fortunately for us, exists in great and glorious abundance! 😀

[bwaySHO]

This is phenomenal! You have such a gift of analyzing performances and relaying to the viewers what we’re seeing and why it matters. Loved it!

[marcelouz]

No body can deny, what a great actor is Bradley Copper imitating to Bernstein in his career as a composer, conductor, and many other things what were missing, but in the last scene of the final Mahler second symphony, the motion of the hands in the conductor are really different, impossible to simulate yhe real "art of conducting of Bernstein ", I have seen the entire symphony dozens of times, since the DVD was delivered maybe 20 or 25 year ago , and i can say that it is a terrific and tremendous experience how Bernstein suffers along of the different movements, since the "funeral rites" until de "resurrection" , it seems to me that sometimes he cries furtively in this masterpiece, by the way, his predilect Mahler's symphony. The final of this symphony always make me cry . Congratulations!, Very good analysis.

[ThatOneGuyRAR]

This video was much much better and more entertaining than I expected it to be

[CP-lyml]

This is a great video. Thank you. I have learned so much about conducting in general and the purpose of Bernstein’s body movements in particular, which I had thought were greatly exaggerated and for show. I now realize I was wrong.

[markpkessinger]

Conducting with one's face only is something I used to do as a choral director, not in performance, but as an exercise, to get the singers to pay closer attention to both me and to each other!

[kgajjar]

Wow this made me tear up because it was so beautiful. Thank you for bringing up the analysis of the movie where we wonder what it must be like to be Bernstein

[rob]

Thank you, that was insightful and entertaining. I'm glad you were generous to Bradley Cooper's conducting/acting, as accuracy is indeed not the point of what he is communicating in his character. Yes, it's clunky, but then forgivable in the bigger narrative arc of the film (which is a really good movie about a complex man and unique musician. I was a teen in the 70s and grew up watching Bernstein's wonderful programmes about music when they made over the pond. I've just reread my 1994 biography of Bernstein by Humphey Burton (who directed the filming of the Ely Mahler 2 in the 70s). A bonus of the film (and soundtrack) is how much is Bernstein's own music, way beyond the handful of works that many are familiar with today, and `I hope there is a renewed interest in his uniquely wide compositional output.

Fun fact: I live a few miles from Ely. I was in city during the filming of the Cooper Mahler 2, just on a day trip, during the pandemic days. I was puzzled why the whole cathedral precint was closed off until I saw countless filming trucks and technicians. No one would say what was being filmed!

[amandawhiteley]

Oh my oh my what a fella, so passionate about his craft!! Explains his persona in every way ❤❤❤❤❤ Lenny! I appreciate your great works. ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤ luv your shows oh n you were so fab looking even as you aged! 😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊❤

[imrpbtw]

The main reason I could enjoy any form of art is to understand it and know why something is exceptional, and your videos have done just that to my musical enjoyment. Keep up the good work!

[Twentythousandlps]

Remarkable analysis of the details of LB's conducting!

[SergioRodrigues]

That's EXACTLY what I wanted to see, thank you