Thursday began with a hotel complimentary breakfast and continued with a manicure, pedicure, and massage on Broadway and 12th.
I later headed up to 45th Street for dinner at the Spanish-fusion restaurant Crudo, and then took the subway to Lincoln Center on 65th Street. Here, at Avery Fisher Hall, the New York Philharmonic was performing West Side Story.
Fifty years after the international release of its televised screen adaptation, the New York Philharmonic performed West Side Story - composed by Leonard Bernstein, the Orchestra's Laureate Conductor - for the first time. A then 36 year old composer, and a 25 year old composer by the name of Stephen Sondheim, who reluctantly signed on to provide lyrics only, created West Side Story, but its 1957 Broadway opening elicited reactions that ranged from passionate to stunned walk-outs. The walk-outs were sparked by the musical's depiction of gang warfare and prejudice. The show was snubbed at the Tony Awards in favor of The Music Man. Jerome Robbins's choreography, Bernstein's thrilling score, and lyrics by Sondheim that included "Maria, "Somewhere," and "Tonight," won over audiences in London and finally New York.
The film starred Natalie Wood as Maria, Richard Beymer as Tony, Russ Tamblyn as Riff, George Chakiris as Bernado, and Rita Moreno as Anita. Both Tamblyn, representing the Jets, and Chakiris, representing the Sharks, were in the audience.
Half a century after its original release, the motion picture was presented in an innovative format: a high-definition restored print that isolated vocal tracks while retaining dialogue and effects. This allowed David Newman, the evening's conductor, to accompany the vocals with the New York Philharmonic. Although the original music materials for the movie arrangements were lost, researchers were able to assemble a score of the complete film.
How appropriate that tonight's performance was held at the concert site its composer, Leonard Bernstein, called home for so many decades and that sits in the very New York City neighborhood that inspired him.
The conductor, David Newman, has scored more than 100 films, ranging from War of the Roses, Brokedown Palace, The Nutty Professor, and Ice Age, and won an Academy Award for his score to Anastasia.
The New York Philharmonic was founded in 1842 and is by far the oldest symphony in the United States, and one of the oldest in the world. It plays some 180 concerts a year, and last year played its 15,000th concert, a milestone unmatched by any other symphony orchestra in the world.
