Leonard Bernstein – Conducting without conducting

I have been a fan of this video for a long time. The exuberance of Bernstein plus the excellency of the Berlin Philharmonic in a repertoire piece quite familiar to them resulted in this little gem of a movement from Haydn’s Symphony No. 88. I for once am thankful for the people who captured this on video. While the audience is clearly enjoying the performance as a whole, we are treated to a sort of a “sideshow”, meant for the eyes of the musicians only. I suspect the audience is thinking that the orchestra is pretty much playing by themselves. But look at Maestro Bernstein’s face. Downbeats by eyebrows!

Enjoy.

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