Yannick Nézet-Séguin was whispering in Bernstein’s ear
NewsThe Met’s music director has been talking about his ‘conductor consultant’ role on the forthcoming Netflix biodoc of Bernstein, titled Maestro.
Yannick says he required actor Bradley Cooper (pictured) to wear an earpiece during conducting scenes so that he could guide and adjust his movements in the podium.
‘The beat needs to be believable,’ he says, ‘Because you know, there is a code there. The first beat has to be down, the upbeat has to be up and the side. And this I had to do and help him, guide him on this.
‘Because he had all the mimics and everything of Bernstein — it was fantastic — but the right hand was not what it should be.’
Yannick also conducted the soundtrack music for the movie.
Yannick is flamboyant in clothing, but not in movement. Lenny is the exact inverse.
In his late 60s, Bernstein introduced a rather obscene forward hip thrusting on the podium, and I hope Cooper does not reproduce that in the movie of the septuagenarian Bernstein.
In terms of pure technique, what sets Bernstein apart from all other conductors ever, is his uncanny ability to beat one beat ahead of the orchestra, and maintain that throughout an entire 1 or 2 hour piece … from memory of course. It requires a level of concentration and mastery of the score that is superhuman. If Cooper reproduced THAT, then all his prosthetics will be forgiven.
Quick note: The film is called Maestro.
thanks
Why wouldn’t the producers of the film use Bernstein’s own recordings rather than Yannick’s?
Several reasons:
In the long run, it could be less expensive to record the pieces than license the recordings.
The pieces likely had to be edited to accommodate a specific block of time that they were going to be used in during the film, and those edits could be hard to make with an existing recording.
The studio may feel that having a fresh soundtrack could help with the marketing — case and point is YNS is serving as a spokesperson and validator.
And as wonderful as they are, Bernstein’s recordings are not up to the technical requirements of modern immersive playback systems. It’s very difficult to do a convincing job of adding surround and height information to a stereo recording.
The Mahler 2nd which Bernstein filmed at Ely Cathedral in 1973 is recreated in Maestro. I suspect Cooper is inserted in as Lenny. Yannick in addition to being a coach and advisor.probably conducted a studio orchestra or perhaps the London Symphony for the background music. He is nowhere credited.
By the way, do we know for a fact that the soundtrack is all existing Bernstein/classical compositions? That there is no soundtrack composed specifically for the film?
I can’t find any info about a soundtrack composer, so that would seem to be the case, but that can also be a reason to require a new recording, of course.
It’s time for some creative team to make a good film about the life of George Gershwin whose birthday is today. His 125th birthday follows the 1st day after the end of this year’s Yom Kippur. Is there synchronicity in this? Is the number 125 significant in the Old Testament?
Why couldn’t they get an actual conductor? Why can’t movies use actual musicians?
Cooper’s “right hand was not what it should be.” Uh, that’s the part that conducts.
Good job. Well done Yannick.
I really admire Bradley Cooper and thought he was outstanding in Clint Eastwood’s “American Sniper”.