Dan Dickstein wrote:
>I have read on numerous occasions that Bernstein was the proud inheritor
>of Koussevitsky's copy of the score for Le Sacre. I have also read that
>this version had been rather severely reedited and renotated by Nicholas
>Slonimsky because Koussevitsky couldn't make head or tail of the original.
Actually, someone (can't recall who) had to rescore the entire Le Sacre
because Koussie couldn't conduct in 5/8 and other such compound meters.
It was rescored so he could do it all in a simple meter (4/4, I think).
I feel sorry for the musicians!!
>Assuming the Slonimsky story is true, was this the same score Bernstein
>used in making the recording Stravinsky was so pleased with?
Somehow I doubt it. I don't think Bernstein had any trouble conducting in
compound or un-even meters. And he didn't have his father-in-law buy him
a symphony, either!
-Lindsey Orcutt
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