Is there a more anticipated film left on Netflix‘s 2023 release calendar than Bradley Cooper‘s “Maestro“? Cooper’s sophomore feature already had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September, but it still needs to reach audiences. And before it does, it may be pertinent for moviegoers to brush up on their Leonard Bernstein knowledge. How about doing so with Deutsche Grammophone‘s original soundtrack album for “Maestro”?
Cooper hand-selects all the music in his film, and there’s new recordings of each piece on the soundtrack by the London Symphony Orchestra and music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who worked closely with the actor-director through the film’s production. “Many an opera and classical album were playing in our house growing up,” said Bradley Cooper in a statement made before the current SAG-AFTRA strike. “I spent hours conducting an imaginary orchestra to the best of my 8-year-old ability. There was one recording of Leonard Bernstein on heavy rotation. So the pilot light I needed to make Maestro turned on many years before I actually came across the project.”
Cooper and Nézet-Séguin wanted the music of Bernstein’s they chose in the film to best reflect his character and creativity. “Bernstein, from a very young age and throughout his life, was all about building bridges,” said Nézet-Séguin. “While his artistic output left him unclassifiable, performing and composing for symphony orchestras, Broadway shows, film, and ballet, he constantly fought society’s urge to categorize him, to pigeonhole him into one genre or another.”
DG’s soundtrack reflects that creative instinct in Bernstein, with works like “West Side Story,” “Candide,” “On The Town,” “Mass,” “Chichester Psalms,” and Symphonies Nos. 2 and 3, among others. Music by Beethoven, Mahler, Schumann, and Walton is also included to illustrate key moments in Bernstein’s career and marriage depicted in Cooper’s film. For example, DG’s album has Schumann’s “Manfred” Overture, the piece Bernstein conducted at age 25 for the New York Philharmonic, standing in at the lost moment for Bruno Walter.
Deutsch Grammophone’s original soundtrack for “Maestro” releases digitally on November 17 and on CD and vinyl on December 1. A preview track, featuring an excerpt from the Finale of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 “Ressurection,” conducted by Cooper, releases tomorrow, October 27. DG is also reissuing several landmark recordings of Bernstein’s in the lead-up to the theatrical release of “Maestro.” “The Maestro – Very Best Of Bernstein,” a compilation album, releases on December 1 digitally and on CD.
Additionally, Bernstein’s iconic recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the New York Philharmonic is available now on vinyl. And Bernstein’s readings of Mozart’s Symphonies Nos. 35 “Haffner” and 41 “Jupiter,” as well as Mahler’s Fifth and Sixth Symphonies will receive new Dolby Atmos remasters on November 3, November 24, and December 22, respectively. Finally, DG is also releasing a 10-album Digital Library A-Z of Bernstein’s complete recordings for Deutsch Grammophone as part of the lead up to “Maestro.” Six albums are already available, with the remaining four releasing weekly between now and the end of November. In all, the 10 albums make up 260 hours of recording.
That’s a lot of lead-up for just one film, but for “Maestro,” it may all be worth it. Cooper and Carey Mulligan star in the film, which chronicles the lifelong relationship between Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein. “Maestro” gets a limited theatrical engagement starting in the US on November 22 and in the UK on November 24, followed by the rest of the world between December 1-8. The film then debuts on streaming exclusively on Netflix on December 20.
