So, I had to hide under my covers and sneak this in, in seclusion.
It's a really great composition.
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I really enjoyed the quiet little romantic moments throughout. Though towards the end it became a little anxious, lementful, frantic. It's probably blasphemous but I would have just done the quiet romantic bits.
I feel like there was a flaw, maybe deliberate, maybe to illustrate something in the conducting by Leonard Bernstein, really periodically punching it up to crazy movie climactic cinematic crescendo. It broke down the symmetry of the composition and belayed the compositions influences on western drama, and in turn western dramas return influences on the performance. It was over the top. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra did a really nice performance. It was fun, and emotional.
To be there, in Leningrad, in 1941 along side Dimitri, and at its premier in Samara in 1942, that would have been a delight. The confidence and pride and sweet taste of victory and release would have been quite serene. I bet everyone had a wonderful evening after that performance.