West Side Story - Soundtrack

West Side Story is not only a beautifully great and dynamic musical, both on stage and on screen, but has a beautiful soundtrack, as well. As a devout fan of the movie West Side Story who's also seen several very good stage productions of this wonderful musical, the CD soundtrack of West Side Story is also my alltime favorite movie CD soundtrack, partly because I enjoy listening to it, and partly because I always visualize the movie in my head when I listen to the soundtrack. West Side Story has been rightly called a "hip" or modern-day version of Romeo and Juliet, and with reason. Moreover, WSS earned every oscar that it received when it came ...  Read the complete review

A modern version of 'Romeo and Juliet', this CD provides the soundtrack to one of the greatest film musicals ever made, based on the Broadway show which debuted just 4 years earlier Composed by Leonard Bernstein (1900-1990), one of the few composers who was equally at home whether he was composing classical, jazz or for Broadway, the score features some classic songs that more or less everyone knows. Examples would include "America" and "Somewhere". In fact in 2003, "I feel pretty" was included as part of the nation's favourite prom - in which the music is decided by readers of the Radio Times listings magazine. The ...  Read the complete review

West Side Story was instantly hailed as a masterpiece of modern American theatre (and, later, cinema). It created a completely new concept, a fusion of American and European traditions, a cross between opera and musical comedy. The use of delicate voice harmonies was borrowed from the European school of theatre, along with the idea of using music as a way of advancing the plot. The obvious influence of American styles in the score is the definite sense of exotic jazz and latin rhythms. All of these ideas were bundled together for the first time into what Bernstein labelled "Symphonic Dances". Indeed, as proof that he was among the ...  Read the complete review