Bernstein's dying breath conducting Mozart's unfinished masterpiece in a freed East Germany.
This performance of Mozart's Great Mass in C minor, which remained an unfinished torso, is reverent and highly dramatic. It was filmed 4-6 April 1990 in the beautiful Baroque Basilica of Waldsassen in Bavaria: a few kilometers from the Czech border. It was filmed just a few months after the Iron Curtain had fallen, a mere 6 months before Bernstein's death on 14 October 1990. His painful, labored breathing is evident during this performance. It is a sad reminder of what is to come and it makes this performance, so other-worldly in many ways, particularly poignant. Bernstein conducts the splendid Chor und Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks.
Direction
Humphrey Burton captures Bernstein's physical struggle with devastating intimacy.
Production
Waldsassen Basilica: Baroque splendor meets Iron Curtain history.
Acting
Arleen Augér's 'Et incarnatus est' — technically perfect, spiritually shattering.
Director
Humphrey Burton
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Bernstein conducted this April 1990 performance with a catheter concealed beneath his tuxedo; he refused to cancel despite severe emphysema.
Filmed in Bavaria mere months after the Berlin Wall fell, this became an accidental document of two endings: the Cold War and Bernstein himself.
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