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From Wes Anderson to Benjamin Britten

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Detail from "Young People's Concerts Scripts: Young Performers," by Leonard Bernstein.

Seeing a new Wes Anderson movie is like getting a new mix tape. The soundtracks to his films blend original scores  — often by Devo frontman Mark Mothersbaugh — with pop music that summons an air of fragile nostalgia: Nick Drake, Nico, middle-period Kinks, French yeh-yeh music. Classical music also plays a part in his cinematic soundscape.  Anderson’s latest film, Moonrise Kingdom, prominently features  a recording of Benjamin Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, as played on Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts series.

The Music Division owns music for works that come to play in Moonrise Kingdom, like Britten’s score for Noye’s fludde.  Our vast Bernstein archives contain scripts for his televised Young People’s Concerts, including the very program whose words open Anderson’s new film.

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