Bradley Cooper trained for 6 years for a key Maestro scene

The actor learned to conduct an orchestra on a 6-minute piece to perfection.

Maestrothe biopic of and with Bradley Cooper about the composer Leonard Bernstein, will be available in a few weeks on Netflix and the public is already impressed by the transformation of the star to slip into the skin of the conductor. But the performance prowess doesn’t stop at the physical resemblance…

At a screening of the film in New York, Bradley Cooper told Lin-Manuel Miranda (the creator and composer of the musical Hamilton) that he prepared intensively for six long years to conduct an orchestra for a six-minute piece, reports IndieWire . This training allowed him to film the live orchestration during a key scene in the film: the concert at Ely Cathedral in 1976, by the London Symphony Orchestra.

“It’s a scene that stressed me out a lot because we did it live”, explains Cooper. “It was with the London Symphony Orchestra. It was recorded live. I had to lead them. And I spent six years learning how to orchestrate a piece that was six minutes and twenty-one seconds long.” The director ofA Star is Born proves his deep and uncompromising investment in the character. We see a preview of it in the trailer:

“I managed to get hold of a recording of Leonard Bernstein at Ely Cathedral with the London Symphony Orchestra in 1976. And so I had that to study”, he continues while thanking the “wonderful teachers” who accompanied him in his preparation. Indeed, the conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who directs the Orchester Métropolitain de Montréal, helped the actor a lot for this sequence.

“Nézet-Séguin made a video with all the tempo changes, so I had all the necessary material to work with. (…) It was really about composing what I wanted cinematically, then inviting them to inhabit that space while being sure that they all did the work. Because I knew I was terrified, absolutely terrified that if I hadn’t worked hard enough then I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy those scenes. And everyone did it”, concludes the star.

Maestro recounts the rise of the brilliant Leonard Bernstein, notably known for having composed the music of West Side Story. Bradley Cooper plays the conductor, Carey Mulligan plays the role of his wife Felicia Montealegre and the two headliners are accompanied by Maya Hawke, Matt Bomer And Sarah Silverman. Maestro will be available on Netflix on December 20, 2023.

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