uptight

It took a once controversial effort for Bernstein to transform an uptight virtuosic New York Philharmonic into a tight but electric one.

As a 25-year-old Boston Symphony assistant conductor, he was speaking to audiences, sharing enthusiasm that not all uptight Bostonians were quite ready for.

There are certain people in the room that are so uptight that I kind of want to win them over first, just so I can get away with the rest of the monologue.

Maybe being a micromanager and a little uptight weren’t such horrible things after all.

Who would want to be uptight when you could be irrepressible?