Bartok: Concerto for orchestra / Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta

Bela Bartok (Composer), Leonard Bernstein (Conductor), New York Philharmonic Orchestra (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: New York Philharmonic Orchestra
• Conductor: Leonard Bernstein
• Composer: Bela Bartok
• Audio CD (November 24, 1998)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B00000FCKV
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #77,255 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #20 in Music > Classical > Instruments > Percussion

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The 1959 Concerto for Orchestra was one of Bernstein's first recordings as music director of the New York Philharmonic. It's still worthy of comparison with the classic 1954 Reiner recording considered standard by most critics. Bernstein gets the orchestra inside the music, expressing the range of Bartók's emotional world from the spookily mysterious opening to the hilarity of the intermezzo to the joyous finale. This performance makes the piece sound less conservative than it sometimes does--a decided plus. The orchestra plays extremely well, with fine work from its legendary first-chair players. Music for Strings, Percussion, and Cello, recorded two years later, is similarly effective. This coupling was previously available in a "Royal Edition," and if you have that, you don't need to replace it. But this latest mastering sounds fine for its age. --Leslie Gerber

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lenny is at his best!, June 18, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Bartok: Concerto for orchestra / Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta (Audio CD)

This is one of the first recordings Bernstein made as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic. Though he was never able, in my opinion, to get a consistent level in each recording as what say George Szell and his Clevelanders, this recordings is well done. The recorded sound is excellent. The concerto was recorded at the St. George Hotel in Brooklyn. The Strings, Percussion, and Celesta is probably the best recording available today. The playing is very precise, even more than Boulez's recording with the CSO. For anyone who enjoys this music, buy it today!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bartok and Bernstein, May 21, 2001

By 

herman joseph (NY, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bartok: Concerto for orchestra / Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta (Audio CD)

Bernstein was a great Bartok conductor. The music sizzles and becomes alive with an intensity that grips the listener. These towering monuments of 20th music by one of the greatest composers of the millenium are conducted with a wide range of expression, color, and emotional power by one of the great condutors of the century-- This CD is a must for the serious listener.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A composer Bernstein forgot, but plays beautifully here, December 18, 2005

By 

Santa Fe Listener (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Bartok: Concerto for orchestra / Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta (Audio CD)

It's odd that Bernstein, a champion of tonal modernism, didn't feel closer to Bartok. In his later career, after the mid-Sixties, he recorded nothing of his music. These two rollicking recordings from 1959 (Concerto for Orchestra) and 1961 (Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta) are more heart-on-sleeve than any other I've heard. The often elusive emotions and cool distancing one feels in the Concerto for Orchestra, usually played for shallow virtuosity, here turn into fiery extroversion, wit, and bumptiousness. The piece becomes first cousin to Petrushka. The NY Phil. sounds glorious and committed; the sonics are only limited in the loudest climaxes, when things get a bit screechy. Bartok didn't want to be held close to anyone's bosom, but if you want to anyway, this is the performance for you. (One wonders, by the way, if the young LB was present when his mentor Koussevitzky premiered the work in Boston.)

The MFSP&C is an intricate puzzle piece that benefits from precise, even analytical conducting a la Boulez. Bernstein has no interest in that--the opening hollow tones of the strings in canon are romantically shaped for eerie loneliness. The two fast movement are played with thrilling extroversion, the paino quite close and the percussion flailing away. You'd have to have a heart of stone to resist--although the composer might well have.