Customer Reviews

Bernstein: Candide Overture / Symphonic Dances from West Side Story / On the Waterfront - Symphonic Suite / Fancy Free Ballet

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a fantastic CD, featuring film and theater music composed by the American legend, Leonard Bernstein. The recordings were made with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, under the direction of the composer, from 1960 to 1963. It opens with the "Overture to Candide" (and what an opening!). The sound is so good that you cannot tell it was recorded almost fifty years ago. The brass instruments are blaring, the percussion knocks your socks off, and the strings and woodwinds have a most realistic presence. Bernstein's account of the Symphonic Suite from "West Side Story" has never sounded better. The NYPO truly captures the excitement and rhythm of these short, and unforgettable pieces.

Bernstein's only film score was for Elia Kazan's Academy Award winning, 1954 blockbuster, "On the Waterfront." This soundtrack, however, is quite different from others. It can stand independent from film and be a concert piece - this is truly marvelous music. The CD closes with Bernstein's ballet, "Fancy Free", and three bonus tracks from "On the Town." All in all, the music is classically American, and pure Bernstein. Sonically, the recording is one of the best in my collection - highly recommendable.

I really love this disc, which features Leonard Bernstein's best-known theater and film scores worked up in full symphonic versions. These are iconic performances in lush early stereo that make it hard to believe that anyone else put the New York of the 1940s and 50s into music better than Bernstein and his NY Philharmonic Orchestra.

This recording of the "Candide" overture is probably one of the best versions out there -- certainly the best I've heard. This is still a signature piece for the NYPO, which now performs it without a conductor (since none can replace Bernstein). I can heartily recommend listening to Bernstein's own recording here from 1960, and then watching the DVD of the NYPO playing the same piece in North Korea in 2008 (The Pyongyang Concert - New York Philharmonic). Talk about a sense of history and continuity! Amazing.

The "Westside Story" dances are nice to have without words -- not even in "Mambo", which is a bit strange to hear without the members of the orchestra shouting "mambo!" in the breaks. Hearing the Westside Story tunes as a work of orchestral music rather than a Broadway score puts them in a completely new light. The scherzo after "Somewhere" shows a lot of Aaron Copland influence I hadn't noticed before, and the final Adagio is fantastic. My only regret is that there's no Officer Krupke!

The suite from "On the Waterfront" is very different. Most of the other music on this disc is focused on dances -- i.e. on action and storytelling. Since the "Waterfront" suite is from a film score, it is much more atmospheric than narrative. Still, there is plenty of excitement, as the music is also full of the urban rhythms of old New York. At times, the rhythms reminded me of the hustle-and-bustle bits from "Rhapsody in Blue", which I suppose really defined the rhythmic portrayal of urban life for many decades.

With "Fancy Free", we are back to storytelling again -- Bernstein's ballet score about a trio of sailors on shore leave (in Manhattan, of course) looking for beer and women. This early piece, which was a major break for Bernstein as a composer, has a lot of fun and action. Like the whole disc, it features an excellent performance. Highly recommended!

For those interested in getting a larger set of Bernstein's works, note that this disc contains the same material and performances as disc 1 of The Original Jacket Collection: Bernstein Conducts Bernstein.

I bought this CD for this particular (remastered) performance of the Candide Overture, but the total number of tracks makes this a great value. Excellent representation of Bernstein, a New York style and era where classical and jazz intersected. If mid-20th Century America were a movie, Bernstein, Gershwin and Copland would be the theme music.

The previous reviewer's five stars is not an exaggeration. This is of course a definitive view by the composer of his own iconic masterpieces. Bernstein was not a truly great composer when he was writing purely "classical forms" like symphonies. But give him a program for a ballet or film and he really is up there with the all time greats. His best is not up to "Le Sacre" or "Firebird" but is as good as almost any other 20th century competitor. This disk, old as the masters are, is very good-sounding. I do suspect residual volume compression. The performances are indeed exciting.

One note: the whole disk ends with a wimper ... quite bizarre. Be sure to play the first track last.