Bernstein: Chichester Psalms; Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2 [Import]

Leonard Bernstein (Composer), Leonard Bernstein (Conductor), Christa Ludwig (Performer), Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (Orchestra), Lukas Foss (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Christa Ludwig, Lukas Foss
• Orchestra: Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
• Conductor: Leonard Bernstein
• Composer: Leonard Bernstein
• Audio CD (October 1, 1999)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Dg Imports
• ASIN: B000031WYI
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #64,606 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great music, Greatest CD, March 31, 2006

By 

MusicMan (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bernstein: Chichester Psalms; Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2 (Audio CD)

I first heard Bernstein’s Symphony No. 1 “Jeremiah” played in Seattle in 2005. It was an unforgettable experience. At times this music has such power that is sends Goosebumps down your arms and legs. Then there are times when the music become almost transcendental is its lyricism. The three movements are 1. Prophecy: the prophet speaks his solemn message, 2. Profanation: he is mocked by the people, and 3. Lamentation: a lament for the fallen city. The firs movement starts with a horn call which states the thematic material. From there the movement build to a earth shaking climax before fading until only the low strings remain holding a long foreboding note. The second movement is the scherzo. If this movement doesn’t make you want to move nothing will. Pulsing almost jazz like motor rhythms propel this movement to an explosive finish. Bernstein was always a great orchestrater. (At the end of the second movement he even asks the timpanist to strike the drum with a maraca!) The beautiful last move is a lamentation that uses a mezzo-soprano. The Hebrew text is from the Book of Lamentations, Chapter 1, verses 1-4; Chapter 4, verses 14-15; and Chapter 5, verses 20-21. Here is the English text:

How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she

become as a widow! She that was great among the nations, and

princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!

She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks:

among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: all her friends

have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies.

Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because

of great servitude: she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no

rest: all her prosecutors overtook her between the straits.

Jerusalem hath grievously sinned . . .

They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have

polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their

garments. They cried unto them, Depart ye; it is unclean; depart,

depart, touch not . . .

Wherefore doest thou forget us fore ever, and forsake us so

long time? Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord . . .

Although no CD can replicate the experience of hearing this piece live, this is the best recording available of Berstins first two symphonies. There is no excuse for not owning this CD.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love the Chichester Psalms, June 25, 2011

By 

expatinnica - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bernstein: Chichester Psalms; Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2 (Audio CD)

My mom and I sang the Chichester Psalms together with a chorus several years back. She bought me CD as a gift last year, and with this CD I returned the favor. Just lovely!! If you like "modern classical" music you will love it!

5.0 out of 5 stars "Taking It Up", February 20, 2012

By 

John K. Casey "Abyssinian cat lover" (Hanover, NH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bernstein: Chichester Psalms; Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2 (Audio CD)

I love the Chichester Psalms.

In one scene from Evelyn Waugh's classic novel "Brideshead Revisited," the principal character of the story, a young sophisticate who is at the time a struggling art student in Paris, agrees to take a visiting acquaintance, a brash arriviste, to his most treasured restaurant in the City of Lights, on the promise that the traveler would pay for the very costly meal. The place is unpretentious and the visitor has little appreciation for the culinary marvels being set before him. At the end of the meal, he takes out an immense cigar from his pocket, lights it, and as he fouls the room with smoke he looks about and then remarks, "You know, this place isn't half bad...someone really ought to take it up and do something with it."

I created a variation of this setting in my own mind whenever I played my CD of the "Chichester Psalms" as performed by Marin Alsop with the Bournemouth Symphony. Like the young student, I could tell that what was being set before my aural palate was wondrous. But like the cigar smoker, I felt that the music needed "taking up," that in the hands of a real master one might really have something astounding.

Then I bought this performance with the composer himself conducting, and I instantly got my wish. Bernstein takes Psalms and, without altering a note, elevates them from the commonplace to the magical, from the passable to the transcendental, a rich feast for the heart. Who better?

The Bernstein CD also contains his rendition of his first and second symphonies. I do not know these works, so I will offer no opinion. They could have filled the rest of the CD with a series of variations on the theme "Turkey in the Straw," for all I care. I bought the disc for the Psalms!