Customer Reviews

Bernstein in Paris: The Ravel Concerts

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This DVD runs for roughly 90mins. which might be less than other 'concert' DVDs you possess, in terms of length, but what a programme! None of the works here, except, arguably, the Tzigane, could be classed as a 'filler', and even the Tzigane is performed by the youthful and dynamic Boris Belkin, a name that appeared regularly in record reviews not so long ago, (mainly for Decca, if memory serves). Marilyn Horne is exquisite in the yearning song-cycle, (though not erasing memories of the Crespin performance on Decca), and Bernstein sails through the (two-hand) concerto triumphantly.
What the prospective buyer should beware of though, ultimately, is that these are pretty much what a French television viewer in the mid-70s might have seen and heard. The transfer to DVD is in no way comparable to Bernstein's Mahler and Shostakovich with the VPO on DG. The pictures, (colour and focus), are fairly fuzzy, (it was relatively early days for colour television broadcasts), and the sound is very much the 'broadcast' sound of the time. The direction though, is unobtrusive and straightforward.
So I would rate this DVD as a marvellous record of a greying but still youthful Bernstein, conducting and playing music in which he excelled, with top-notch soloists, - but I would add that it comes almost into the 'historical document' category, - a term I use merely to suggest that some 'allowances have to be made'.
And anyway, let's all pray for as much as possible to be retrieved from the archives and put onto DVD. How about the spiky, irascible rehearsal, (and subsequent public performance), of Elgar's Enigma Variations set down by Bernstein with the BBCSO and recorded by the BBC??

Such a performance like this gives a clear example to the watcher and listener why Leonard Bernstein became a legend in his own time.