Customer Reviews

Debussy: La Mer/ Images/ Prelude a L'Apres Midi D'un Faune ( Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun) ~ Bernstein

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

 

 

I'm mystified by the remarks of the previous reviewer: the works recorded here are concert standards, and the Santa Cecilia Orchestra is surely not new!--it's the orchestra of the world's oldest music conservatory and is made up of "professori", not music students. Am I listening to the same disk?

I would say that Lenny gets a better performance than he deserves; all the swaying, pulling, shoving, and kneading of tempi make for a pukey sea trip indeed. Lenny's is the slow boat to China. As such it's a good deal better than the raw and scurried version he did for Columbia years back where the NY Phil sounded slightly out of tune. That issue didn't stay around long.

The other works are far more even-handed and would be the reason to have this disk knocking around your collection, but make no mistake, it's all about Lenny and little about Debussy.

The poor professori ride it out, but somehow I feel they're grateful to reach shore. Still, there's no denying old Rome's Santa Ceclia is as crack an outfit as it's always been...the only difference is that relatively recently it put up with the late Bernstein's head-spinning in the studio. In the old days these musicians would have yelled "Basta!, ignorante!" gotten up, and walked out. They were never this easy.

For Debussy, the pinnacle of interpretation and execution remains Paul Paray and the Detroit SO on Mercury, for these works and everything else. Understandably, Amazon keeps Paray consistently available.

I hadn't run across this Debussy program from Bernstein, a rarity in that it was recorded with an orchestra, the Santa Cecilia of Rome, that he was never identified with. In his latter years Bernstein seemed to prefer being a fly-in, fly-out conductor, and without exception it was an event wherever he appeared. The only previous Debussy that I've encountered from him was during his tenure with the NY Phil. on Sony. LB's Debussy (all of it early, from 1960-61) is extroverted, colorful, and loose arounnd the edges. It's much more celebratory than Boulez's, and modern listeners might find those performances a bit thick-textured and brash. They are never praised very much, despite their verve and musicality.

So here is a remake of La Mer and Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, with a new addition to LB's repertoire, Images, added for extra enticement. DG's recorded sound is splendid, despite an uncomfortable gap between very loud and very soft passages that no volume level quite accommodates; the orchestra plays with transparency and noticeable warmth. We are miles away from Boulez's x-ray vision but also a considerable distance from the younger Bernstein. The live concerts occurred in Rome in June, 1989, by which time the conductor was seriously ill; Karajan would die the following month. Perhaps those associations color my response, but I find this one of the most moving, one might say even wise, Debussy recordings I've ever heard. Unlike his brash young self, who was always concerned with immediacy, these readings come as if from a distance, infused with reflection and a deep caring, I think. at his best in those years, according to Andrew Porter of the New Yorker, attending a Bernstein concert gave the uncanny impression that the music was being composed before our very eyes. This was a new kind of immediacy, not superficial or exciting but heartfelt, as if a dying man is afraid that the thing he loves most might be taken away at any moment.

I won't detail the performances -- the criticisms of Bernstein's generous rubato, slow tempos, and highly individual phrasing are well known, and those elements are here in full. Don't expect anything conventionally French, in the sense of a bright, quick, impressionistic interpretation. But for those who can look beyond such issues, this is exceptional music-making that few conductors are capable of, and those only the greatest. For apt comparisons, see the Debussy recordings of Celibidache, Stokowski, and Giulini in their old age. Rare company, indeed.

The performance of Lenny with the Santa Cecilia National Academy Orchestra is generally well played. When it comes of Le Mer though, I recommend you to buy elsewhere. Lenny with Santa Cecilia Orchestra is played rather slowly and gently. The first movement, compared to the one with the New York Phil, is more calming, but a bit lacking on the climax part. The final movement too, he and Santa Cecilia Orchestra is less thrilling. I don't really think it's a really bad idea to buy this CD, because overall it's beautiful. But I recommend you to buy the one when Lenny was with the New York Phil, when he was younger, or Karajan with the Berlin Phil, or Boulez with the Cleveland Orchestra. Lenny with New York Phil, and Charlie the Tuna (that's Boulez), I believe, especially plays with enthusiasm. The Prelude with Santa Cecilia is very smoothly played, and Images are played just fine too. This CD is not at all bad.