Customer Reviews

Stravinsky: Les Noces / Mass ~ Bernstein

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

 

 

For Leonard Bernstein, that historically histrionic maestro, to turn in a performance which is at once entirely idiomatic and faithful to the inspirations of the piece, and entirely in character for himself as an artist, is an accomplishment of the first order. Those in search of a brilliant, well-recorded performance of this supreme masterwork could scarcely do better than this mid-priced recording in DG's 20th Century Classics line. Bernstein's besetting passion for extrovert, razor-sharp percussion ensemble is here indulged in its ripest form, yet entirely contained within the conception of the work. The singing, in both works, is incandescent. No sonorous juxtaposition, no rhythmic filigree passes without intelligent remark and the entire piece blazes forth to a coda of rapt benediction. To this listener's ears, who first came to the work through the Bernstein performance, even the composer's own star-studded recording (Copland and Barber, among others, performed as pianists) seems tame. One hears origins of many of Bernstein's own compositional patterns in this work; compare the opening of Les Noces with that of Bernstein's Mass. Bernstein as composer shared Stravinsky's fondness for jazzy, cell-like piano figures and gives them full voice as conductor. There is also of course the unceasing air-raid of the percussion. After the searing attack that is Les Noces, the unadorned Mass is monastic by comparison. Intelligence and care grace each phrase and the singing of the Trinity Boys' Choir exposes the piece with anatomical precision. However, in Bernstein's hands the ritual, mechanistic elements combine into a graceful, pious wonder. The two pieces, taken together in these performances, are a virtual storyboard of Bernstein's compositional career and here, as conductor, he glories in them as will any listener congenial to Stravinsky's distinct gifts.

This performance of "Svadebka (Les noces)" will do as an introduction for the novitiate to the piece, but has too little precision to do Stravinsky's score justice. This is one of Stravinsky's under-performed and underappreciated scores; there is wonderful rhythmic vitality and instrumental ingenuity in the score, but the effect of both these is a little blurred on this disc.

For "Svadebka", listen instead to the new Craft recording (with the Symphony of Psalms and Threni).

For the Mass, listen instead to James O'Donnell's luminous recording on Hyperion (with Stravinsky's stunning Canticum Sacrum) or to Reinbert de Leeuw's recording on Polygram (with the Cantata and the Sacræ Cantiones after Gesualdo).

Both O'Donnell and de Leeuw do much better at presenting Stravinsky, than Bernstein, who could be a little self-absorbed.

The musicianship on this disc is excellent. If you do not speak Russian you will enjoy the performance of Svadebka immensely. However, if you do speak Russian the atrocious pronunciation and intonation of the English Bach Festival Orchestra will grate on you. Unfortunately, until Gergiev decides to take a stab at this excellent work, Bernstein's recording will have to do.

As a tenor in the chamber choir at the University of Michigan School Music, I was totally unfamiliar with "Les Noces" when our conductor, Thomas Hilbish, decided we would perform it one term (along with Bernstein's "Chichester Psalms"). I have to admit that during the first rehearsals I had no idea what to make of the music. But as the term went along it really grabbed me. When I finally heard it with the percussion and four pianos I was blown away. That final sound of the pianos and the chimes still haunts me.

"Les Noces" took the strangest and most convoluted development path of all his pieces. He went to Russia in 1914 to get some source material that did end up in several works. However, his first work on this piece included a very large orchestra. Over the course of ten years he tried various combinations, including one with a pianola, before settling on the final version we have here. It was originally conceived as a dance-cantata and was danced in its early years, but when performed nowadays, like the great early ballets, it is most often performed as a concert piece.

One of the problems for performing this clearly great masterpiece is that it is in Russian. It doesn't really tell a story, but provides snippets of dialogue around a peasant wedding in Russia. Also, the soloists do not strictly represent characters. The soprano is the bride to be, but also the Goose. The groom is sung by the tenor, but after the marriage the bass sings the husbands words. But the Russian is a problem because it is so difficult for non-Russians to sing. There is a French translation (hence the name we use "Les Noces" for "The Wedding"), but Stravinsky did not like what it did to the work. He even worked on an English translation for a recording in 1959, but gave it up. So, Russian it is. Now, the real choice is do we perform the work with singers singing Russian approximately to badly or do we only allow Russians to perform the work, which would be nearly never. Obviously, we want performances in the best Russian we can get, but we do want performances. Just as we are willing to accept Bach in poor German, and Verdi in bad Italian and so forth.

The performance here is pretty darn good. The rhythms are punchy and layered. We also get four really good pianists. Two of them are great pianists: Martha Argerich and Krystian Zimmerman. The soloists are also quite fine. The whole thing comes off quite well. I also like the disk of this work and others conducted by James Wood and the New London ensemble and recommend that to you as well.

I also find it interesting that its premier in England in the mid-twenties was received so poorly that H.G. Wells wrote a note condemning its critics and providing great insight to the importance of the work. It was printed and handed out with the programs.

The Mass is also a very important work by Stravinsky from twenty years later. It is performed well here. It is a work for chorus, soloists from the chorus, and double wind quintet and was intended by Stravinsky for liturgical use. The harmonies and counterpoint are all quite beautiful and he makes it easy to hear the actual text of the mass, which Bernstein also emphasizes well. This recording uses trebles (boys voices) instead of sopranos as the composer indicated.

Stravinsky failed in his attempt to create conductor-proof music. In fact, he did quite the opposite - he created music so complex in its layering that only a virtuosic ensemble led by a master conductor can pull it off correctly, and even then, it still proves difficult. This is very much the reason that it is difficult to find good recordings of Stravinsky's revolutionary masterpieces. However, every so often there emerges a Stravinsky recording that stands out as possibly being the definitive version. This particular version of Les Noces, conducted by Leonard Bernstein, is a perfect example of one of the few Stravinsky recordings that can be called definitive. Even Stravinsky himself believed Bernstein to be the best conductor of his music. If you want to know why, then just listen to this recording of Les Noces. Bernstein, arguably the century's greatest conductor, really works his magic and outdoes himself in this recording. He is very rythmically precise(as is required when playing Stravinsky) and yet he and his ensemble of virtuoso pianists, percussionists and the chorus never sound like they're making an exercise of this piece. So often conductors sacrafice emotion, mood and color when they play a piece with extreme precision. But not Bernstein. He is able to elicit a great deal of emotion and warmth from his performers while maintaining a high level of precision. Great performance, but that's not all. The sound quality is amazing, almost sounding as if the listener were there live. The engineers and technichians really did great work as well. This is truly an essential Stravinsky CD of unparalleled quality. The mass is the filler, which actually sounds quite a bit more BACHic than STRAVINSKYesque, but it's still well written and performed, but the highlight is Les Noces. A must hear!

I don't agree with the previous reviewer. Though Bernstein's version of "Les Noces" is certainly more exciting than his comatose version of "Symphony of Psalms," it is certainly NOT the best version available. Stravinsky's own version is the best, but unfortunately that's only available in the boxed set costing... The next best one I've heard is the 1992 version by Robert Craft on "Stravinsky the Composer" volume II. Buy the Bernstein version only if you want your Stravinsky with all the rough edges softened and the rhythmic vitality watered down.

The piano playing is excellent. The soloists and singers are actually good. But compared with the Pokrovsky Ensemble recording, one can tell a lot of edge and musical effects have been lost simply from not being comfortable with Russian. Also the Pokrovsky recording uses a smaller choir which gives it a more transparent and agile sound. Bernstein's recording is definitely not the final word on Les Noces but it is a good one.

In all candor I don't know either Les Noces or the Mass well enough to judge whether this is a four- or five-star recording. The original LPs, made in London in 1977, got transferred to mid-line CD in pretty gritty, glaring sound that has been softened in the current remastering. Bersntein had no great performance history with either work that I know of, but he finds an appropriate, distinct style for Les Noces, with its barbaric, almost frightening percussive sonorities, and the Mass, which is one of his mildest works, a study in religious stasis much of the time. Is the Mass a masterpiece? I don't think so--it seems cramped in its harmonic strait-jacket to me and almost gray in its monotone mood, but I can imagine that religious listeners, and those attuned to restrained ritual, will appreciate it more than I can.

Les Noces is probably Stravinsky's most radical modernist work after Le Sacre and before he turned to 12-tone composiiton in the Fifties. The jarring vocal style reeflects ancient peasant practice in Russia, there is much shouting and percussive paino pounding, but Bernstein tames the assaualt to some extent. He is aided by singers and musicians who remain musical at all times, resisting the urge to hurl themselves into chaos. I'm surprised at those reviewers who claim that this reading is either very precise or very imprecise. How can they tell in such wild cacophony? I can recognize Les Noce for the masterpiece it is, but I would be going too far to say that I can listen straight through without frayed nerves.