Customer Reviews

Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms / Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments / Pulcinella Suite

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Leonard Bernstein dug deeper into the Stravinsky canon late in his career for DG, but the only out-of-the-way collection we have from his tenure with the NY Phil. is this one, which is all Bernstein but sometimes not all Stravinsky.

The best thing is the Sym. of Psalms from London (1972), a score Bernstein makes his own. One expects romantic touches, and they are here, but on the whole this is a restrained, detailed reading with a depth of feeling that seems entirely right The English Bach Choir starts off roughly, but by the end they seem to have caught on to the idiom. Orchestral detail is quite dramatic. Five stars for a classic performance.

The Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments, recorded in 1959, when Bernstein was still new as director of the NY Phil., features the orchestra's pianist, Seymour Lipkin, in a vigorous but rather crude reading. This is one of Stravinsky's few disagreeable works to me, with its tough, sterile take on a Handel keyboard concerto, so I cannot go very far in appreciating it.

Bernstein's way with the Pulcinella Suite, recorded in 1960, is quite off-putting. You would think this pastiche of jaunty Pergolesi tunes would bring out LB's most infectious side, as it did the composer's. In fact he slurs through it with soupy rhythms and a stubborn insistence on romantic style that makes no sense. Too bad, since at his best Bernstein was a Stravinsky conductor non pareil.