Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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33 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Some of the maestro's best work, May 31, 2004
I live in a part of America where the PBS classical programming director loves the Schumann symphonies and schedules a different recording 2-3 days a week while I listen via Internet stream. They are so ridiculously overscheduled a coworker and I send e-mails to each other announcing the obligatory "Schumann hour" has commenced for the day, in case one of us should miss it. Ergo, I have heard most of the famous and infamous versions of the Schumann symphonies, including a couple of Lenny's New York recordings. I don't think Schumann was a great symphonist (he certainly was not a great orchestrator) and I don't believe, all things considered, that his four symphonies stand up to the quad of Brahms, the Mendelssohn five, Tchaikovsky's half-dozen, the nine of Beethoven, Mahler and Bruckner, the 15 of Shostakovich, or even the 3 from Rachmaninoff. Well, maybe they're better than Rachmaninoff. But you'd never know there were any limitations by listening to these glorious CDs from Bernstein and the Vienna Philharmonic, whose concertmaster said the 1984-85 collaboration resulted in some of the most memorable recording sessions of his lifetime (all "live" by the way...meaning not dead?) It is easy to hear that enthusiasm on these CDs. Bernstein, who could be too loud, too fast, too indulgent and just about too everything except timid, seems to me more perfectly mated to Schumann's manic-depression than just about any conductor in history. For once, Lenny's overindulgence seems perfectly at home...when it comes in the beginning of the "Rhenish"...or in the return of the first movement's big subject in "Spring"...or the drama of the Fourth Symphony's concluding Lebhaft. I thought Lenny got everything just right in these recordings. He played up the schmaltz each time it was nearby and it always sounds wonderful, evocative and appropriate. That's something I could almost never say in his other Vienna recordings, which have been reissued by DG. His Beethoven symphonies, in particular, were in my view regularly marred by exaggeration, ill tempo or inappropriate tenuto. But those gooey effects seem to enhance the drama and schizophrenia of the Schumann symphonies. I don't know another conductor who could do such a sympathetic job with the symphonies of Robert Schumann.
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36 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beyond Belief, July 8, 2003
I have grown up with Maestro Bernstein. When I was young there was fire in all of the performances that I owned. Bernstein and Ormandy were at the top of the list when it came to fiery and great orchestral performances. I had his Beethoven cycle, several of the Mahler symphonies both with Mestroes Bernstein and Ormandy.When I lost my first collection,to a fire,I did not buy recordings for some time. But, when I did, I went back to my old Ormandy favorites and started purchasing Muti PHO recordings and started to learn to listen to the more expres-sive and refined recordings. They were as maginificently played, as before, but I had grown and my listening powers had grown to appreciate phrasing and nuance and deeper emotional conducting. I had learned to tell the difference between the 'warhorse' style and the 'expressive' style. I must say that this is the most beautiful, introspective conducting I might have ever heard. I say buy this set for the adagio of the 2nd symphony alone. Tears were streaming down my face at the end of it. The soaring of the strings in the final moments, I was sobbing! I don't know how the Maestro was able to conduct the finale, it was a live performance after all, although the time between movements was not on the recording itself. Musicians and conductor had to take a really deep breath after that because it was absolutely breathtaking! Then the finale was so positive so enlightening. I must say I have never heard a finer performance. I used to have the old recordings of the first and fourth by the Maestro and also the Szell recordings, which were considered the standard, especially the second. These were not the deeply expressive performances we have here. I will say greatly performed, but 'warhorse'type performances. Again, the instrospection and how Maestro Bernstein brings the virtuosity of the orchestra and the refinement of the strings. Yes there is fire when it is needed, but the refinement, the change of tempo, the nuance of every phase. Did Ricardo Muti study with him? I don't know about you, but the audience noise does not bother me because recorded perfomances are usually much more intense and incredibly better in front of an audience. Isn't that what a performer dreams of doing anyway? Isn't that the life of a performer to give his/her all infront of a live audience? Well, there is no disappointment here because the guts of every performer, including the Maestro, are laid out on the stage for all to feel and hear. My highest recommendation!
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Symphonies 1,3,and 4 are the best, November 3, 2005
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) made a terrific recording of the 4 Schumann Symphonies in the early 1960s with the New York Philharmonic for Columbia records, re-released by Sony Classical in the Royal Edition series of Bernstein recordings in 1993. The Sony Schumanns are now harder to find, but DG has reissued Bernstein's 1984-85 Vienna Philharmonic Schumann Symphonies in this budget 2-fer, which is quite good.
In Vienna, Bernstein conducts with his usual fire and flair, and is much better in these Schumanns than in his cycle of the Brahms Symphonies with the Vienna Philharmonic (DG, 1983). Symphony 1 is youthful and fiery, and Symphony 2 quite fine in I and II, but III is too intense, with a really SLOW ending filled with mannerisms, IV quite good until the closing pages, which are slowed down too much for dramatic emphasis. (Perhaps this was more effective in a live concert than on a recording, but I find the ending just too slow for what the music can take.) Symphony 3 is as good as Bernstein's New York recording, which is considered excellent by many critics. Symphony 3 has a noble I, and a really sparking V which moves and verges on going out of control in the closing pages, but doesn't, for a really EXCITING ending. Symphony 4 is better than in New York, and in some ways resembles Furtwangler's classic Berlin Philharmonic recording (DG Originals) but has the repeat in I. Bernstein's Vienna Symphony 4 is intense and dramatic, and well worth hearing.
Other options? If you can find them, Bernstein's earlier Sony "Royal edition" release of Symphonies 1,2; and 3 (coupled with 4 which isn't as good); Szell/Cleveland (Sony); Giulini/Los Angeles for Symphony 3 (DG); and Karl Bohm/Vienna for Symphony 4 (Orfeo, with Beethoven Symphony 4). In spite of a less than great Symphony 2, I recommend this.
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~ Franz Schubert
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by Robert Schumann 
