Leonard Bernstein Conducts Barber & Schuman | Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland, ...

Leonard Bernstein Conducts Barber & Schuman | Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland, ... | Curiously "Romantic" and "Modern" all at once...

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Leonard Bernstein ...

	Leonard Bernstein Conducts Barber & Schuman Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland, ... Sony, 2003 average customer review:based on 3 reviews view larger image
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Classic Bernstein recordings of American music, in best sound

Sony's reissue machine tries to entice us to buy some classic Bernstein performances by giving us mid-price, excellent sound, and a jam-packed CD. As Mr. Richman notes below, the main part of this disc appeared in the Bernstein Century series, but two items have been added, Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man and Ives' Unanswered Question, both performed with all of Bernstein's infectious energy and insight.

I also give Sony the benefit of the doubt that their current DSD (Direct Stream Digital) technology is a step ahead of the last improvement, 20-bit SBM (Super Bit Mapping) technology. Who knows for sure?

Anyway, Bernstein and Stern have never been bettered in their 1964 reading of the Barber Violin Concerto. Their secret is twofold: the superb orchestral playing by the NY Phil. at its height (Harold Gomberg's oboe solo that opens the slow movement couldn't be more tender), and Bernstein's unqiue ability to conduct American rhythms. He was both a jazz baby and a swing kid, and it shows even when he is handling the delicate tracery of the concerto's first movement. Stern keeps his tone relatively dry, which is also a good idea when the melody is this luscious.

Gomberg is back center stage for William Schuman's evocative 'To the Old Cause,' a combination of oboe concerto and brooding elegy for the deaths of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy. A cultural era was ending, and Schuman gives dark, painful testimony to it. The same is true for the even darker, jagged 'In Praise of Ben Shahn,' with its rough-hewn brass interjections and turbulent unease. Schuman's idiom dates from the Forties and here is getting its last stand in a moving way.

Once you throw in the Copland and Ives fillers, the net result is a terrific 74 min. memento of Bernstein at his very best and a high-water mark in Aerican music.

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Curiously "Romantic" and "Modern" all at once...

The Violin Conccerto by Samuel Barber is a very lovely and passionate piece of music that is curiously "Romantic" and "Modern" all at once. Though it seems to be based on the model of the Brahms concerto, it is also quite interesting on its own terms. Violinist Isaac Stern is in robust form as is conductor Leonard Bernstein who unlocks every morsel of flavor from the fantastic New York Philharmonic.

The "Adagio for Strings" by Barber, has, of course, become a standard piece for mourning, and has also been used in several movies such as "Platoon". This illustrates what a fine and melodic composer Mr. Barber truly was.

The pieces by William Schuman are OK, but lack Barber's fund of melody and passion.

"The Unanswered Question" by Charles Ives is a "bonus track" which is quite mysterious and ethereal.

Aaron Copland's rousing "Fanfare for the Common Man" is another American Classic dedicated to the citizen soldiers who saved the world from tyranny during World War II. No conductor, by the way, could reach the heart of Copland's music like Leonard Bernstein who, of course, brings the fanfare to full effervesence.

This CD is a great buy, especially for the Violin Concerto.

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Same as "Bernstein Century" Title

This recent Sony reissue of the music of American composers Samuel Barber and William Schuman is exactly the same as a CD featured in the "Bernstein Century" series. Included here are Leonard Bernstein and the NYPO's 1971 account of the "Adagio for Strings," 1964 recording of Barber's Violin Concerto, 1968 performance of Schuman's "To Thee Old Cause," and "In Praise of Shahn" from 1970. The music is terrific, but my reason for rewarding only four stars (other than being annoyed at Sony for investing so much energy in a straight reissue with new packaging when so many other classic recordings remain unissued) is this release is obviously aimed at casual fans looking for a good performance of the "Adagio." And boy will they be surprised by the dissonance of the Schuman pieces! This is another Sony reissue that leaves me scratching my head.

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