The go-to recording for Bernstein’s symphonies
mainFrom the Lebrecht Album of the Week:
Bernstein’s three symphonies have not enjoyed much exposure on record. Aside from the Sony and DG releases conducted by the composer, my database calls up only three other versions – Leonard Slatkin at the BBC, James Judd in New Zealand and an LA Phil DG download conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. While the composer’s edition must be considered in some sense definitive, his take on the two works has failed to ignite the public imagination.
What catches my ear about Marin Alsop’s new recording with the Baltimore Symphony…
Read on here.
And here.
As well as here.
Alsop also does a wonderful job making coherent sense of the 3rd. And Claire Bloom’s narration is superb.
“Bernstein’s three symphonies have not enjoyed much exposure on record.”
Well, I am sure quite a lot of 20th century composers would be perfectly happy if they had got the chance to record their symphonies twice, with 4 alternative recorded cycles available.
I’ll stick with the composer’s own version.
For The Age of Anxiety, there is also one version of the composer with a young, unknown, somewhat “okay” pianist:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-aU2Se1RHw
Highly emotional performance and rapport between “the teacher” and “the student”.
I do not think that many are aware of this recording/upload.
Next year the BSO with Nelsons will tackle the 2nd in Boston & Carnegie Hall.