Leonardo Capalbo (Candide), Jane Archibald (Cunegonde), Anne Sofie von Otter (Old Lady), Thomas Allen (Dr Pangloss/Narrator)London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Marin Alsop
LSO Live · LSO0834 · 1 hour 56 minutes
Bernstein packed so much manic energy into Candide that it can easily topple into chaos in the wrong hands, but Marin Alsop knows this score inside out and keeps the satire biting without losing the warmth underneath it. Jane Archibald tackles “Glitter and Be Gay” with real coloratura nerve, and Anne Sofie von Otter is pure delight as the Old Lady, camping it up without ever going stale. What really lands here is the sense of an orchestra having a genuinely good time with music that demands both precision and a wicked sense of humor.
Awards:
- Record Review — 9th October 2021 — Record of the Week
- Presto Recording of the Week — 15th October 2021
- Presto Recordings of the Year — Finalist 2021
- International Classical Music Awards — 2022 — Nominated – Opera
“In the title role, Leonardo Capalbo offers charm, delicacy and a touch of melancholy. Jane Archibald makes an amiable Cunegonde, though her showpiece ‘Glitter and be gay’ doesn’t sparkle enough….”
— BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2021,3 out of 5 stars(Performance) /4 out of 5 stars(Recording)
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Christian Lindberg
BIS · BIS2278 · 62 minutes
Bernstein wrote his only film score for On the Waterfront, and you can hear him wrestling the raw punch of Kazan’s movie into something symphonic without losing any of its grit — that opening horn solo alone carries more loneliness than most full concertos manage. Christian Lindberg gets the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic to lean hard into the score’s brutal contrasts, letting the brass snarl and the strings ache in equal measure, so the suite never feels like a tidy concert reduction of a soundtrack. It’s Bernstein at his most cinematic and most symphonic at once, and this performance refuses to pick a side between the two.
Awards:
- Presto Editor’s Choice — March 2018
- Gramophone Magazine — June 2018 — Editor’s Choice
- Presto Recordings of the Year — Finalist 2018
“They’re completely on fire, chiselling hot rhythms out of the percussion, melting their lips on ritzy brass cascades. They also obviously relish the tenderness of those rare moments when Bernstein…”
— BBC Music Magazine, July 2018,4 out of 5 stars
Sony · 88985345312
There’s something almost overwhelming about hearing Bernstein’s full range gathered in one place — the guy who could write West Side Story in one breath and the Chichester Psalms in the next, and somehow make both sound like they came from the same restless, generous mind. What this box does so well is remind you that his “serious” concert music was never a side project or a guilty pleasure squeezed between Broadway gigs, it was the same voice, just wearing different clothes. Give yourself a few discs in and you start hearing the theater kid and the symphonist as one person arguing with himself, which honestly is the most Bernstein thing imaginable.
Awards:
- Grammy Awards — 60th Awards (2017) — Best Historical Album
- Opus Klassik Awards — 2018 — Wiiner – Outstanding Achievement in Editing
Isaac Stern & John BrowningLeonard Bernstein, George Szell & Eugene Ormandy
Sony · 88697529892 · 74 minutes
Barber’s Violin Concerto has this way of starting out gorgeous and almost old-fashioned before that finale kicks the door in with its perpetual-motion nerves, and Stern plays both sides of that coin like he’s known the piece his whole life — which, by this point, he practically had. Browning’s account of the Piano Concerto is just as gripping, all sharp edges and jagged rhythm in a way that still sounds modern decades later, while Ormandy’s Adagio for Strings avoids the trap of over-sentimentalizing what’s already an emotionally loaded piece of music. Put together, it’s a strong reminder that Barber wasn’t just the guy who wrote that one sad string piece everyone knows from movies and funerals.
Awards:
- Grammy Awards — 7th Awards (1964) — Best Contemporary Classical Composition
“Classic accounts of the lyrical Violin Concerto and the brilliant Piano Concerto – plus Eugene Ormandy’s purposeful Adagio and Thomas Schippers’s strong Second Essay for Orchestra.”
— BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2009,5 out of 5 stars
Philippe Entremont (piano), Jennie Tourel (mezzo), Lukas Foss (piano), Isaac Stern (violin), Felicia Montealegre (speaker) & Jennie Tourel (mezzo), Paul Bogart (alto), Benny Goodman (clarinet), Zino Francescatti (violin)New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein
RCA · 88697279882 · 10 hours 22 minutes
There’s something irreplaceable about hearing Bernstein lead his own scores, because he conducts them the way he talks — with restless energy, wit, and a total refusal to sit still stylistically. Ten hours is a lot to ask, but the cast tells you everything about the era he worked in: Isaac Stern, Benny Goodman, Zino Francescatti, all treating this music as a living conversation rather than a museum piece. It’s less a box set than a portrait of a composer who never quite trusted anyone else to get the jokes right.
Awards:
- Gramophone Magazine — March 2009 — Re-issue of the Month
- Building A Library — July 2021 — Recommended Recording
