From: rtut@troi.cc.rochester.edu (Raymond Tuttle)
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical
Subject: Bernstein conducts Bruckner, Sibelius, and the "Final Concert"
Date: 9 Nov 92 00:14:24 GMT
Organization: University of Rochester (Rochester, NY)

Many of Leonard Bernstein's last recordings with the Vienna
Philharmonic were made in front of a live audience, and they capture an
excitement and spontaneity which are not always present in the studio
with this orchestra.  Deutsche Grammophon has issued two more
Bernstein/VPO recordings which originate from concerts in early 1990,
and both of them are outstanding musical experiences, although their
overt emotionality may not endear them to all listeners. 

Disc 435 350 contains a performance of Bruckner's swan-song, the
Symphony No. 9 in D minor, and 435 351 contains Sibelius' Symphony No.
1 in E minor.  Bernstein recorded both of these works decades ago with
the New York Philharmonic, and fine as these earlier recordings were,
the new ones supersede them in every way.  The VPO, almost always a
technically infallible orchestra, if not always a musically inspired one,
responds to Lenny's baton with incisiveness and genuine drama.  The
recordings themselves are stunning in their naturalness and have a
"live" impact. 

Bernstein finds new depths in the Bruckner, particularly in the final
movement.  Lasting almost 27 minutes (some two and a half minutes
longer than the NYPO version), Bernstein's new reading finds more
breathing room to let the movement's crises stand out in bold relief,
and to let its ineffably calm and resigned conclusion make its maximum
effect.  The Scherzo is not played too quickly, allowing all its brutally
malign power to come to the fore. 

Sibelius' First Symphony has been criticized for sounding too much like
chilly Tchaikovsky, but Bernstein's stark and powerful treatment of the
music pulls it firmly back into Scandinavia.  Bernstein emphasizes the
music's gloomy violence, and it is difficult to hear the symphony as
anything other than a tragedy of the collective human spirit in this
performance.  Slow tempos stretch the symphony to a duration of 41
minutes, but the work never bogs down as it can in some brisker
recordings.  DG does not provide a coupling, but this should not dissuade
one from obtaining this recording. 

On another recent release (431 768), DG's beloved yellow rectangle 
morbidly proclaims "Bernstein - The Final Concert."  It was August 19
1990, and Bernstein was to conduct the Boston Symphony Orchestra at
the Tanglewood Festival in his own music, and music of Britten (the
"Four Sea Interludes" from "Peter Grimes") and Beethoven (Symphony No.
7).  In fact, Bernstein, "continuing to moderate his activities during his
recovery from exhaustion" according to a note in that afternoon's
program, surrendered conducting duties for his "Arias and Barcarolles,"
the opening work on the program, to assistant conductor Carl St. Clair,
and took the podium only for the Britten and the Beethoven, the
performances which are preserved here. 

Bernstein physical infirmity was clearly evident, and he did no
gyrating, signature "Lenny dance" that day.  Indeed, he apparently nearly
collapsed during the Beethoven and "conducted much of the third
movement leaning against the back of the podium, gasping for breath,"
according to Tim Page, who wrote the notes for this issue. 

Well, how does all of this sound to the home listener?  The Britten was
obviously meticulously prepared; the palette of orchestral colors is
very refined, and these atmospheric little poems glow under the baton
of the Maestro.   

Beethoven's Seventh, that paean to life and music, follows as an
apposite valedictory.  Both here and in the Britten, the BSO often
sounds more like a chamber orchestra; textures are clear, open and
suffused with light.  Bernstein's final performance belies the great
physical pain that he must have been suffering, but in itself it is not
the great summation that one might like it to be.  It is a fairly
straight-forward, almost Furtwangler-like performance, except for the
coy (and very effective) way in which Bernstein reins in the end of the
trio sections  in the third movement.  Tempos throughout are slow but
compelling, and the performance is effective, albeit not quite
transcendental. 

The BSO has its raw moments - better microphone placement might
have helped, because the sound is curiously unbalanced and
inconsistent.  Is this what the Tanglewood Music Shed sounds like in
real life?  The effect is certainly dramatic, and unsubtle too. 

DG has a few more Bernstein recordings that are now available: some
Beethoven (piano concertos and a string orchestra arrangement of one
of the quartets), and a Mahler 9 (with the Berlin Philharmonic).  After
that, it is SONY's duty to fill in the rest of the blanks with their Royal
Edition, and (one would hope) even more Bernstein reissues. 





--
****************************************   Raymond S. Tuttle
"Dunkel ist das Leben, ist der Tod,"       University of Rochester
but it's nothing to get depressed about!   (still with his two little 
****************************************   white mice).