LEONARD BERNSTEIN / WIENER PHILHARMONIKER Leonard Bernstein / Wiener Philharmoniker - Beethoven: String Quartet Op. 131 [Original Source Series] Bernstein's recording of Beethoven's String Quartet Op. 131 with the Wiener Philharmoniker stands out for it's strong sense of contrast. In the central variation movement, Bernstein adopts a notably slower tempo, creating an intense and focused atmosphere, while the faster movements gain added bite and momentum. The Wiener Philharmoniker strings bring their renowned sound to the performance, making this a highly engaging interpretation. Bernstein dedicated this recording to the memory of his wife, Felicia Montealegre. For the first time, this recording has been remastered from the original 1-inch, 8-track tapes. Bernstein. The Original Source Series from Deutsche Grammophon features celebrated recordings reissued on vinyl. Remastered by the renowned Emil Berliner Studios using 100% pure analog techniques to create the highest possible audio quality. Produced on 180g virgin vinyl by Optimal and housed in deluxe gatefold, featuring additional photos and/or recording documentation.

Impressive young guitarist playing w. swing, logic, feeling and taste w. drummer Jimmy Cobb.

Pianist Bernstein leads burning quartet, w. Brad Mehldau (Joshua Redman)-piano, Christian McBride-bass, Gregory Hutchinson (Roy Hargrove)-drums.

2024 release. Bernstein convenes an all-star quartet for his stunning release, BETTER ANGELS, featuring pianist Brad Mehldau, bassist Vicente Archer, and legendary drummer Al Foster. It would be accurate to say that the quartet that Peter Bernstein has assembled for his remarkable new album is making it's debut, but it would also be more than a little misleading. While it's true that this all-star group - which teams the acclaimed guitarist with pianist Brad Mehldau, bassist Vicente Archer, and legendary drummer Al Foster - had never played together prior to recording BETTER ANGELS, it's members all share deep and long-standing relationships. The result is the best of both worlds: striking interplay that can't help but thrive on the chemistry generated by the various connections, combined with the high-wire energy derived from delving into the unknown. BETTER ANGELS extends that combination of the comfortable and the unfamiliar to Bernstein's choice of repertoire, which pairs thoughtfully selected standards with bold new original ompositions.

Vinyl LP pressing. 2024 release. Bernstein convenes an all-star quartet for his stunning release, BETTER ANGELS, featuring pianist Brad Mehldau, bassist Vicente Archer, and legendary drummer Al Foster. It would be accurate to say that the quartet that Peter Bernstein has assembled for his remarkable new album is making it's debut, but it would also be more than a little misleading. While it's true that this all-star group - which teams the acclaimed guitarist with pianist Brad Mehldau, bassist Vicente Archer, and legendary drummer Al Foster - had never played together prior to recording BETTER ANGELS, it's members all share deep and long-standing relationships. The result is the best of both worlds: striking interplay that can't help but thrive on the chemistry generated by the various connections, combined with the high-wire energy derived from delving into the unknown. BETTER ANGELS extends that combination of the comfortable and the unfamiliar to Bernstein's choice of repertoire, which pairs thoughtfully selected standards with bold new original compositions.

In a competitive field — there are at least three other DVDs about Leonard Bernstein currently on the market — it is only modestly successful. To wit, we are still awaiting a documentary that provides a seriously critical appraisal of this iconic figure.

The best parts of Georg Wübbolt’s film are probably the interviews, especially those with Bernstein’s children; they emphasize their father’s endless curiosity and his love of teaching. Many of the other friends and colleagues interviewed talk about how they were moved to embrace classical music by watching Bernstein on his Omnibus television shows in the 1950s or by attending the Young People’s Concerts he did with the New York Philharmonic.

The Bernstein footage on this documentary has all been seen before in other documentaries. One of the most memorable sequences depicts Bernstein losing his patience with the Vienna Philharmonic in rehearsal.

– Musical Toronto (Paul E. Robinson)

Picture Format: NTSC 16:9
Sound Format: PCM Stereo
Subtitles: English (Original Language), German, French, Korean
Region Code: 0 (Worldwide)
Total Running Time: 76 mins

Also available on Blu-ray

Haydn is generally seen as one of the main originators of the “Viennese sound”, the inimitable style of playing which is still very much alive today and is particularly cultivated by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. This orchestra has Haydn’s music in its blood, and its interpretation of his symphonies demonstrates a supreme confidence, musical sophistication and lightness of touch. As a noted American music critic remarked following a performance of the Oxford Symphony conducted by Leonard Bernstein: “Let’s have no further argument: the Vienna Philharmonic is the world’s greatest orchestra. Bernstein’s interpretations of the symphonies have consistently met with unreserved critical acclaim. He, of all conductors, possessed precisely the qualities which Haydn’s music requires: grace, charm and a generous measure of wit.” The present recording was recorded at Grosser Musikvereinssaal Wien in 1984 and 1985. This is truly documentation of a master at work.

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DETAILS:

Booklet: English, German, French
Run time: 111 minutes
Disc Format: DVD 9
Picture: NTSC 4:3
Audio: PCM Stereo
Region Code: 0 (worldwide)

Also available on Blu-ray

The French program offers a stimulating blend of celebrated repertoire works as well as “special tips” from the Romantic era to the early 20th century. These concerts of Leonard Bernstein were unanimously hailed in the press, both for the dynamism and brio of a conductor at the peak of his artistic powers, and for the unmistakable signs of rejuvenation of the Orchestre National de France. Featuring works of Hector Berlioz’ Symphonie Fantastique, subtitled Episode in the Life of an Artist, Albert Roussel‘s Symphony No. 3 – Leonard Bernstein is, in a sense, paying homage to his friend and benefactor Serge Koussevitzky, who commissioned the work for the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1930 - Ambroise Thomas´ sparkling, Rossini-like overture to Raymond and Camille Saint-Saens’ Le Rouet d’Omphale it was “… one of the most wonderful Berlioz concerts that you can dream of …” (Le Monde)

Also available on Blu-ray

“There had never been a communicator about music with anywhere near Bernstein’s brilliance, humor, energy, reach and importance.” (New York Times) Young People’s Concerts Vol. 3 comprises 18 episodes of the legendary series, which remains unmatched until today. “Leonard Bernstein did this better than anyone. He was brilliant – as a musician and as an ambassador for music” (Whoopie Goldberg). Awarded three Emmys and hailed by Variety as “a rare moment in the symbiosis of the arts and broadcasting”, Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts left their mark on television history. Aired at prime-time on CBS from 1958 to 1972, 52 one-hour programs were written and hosted by Leonard Bernstein, “certainly the most influential American maestro of the 20th century” (New York Times). With the New York Philharmonic and guest artists providing the live music, these programs brought musical concepts and music history to life for generations of viewers. Volume III includes 18 Episodes - the Concerts Nos. 29-43 plus Young Performers Nos. 7-9 (featuring Edo de Waart, Horacio Gutiérrez, Young Uck Kim)

Elmer Bernstein - Movie Themes, Mood Music & More 1952-62 - Elmer Bernstein was a composer and conductor who became renowned for his work in films and TV, writing, scoring and recording some of the most renowned and recognisable themes in in Hollywood history. He is not related to the renowned composer of stage musicals Leonard Bernstein. Born in 1922, he served in the USAF in WWII, working in Armed Forces Radio, and came to the fore in the early 1950s when he started writing for movies. This 44-track 2-CD collection primarily features soundtrack and commercial recordings of themes and other music written for films and albums during the first decade of his career. In addition, it includes selected titles from his albums "Blues And Brass" for Decca and "Movie & TV Themes" on the Choreo label. It includes "The Man With the Golden Arm", "Staccato's Theme", "The Magnificent Seven", and "Walk On The Wild Side", plus themes from "The Ten Commandments", "The Comancheros", "To Kill A Mockingbird" and more. Although he composed for many different genres of film, his style was very distinctive, characterised by dramatic and atmospheric melodies and arrangements that invariably conjured up the mood and imagery of the subject. Comprising a selection of works from his early career, this collection offers an entertaining and evocative showcase for that style.

THE ROYAL EDITION - SHOSTAKOVI

"The Hindemith concerto, while not exactly revealing itself as an unregarded masterpiece, gets just the right degree of tempered bombast and pastoralism - suggesting that here is a piece ripe for reassessment."

-- BBC Music Magazine reviewing Sony 64507

"These two concertos are the product of Nielsen's last years: the Clarinet Concerto, surely one of his strangest and most powerful utterances, was written in 1929, only two years before his death, and the Flute Concerto comes from 1927. They are two of the most masterly concertos for their respective instruments (Nielsen whose understanding of the wind was second to none had planned a concerto for each of the wind family) and Robert Simpson rightly calls the Flute Concerto "the richest and most original" written for the instrument...Stanley Drucker gives an intelligent account of his demanding part...Julius Baker is the excellent soloist in the Flute Concerto which he plays with great virtuosity."

-- Gramophone Reviewing original LP, CBS 72639

THE ROYAL EDITION - SCHUMANN:

THE ROYAL EDITION - STRAVINSKY

Teaming composers as disparate as Bloch, Foss and Ben-Haim on the basis of shared ethnicity seems a slightly dubious exercise. On the other hand, since these three performances may be considered definitive, this is a real opportunity to discover some worthwhile new music. Bloch's Sacred Service is perfectly approachable in idiom, although, in echoing 'colourful' scores like Schelomo rather than anything more astringent, Bloch does not avoid an impression of rhythmic squareness. Those familiar with the more avant-gardiste utterances of Lukas Foss will scarcely recognize the composer from his early Song of Songs, at last getting a proper UK release. The manner is postHindemith, pre-Bernstein; Tippettian pastoral, with an exotic element intensified here by the cosmopolitan delivery of Jeannie Tourel. The orchestral accompaniment is not technically beyond reproach but the playing has total conviction and Tourel's is a performance to treasure. Only the post-Stravinskian eclecticism of Ben Haim's Sweet Psalmist of Israel is a little hard to take over half an hour.

-- Gramophone [11/1992]

Includes work(s) by Richard Wagner (Composer). Conductor: Leonard Bernstein.

Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms, Concerto for Piano and Wind

Although there is no lack of drama, this reading is refreshingly unmannered and free from overstatement.

The Third was among the first and most successful of Bernstein's Mahler recordings. Leonard Bernstein's reading is refreshingly unmannered and free from overstatement. There is no lack of drama or tension in the long first movement: the inner movements are done with great charm and the second in particular is quite winning. Matha Lipton is occasionally a shade under the note in the fourth movement, "0 Mensch, 0 Mensch!" but her voice has excellent quality and she sings with great feeling. The singing of the boys' choir in the fifth movement is fresh and vigorous and only an occasional note of over-sweetness, not wholly unavoidable in this music, is found in the finale. Apart from one or two minor points of balance that are of small account, the recording is well engineered. The acoustic is warm and open, detail emerges clearly and the perspective is for the most part truthful. The surfaces are smooth. Strongly recommended.

-- Gramophone [6/1974, reviewing an LP reissue of the Mahler 3]

LEONARD BERNSTEIN - THE ROYAL

THE ROYAL EDITION - TCHAIKOVSK

SHOSTAKOVICH: SYMPHONY NO 14

BERNSTEIN CENTURY - FOSS: TIME

This is a DSD (Direct Stream Digital) recording

This release combines a pair of Beethoven performances by conductor Leonard Bernstein, in his prime, with the New York Philharmonic; the Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67, was recorded in 1961, and the Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92, in 1958. Both have been digitally remastered, and the earlier recording actually comes out a bit better; by 1961 Columbia's engineers had figured out how to use the backdrop of LP sound to accent orchestral strings, an effect difficult to reproduce on CD. Charismatic, gifted, and genre-crossing, Bernstein was on top of the American musical world during this period, and these recordings remained strong sellers for some years. Hearing them half a century on reminds listeners (or apprises them anew) of several things. The first is that the New York Philharmonic, though certainly more than competent, did not have a trademark strength like its chief competitors in Philadelphia, Cleveland, Chicago, and Boston. You hope for brilliance that is not there. But you're also reminded that Bernstein was a subtler conductor than he is sometimes given credit for being. His histrionic style on the podium belied a well-considered, detailed approach to these works, for which he was confronted by decades (or more) of established tradition. The Symphony No. 5 is broad rather than exceptionally violent, with a lovely free space for the oboe cadenza in the first movement; Bernstein has it expand beyond its structural significance into a moment of sudden and profound personal reflection in the midst of societal tumult. In the Symphony No. 7 Bernstein is deliberate and persistent in the first movement's slow introduction and never really turns up the voltage until the finale, which thus acquires its proper bacchanalian mood. As with other albums in this Sony reissue series, the CD version includes both photographic reproductions of the original artwork and booklet reprints of the jacket text, with added French and German translations.

-- James Manheim, AllMusic.com

...[I]n such a spirited reading [as this performance of the Prokofiev First] the parallels between the Prokofiev and the Bizet [Symphony in C] are very much highlighted: the 'classical' symphonies of Prokofiev's title—those, presumably, of Haydn and Mozart — seem comparatively remote. But for all their brilliance elsewhere the players manage to be sinuously winning enough in the Symphony's slow movement... [a performance] of the very first class.

-- Gramophone [5/1969, reviewing an LP release of the First Symphony]

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Bernstein gives a highly romantic version of the first movement... [I]t could hardly be better done... The playing throughout the whole symphony is in the highest class and the recording is of the same quality.

-- Gramophone [10/1967, reviewing the original LP release of the Fifth Symphony]