Bernstein as a forceful young advocate of living composers can be heard on a 1953 recording, conducting the Columbia Symphony Orchestra in works by Luigi Dallapiccola, Nikolai Lopatnikoff and the overlooked American master Harold Shapero. Bernstein leads an engrossing account of Mr. Shapero's complex, sprawling Symphony for Classical Orchestra (1947).

--Anthony Tommasini, New York Times [9/12/2008]

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"Sample this audacious collection of 1950s mono originals for the underrated Symphony by American composer Harold Shapero (born 1920). Though Stravinsky looms large and the slow movement echoes Prokofiev’s Classical, this is sturdy, big-boned, Beethovenian stuff with an American accent that should appeal to lovers of Copland et al. Andre Previn has conducted better performances than his live recording on New World; Bernstein’s remains the one to have." -- Gramophone [6/1999]

"Bernstein as a forceful young advocate of living composers can be heard on [this] 1953 recording, conducting the Columbia Symphony Orchestra in works by Luigi Dallapiccola, Nikolai Lopatnikoff and the overlooked American master Harold Shapero. Bernstein leads an engrossing account of Mr. Shapero’s complex, sprawling Symphony for Classical Orchestra (1947)." -- New York Times [9/12/2008]

"Recorded in the mid-50's with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Bernstein's performance of Harold Shapero's Symphony for Classical Orchestra still sounds fresh. Ditto the account of Luigi Dallapiccola's fetching and ingenious ''Tartiniana'' for violin and orchestra, with Ruth Posselt as soloist." -- New York Times [7/20/2000]