Bernstein Century - The Age Of Anxiety, Serenade

$17.99
Label
Sony Masterworks
Release Date
August 30, 2012
Format
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    Featuring ⌄
    • PERFORMER
      Bernstein, Foss, Stern, Nyp
    Product Details ⌄
    • RELEASE DATE
      August 30, 2012
    • UPC
      074646055823
    • CATALOG NUMBER
      SONY 60558
    • LABEL
      Sony Masterworks
    • NUMBER OF DISCS
      1
    • GENRE
      Orchestral & Symphonic
    Works ⌄

    1. Part I: The Prologue: Lento moderato -

      Composer: Leonard Bernstein

      Ensemble: New York Philharmonic

      Performer: Lukas Foss

      Conductor: Leonard Bernstein

    2. Part I: The Seven Ages: Variation 1 - Variation 7

      Composer: Leonard Bernstein

      Ensemble: New York Philharmonic

      Performer: Lukas Foss

      Conductor: Leonard Bernstein

    3. Part I: The Seven Stages: Variation 8 - Variation 14

      Composer: Leonard Bernstein

      Ensemble: New York Philharmonic

      Performer: Lukas Foss

      Conductor: Leonard Bernstein

    4. Part II: The Dirge: Largo -

      Composer: Leonard Bernstein

      Ensemble: New York Philharmonic

      Performer: Lukas Foss

      Conductor: Leonard Bernstein

    5. Part II: The Masque: Extremely fast -

      Composer: Leonard Bernstein

      Ensemble: New York Philharmonic

      Performer: Lukas Foss

      Conductor: Leonard Bernstein

    6. Part II: The Epilogue: L'istesso tempo

      Composer: Leonard Bernstein

      Ensemble: New York Philharmonic

      Performer: Lukas Foss

      Conductor: Leonard Bernstein

    7. I. Phaedrus - Pausanias: Lento - Allegro

      Composer: Leonard Bernstein

      Ensemble: Symphony of the Air, New York Philharmonic

      Performer: Isaac Stern, Lukas Foss

      Conductor: Leonard Bernstein

    8. II. Aristophanes: Allegretto

      Composer: Leonard Bernstein

      Ensemble: Symphony of the Air, New York Philharmonic

      Performer: Isaac Stern, Lukas Foss

      Conductor: Leonard Bernstein

    9. III. Eryximachus: Presto

      Composer: Leonard Bernstein

      Ensemble: Symphony of the Air, New York Philharmonic

      Performer: Isaac Stern, Lukas Foss

      Conductor: Leonard Bernstein

    10. IV. Agathon: Adagio

      Composer: Leonard Bernstein

      Ensemble: Symphony of the Air, New York Philharmonic

      Performer: Isaac Stern, Lukas Foss

      Conductor: Leonard Bernstein

    11. V. Socrates - Alcibiades: Molto tenuto - Allegro molto vivace

      Composer: Leonard Bernstein

      Ensemble: Symphony of the Air, New York Philharmonic

      Performer: Isaac Stern

      Conductor: Leonard Bernstein


Sony are now reissuing the earlier New York recordings of the Bernstein symphonies in the Bernstein Century Edition. In the case of No. 2 this is the very first (1950) mono version, with Lukas Foss as the piano soloist. Subtitled The Age of Anxiety and based on Auden's poem, this concertante work shows the composer at his most eclectic, with the stylistic contrasts emphasized by the clear, forward mono sound, the "Dirge" stridently dissonant, and the jazzy exuberance of the "Masque" contrasting boldly with the closing "Epilogue". Foss is dazzlingly idiomatic but he is too forwardly recorded; and the same has to be said of the coupled (1956) mono performance of the Serenade after Plato's "Symposium", with the violin soloist Isaac Stern on top form and naturally attuned to the score, but with the solo violin balanced way out front and the orchestral sound unrefined.

-- Ivan March, Gramophone [12/1998]