Search - Bruce Hubbard, Leonard Bernstein, Leonard Slatkin :: Leonard Bernstein: Symphonic Dances from West Side Story; Candide Overture; Prelude, Fugue and Riffs

An Anglo-American tribute to Bernstein, mostly warmed over

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 09/14/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Nothing on this CD really swings the way Bernstien himself did when he conducted his own music. It's a shame that EMI didn't commemorate LB's centenary wtih some new performances isntead of reaching into their back catalog. Leonard Slatkin was the company's go-to guy for American music in the 80s, and he's pretty square, lacking the composer's afinity for jazz. Oddly, Simon Rattle does better with the brief Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs than Slatkin with the three dance interluddes extracted from the musical, On the Town (draggy) or the fizzy ballet, Facsimile (saggy).



Rattle has marital ties to America, but the same can't be said for the Estonian Paavo Jarvi, who leads a Rattle-free Birmingham orchestra with a thud, giving us the most leaden suite from West Side Story on disc. It's hard to imagine that the conductor, who noew presides in Cincinnati, ever heard Bernstein's own white-hot recording. It would be much better to turn to Gustavo Dudamel's recent DG outing wit his equally white-hot Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra from Venezuela -- they swing so hard that they have to get up and dance.



In all, this is a nice tyr, but you'd have to like your Bernstein tame and warmed over to really love it."