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Whistle Stopper - Schumann: The 4 Symphonies
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List Price: $17.98
Our Price: $10.01
Your Save: $ 7.97 ( 44% )
Availability:
Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0028945304922
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
Number Of Discs: 2
Publisher: Deutsche Grammophon
Release Date: 1997-02-11
Studio: Deutsche Grammophon
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Bernstein at his Best
Comment: Leonard Bernstein was absolutely at his best conducting Schumann. He did an outstanding job on the four Schumann Syhmphonies. He had a talent for capturing Schumann's manic side (as in the Fourth Symphony) as well as the composer's raw talent. This Deutsche Grammophon two-CD album is well worth the price.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Surprisingly good for late Bernstein yet still...
Comment: I'm kind of annoyed by the Hurwitz-ism at the top of this review section. Professional music-writers (or popularizers--whatever he is) really should rise above the hyperbolic--let's leave that to us bone-headed amateurs. The Mighty Hurwitzer propounds that these symphonies have (I'm paraphrasing) never been better played or recorded or something--the implication being that this is the best you can get. Hm.
If you love these symphonies you really should be exploring a variety of interpretations, and if you do you'll note that a goodly clump of them are particularly good (and the specific contents of that clump will vary from enthusiast to enthusiast). That's just the way this works. I like Gardiner's period instrument set, the Paray on Mercury Living Presence, the recent set done up by Christopher Eschenbach, the forgotten Vonk on EMI and a few others, including the earlier Bernstein set. Eschenbach is new and beautifully recorded; it lacks the--uh--indulgent touches that Bernstein brought to many of his recordings, including this one.
... and it's those indulgences that prevent me from giving this a five star rating or the kind of singular accolade Hurwitz is able to bestow. Any Schumann fan should own these--they really are remarkable and often very exciting--but be prepared for oddities, lingerings, sudden speed ups (the skyrocket ending of #4 is particularly annoying) and--well--the Bernstein usual. I've always felt that these symphonies have a kind of built-in natural momentum that a good conductor has to sense and follow--you tag after Schumann, he doesn't tag after you. Lenny brings a lot to any interpretation but there's always the sense that the composer is being squeezed between the "Bern" and the "Stein." This particular show could be renamed "Lenny Bernstein's The Schumann Symphonies."
One other thing is lost: these are hellraiser performances at the expense of good old Schumann/German Gemütlichkeit. "Lenny" has every excitable emotion down pat but the schmoozy warmth is missing which, sadly for me, is 50% of my Schumann. He tapped into that much better in his earlier set.
Not a bad review, just an alert. I think Hurwitz is why I prefer the more level-headed (grown up?) comments one finds in the Penguin Guide or coming from British reviewers generally.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A recording from the far side of the pendulum.
Comment: Back in the 1950s and 60s when Leonard Bernstein was at his peak of popularity and reputation, it was common for conductors to put their own unmistakable and indelible stamp on/in the pieces of music they were recording and this was probably more true for Bernstein than for any other conductor. Gradually, the Early Music and Original Instrument movements began to hold sway in the following decades, producing a flurry of recordings that prided themselves upon being true to the composer's intentions and minimizing the interpreting liberties taken by the previous generation, often with interpretations that were long on research and short on beauty. Both positions of the interpretive pendulum are simplified extremes and are equally wrong-headed and unsuccessful.
There is no denying that Bernstein was a wonderful personality and great conductor and music-lover who brought the American music scene a giant step forward. However, now that some decades have passed since his passing, his contribution can perhaps be viewed and listened to more objectively. Thus, this recording of Schumann's four symphonies is classic Bernstein, the set having been recorded in the mid-1980s, yet is as ego-laden as one who is nostalgic for the 1960s as one could wish. Schumann himself stated that "The orchestra must exist as a Republic" and hated the idea of a virtuoso conductor who brings attention to himself and takes attention from the orchestra and the composition. I doubt Schumann would have liked this recording. The music is gushing, lugubrious, and bombastic, with every possible affectation. Sometimes, it works and sometimes it doesn't.
Part of the problem is that there is a perception that Schumann was a weak symphonist and terrible orchestrator, but that his symphonies (including the Overture, Scherzo, and Finale) contain such fine music that their blemishes are worth hiding behind the proper interpretation. In other words, Schumann's symphonies work, but require a bit of 'work'. If one hears any of the Nicholas Harnoncourt recordings of the symphonies, one realizes this is poppycock -- there, these symphonies are models of clarity and beauty. Nothing is overdone, yet Schumann seems to say so much more. In Bernstein's hands, everything is about himself. This is not all bad. In fact, the First Symphony's second movement is quite beautiful and very expressive, contrasting brilliantly with the strongly rhythmic first movement, which suffers only from being overplayed and bombastic. The sheer heaviness and ponderous quality of the playing is curious -- none of Schumann's orchestral details are allowed to speak, such as the trumpet/oboe couplings in the second movement of the Third Symphony. Unlike many other Schumannians I've met, I've always considered the Third his weakest symphony (wonderful though it is) and here, I can understand a few of Bernstein's interpretive liberties such as the choices of tempi of the coda of the fifth movement and the movement proper. However, the symphony certainly isn't improved with Bernstein's tenutos and sudden dynamic changes, especially near the ends of the first movement's exposition and recapitulation; the tonal palette in this movement (and in this symphony) is narrower than in the others, but such exaggeration is almost laughable.
Overall, one of my biggest gripes is Bernstein's choice of tempi. The Second Symphony's third movement (Adagio espressivo) is taken so slowly that the movement never builds any momentum at all -- it just lays there like a dying animal, waiting to expire. The second movement of this same symphony begins with a good tempo, not too fast and although too heavy for its Mendelssohnian scoring and musical intentions, is convincing enough. Schumann increases the tempo in the Coda, and here Bernstein takes it so fast, it bears little relation to what has preceded it. The result sounds like such a bravura affectation that the musical power of the movement is crushed under the weight of Bernstein's personality. The result doesn't make musical sense. The tempo at the end of the coda in the fourth movement of this wonderful symphony is slowed down I suppose to give it more power, but here is so exaggerated that it simply comes to a screeching halt.
However, Bernstein does coax some wonderful playing from his Viennese charges and the solo work in the Adagio of the Second (here played Largo) as well as the solo violin work in the Fourth and other instrumental solos throughout these symphonies is excellent. Although the clarity of the recording isn't the best (this is the 1980s), Bernstein does give admirable attention to the bass lines where Schumann's counterpoint requires it and the Coda of the Finale of the Fourth is certainly exciting and very powerful, starting with a long buildup in the basses where each note can almost be distinguished.
Underlining my point, Bernstein is at his best in the Fourth, where Schumann's obsessive rhythms in the first, third, and fourth movements as well as a series of odd instrumental doublings (winds and strings) and austere musical expression keep him in check. This has always been the least popular of Schumann's symphonies -- I can only assume this view was shared by Bernstein, because he does the least with/to it and it thus winds up being the best of this set.
Bernstein isn't for everyone and neither is this set. I'm of the opinion that Schumann is one of the greatest of all composers and though not flawless, his symphonies are a remarkable musical and technical achievement. But I wouldn't have that opinion had my listening been limited to interpretations like this one. I've yet to come across a recording of these works that is entirely to my liking; this one is too much Bernstein, not enough Schumann, yet I can appreciate Bernstein's passion and his obvious love for this great music.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Maybe not the best recording quality
Comment: The interpretation of the symphonies is fine. The recording quality in some of the music is slightly dead. I don't think it was an orchestral problem, just a mechanical problem.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The wisdom gaze!
Comment: These living recordings not only find Bernstein in total shape but still more in what it could be stated as a wisdom state. To my view, since 1971, the year in which Leonard decided to consider the possibility to choose Europe as his next stage and the definitive one, he acquired a renovated vision, and even a major stature as conductor. You may realize how his Mahler cycle, his musical thinking improved to unexpected levels.
In what Schumann concerns, few directors like him understood so well the artistic heritage and the tragedy beneath the score, because the Romanticism spirit was just the peak of the iceberg. The spring Symphony' s reading for instance, is sturdy, vivid and expansive. The Vienna Philharmonic with its wonderful, exultant, vigorous and penetrating sonorous density made the perfect ensemble. Maybe the Third movement is quite reflexive; I would have preferred a major intensity at the beginning of the movement but these are minor subtleties. This version may be labeled as one the seven supreme ones ever made until this date. If you consider Munch, Koussevitzsky, Fricsay, Paray, Sawalich Kubelik, yopu should not worry about it.
Bernstein reached an insurmountable peak when he decided to record the second symphony with the New York Philharmonic. This version is good but less idiomatic than the previous one. The Third Symphony has been a matter of discussion and admiration; its bucolic and Pastoral character makes of this sublime Symphony a real stone in the shoe for many directors incapable to decipher the minimum facets of this Op. Bernstein makes a sumptuous and refined reading but to my view his previous version with the NYC is notably superior.
The Fourth is notable too, with reflexive passages, beating introspectiveness and above all, the visible Mahlerian approach employed by Bernstein to underline the close affinity among both composers. This version, plus Paray, Abendrtoth, Rafael Kubelik, Furtwangler and Sawalich are the most representative versions I have listened until this date.
In sum this set is indispensable for all sort of listeners who will be able to understand why Leonard was considered a status conductor and a magnificent director during the past Century.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Leonard Bernstein was full of surprises. A conductor often accused of hopeless self-indulgence, he responded intuitively to the classical aesthetic of Haydn, and no less to the early Romantic bravado of Schumann. In fact, these symphonies have never been better played or conducted than they are here. These are performances of high passion--they're either very fast or very slow--and extraordinary color and drama. Bernstein sticks faithfully to the composer's original, thick orchestrations but makes each symphony work through playing of unflagging clarity and chamber music-like balance. That this was all done live, in performances of such wide emotional range, is amazing. But amazing was what Bernstein did best. --David Hurwitz
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