Current Reviews

        by Jon Yungkans

Sergei Prokofiev
Piano Concerto No. 1-3

Martha Argerich, piano
Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor



Samuel Barber
Orchestral Works and Concertos
Leonard Slatkin, Charles Munch



Rimsky-Korsakov
Evgeny Svetlanov


Beethoven
Symphony No.9
Piano Transcription by Franz Liszt
Konstantin Scherbakov, Piano



Kronos Caravan

Quieter moments in romance – those faint whisperings between lovers, whether in public, over a glass of wine or in bed – are the ones more often savored and treasured than the outwardly more ardent ones.  Realizing this, Leonard Bernstein has wisely suffused the main works on this disc with a hushed ardor, a continual love talk that entrances, enchants and soothes us into a tender and amorous mood.

Opening with Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings – the same as on Bernstein’s recently reissued Barber and William Schuman disc (read the review here) – a soft interpretive tone permeates the featured selections.  We move from the shimmering opening and lovingly sculpted phrasing of Ralph Vaughn Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallas to a buoyant and genuinely expressive Fantasia on “Greensleeves.”   Peter Tchaikovsky’s Andante cantabile is slow but extremely eloquent, with the central episode a lighter, livelier contrast.  

Gustav Mahler’s Adagietto is the riskiest performance, increasingly hovering dangerously close to saccharine parody in its interpretive winks and nudges.  Moments like this beg the question of how Bernstein could get away with things like this and still be taken seriously as a Mahlerian.  Then you realize this was Bernstein in action – pushing the expressive bounds of the music as far as he could, even if it meant sometimes snapping those restraints to plummet over a cliff.  With Mahler, perhaps the composer to whom the conductor most closely identified, he tended to give the most attention and weight, variably for better or worse.

The bonus tracks in these Masterworks Expanded releases have varied from the inspired to the inane.  Here, instead of leaving us alone in the moonlight, Sony marches us off to the ball – and a very stuffy one at that.

In one of those strange dualisms of classical performance, conductors have generally fared well in either Haydn or Mozart, very seldom both.  (Sir Thomas Beecham was a charming and witty exception to this rule.)   Fully at home with Haydn’s bounce and bawdy humor, Bernstein generally did not possess a clue to Mozart’s balance, grace or serenity.  Despite its title, the “Romance” from Eine kleine Nachtmusik ruins the mood entirely with its Classical formality.  Bernstein’s approach is so starched-and-pressed that you can hear shirts and petticoats crackle as the partygoers dance as best they can.  The Vivaldi fares worse: either Bernstein or the engineers transformed the music from the slow movement of a violin concerto into a harpsichord concerto with violin obbligato, as though the microphone was placed directly under the continuo. 

The title and theme of this disc is Romantic Music for Strings.  At the risk of sounding like a Mahlermanic, why not go whole-hog and throw in the “Nachtmusik: Andante amoroso” from the Seventh Symphony?  Yes, this would have tilted the disc totally away from “strings” part of its concept but kept it firmly in the soft “romantic” mode in which it had been up to now.  Besides, doesn’t one bleeding chunk of Mahler deserve another? 

The final selection, the “Elégie” from Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, is another matter.  Deeply expressive, with rubati, luftpausen and tonal variances finely gauged, this rivals the Barber as finest on the disc.  It is a heartening end on an interpretive high note, with Bernstein whispering again in our ears and caressing us in a soft embrace.

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