BaL 8.03.14 - Bernstein: West Side Story

[Petrushka]

I'd agree that this is the best musical ever and one that really hits the spot in the theatre.

My own favourite recording doesn't seem to be listed: John Owen Edwards conducting the National Symphony Orchestra and the original cast of the Leicester Haymarket Theatre production plus Sally Burgess. It's available on TER Classics CDTER1197. http://www.amazon.co.uk/West-Side-St...+side+story+cd

Such a shame that Lennie never recorded this properly. Dame Kiwi and Jose are hopelessly miscast and ruin it for me but Tatiana Troyanos is excellent as is Kurt Ollman.

[Barbirollians]

I don't see it as classical music marvellous work as it is . It will be Phantom of the Opera next .

[waldo]

Are we sure this BAL isn't scheduled for 1st April?

[Nick Armstrong]

Are we sure this BAL isn't scheduled for 1st April?

Coincidence: the same as the release date for this album, to be sampled tomorrow

Fantasy in Blue – Purcell and Gershwin
CROFT: Ground
GERSHWIN: Summertime (from Porgy and Bess); Bess, you is my woman now (from Porgy and Bess); etc
PURCELL: What power art thou? (from King Arthur, Z628); Hornpipe; Fantazia 5 in B flat major, Z. 736; etc
Jay Bernfeld (viola da gamba), Rinat Shaham (mezzo soprano), Fuoco e cenere
ATMA ACD22253 (CD)

[EdgeleyRob]

Pass.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

My own favourite recording doesn't seem to be listed: John Owen Edwards conducting the National Symphony Orchestra and the original cast of the Leicester Haymarket Theatre production plus Sally Burgess. It's available on TER Classics CDTER1197. http://www.amazon.co.uk/West-Side-St...+side+story+cd

- that's the one I mistakenly referred to as issued by "Stage & Screen" (wasn't that a R3 programme of onceago?)

[aeolium]

I was interested to see that Max Goberman was the conductor in the original Broadway production. I have a couple of his recordings of Haydn symphonies with the Vienna State Opera Orchestra and very good some of them are (he was due to record all of them IIRC but the project was cut short by his early death).

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I don't see it as classical music marvellous work as it is . It will be Phantom of the Opera next .

Apart from the "Classical or not" status (where is Rhapsody in Blue on that shape-shifting map?) the suggested similarity with Lord Lloyd Banker's score is grotesquely unfair. WSS is very clearly by a composer who could also produce the Jeremiah Symphony, The Age of Anxiety, the Serenade for Violin and Orchestra after Plato's "Symposium" - the Harvard and Curtis graduand whose doctoral thesis was on the potential of the American Musical Theatre as a medium for serious Musical activity - and the man who would go on to write and present the Young People's Concerts and the Norton Lectures.

WSS owes as much to the Western Classical traditions as it does to Broadway: the three-note motif that represents the Sharks in the Prelude, permutated to become that of "Ma-ri-a" (with octave displacement first presented in Something's Coming at the words "Who knows?"), permutated even further to become the subject of the "fugue" in Cool. The way Something's Coming "ends" with a dominant minor ninth chord on D (but in fourth inversion) - defying the tonality of D major and pulling it towards G major, a key which is only reached at the Cha-Cha during the Dance at the Gym - the moment when Tony first sees Maria and the "something good" that he knew was "coming" has "arrived" (the Cha-cha itself, of course, using a version of the melody of Maria, a number which we haven't yet). This is use of Music(al) thinking that only someone steeped in the Music of Bach and Brahms and Species Counterpoint could pull off so successfully.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Got the orig soundtrack disc. Will listen with interest and - I hope; not ashamed to it - enjoyment, but expect the wallet to stay in pocket: phew!

[BBMmk2]

In some respects I have a love hate relationship with this. Maybe because I've played it a lot times in a selection, for brass band. I much prefer Bernstein's other output, like his symphonies, for instance. I especially like No.2, "The Age of Anxiety".

[teamsaint]

like others, can't really see the point in this. You could pick up most of the available decent recordings for next to no money, and make your ow decision in a long evenings listening.

I really like the original soundtrack,but there do seem to be so many better works as candidates
for BaL
Dare I say it, this might have been a better candidate for Discovering Music, with Lennie's skills and techniques highlighted., as mentioned by Ferney.But............
Just a thought.

Due to the inevitable over familiarity of WSS, I tend to listen to On the Town more often.

Both absolute class in any case.

[gurnemanz]

I bought Bernstein's own version but have not actually listened to it very much. The film of the recording session with Lennie effing and blinding and was entertaining and also cringe-making. It is doubtless one of the top musicals but we have only recently actually seen it performed live (Sadler's Wells). I was struck forcefully by the demands placed on the performers to be able to dance and sing and tend to agree with doversoul's comment above: "To most of us, if not all of us, West Side Story is a musical with Jerome Robbins’s choreograph. Without the memory of the dance, I am not sure if the entire work as one piece can stand up to serious listening."

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I don't see it as classical music marvellous work as it is . It will be Phantom of the Opera next .

I think it's fine as a one-off, but the way Radio 3 has been moving in recent years, we might yet be served with a regular supply of lesser musicals.

[Black Swan]

Yes, I agree with EA. I am listening to CD Review now. I have to say the first 2 discs didn't impress me and obviously not Andrew either. It makes one wonder why they were selected for CD Review.

[teamsaint]

A bit off topic, but as a recommendation for those who, like me, dont tend to do musicals, and might not have seen it,the movie of Chicago with Richard Gere is a great evenings entertainment.