Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Symphony No. 1 in B flat major ('Spring'), Op. 38: Andante un poco maestoso - Allegro molto vivace
2. Symphony No. 1 in B flat major ('Spring'), Op. 38: Larghetto
3. Symphony No. 1 in B flat major ('Spring'), Op. 38: Scherzo, Molto vivace - Trio I, Molto piu vivace - Trio II
4. Symphony No. 1 in B flat major ('Spring'), Op. 38: Allegro animato e grazioso
5. Symphony No. 2 in C major, Op. 61: Sostenuto assai - Allegro ma non troppo
6. Symphony No. 2 in C major, Op. 61: Scherzo, Allegro vivace - Trio I and II
7. Symphony No. 2 in C major, Op. 61: Adagio espressivo
8. Symphony No. 2 in C major, Op. 61: Allegro molto vivace

Disc 2:

1. Symphony No. 3 in E flat major ('Rhenish'), Op. 97: Lebhaft
2. Symphony No. 3 in E flat major ('Rhenish'), Op. 97: Scherzo, Sehr massig
3. Symphony No. 3 in E flat major ('Rhenish'), Op. 97: Nicht schnell
4. Symphony No. 3 in E flat major ('Rhenish'), Op. 97: Feierlich - Dir Halben wie vorher die Viertel
5. Symphony No. 3 in E flat major ('Rhenish'), Op. 97: Lebhaft - Schneller
6. Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op. 120: Ziemlich langsam - Lebhaft
7. Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op. 120: Romance, Ziemlich langsam
8. Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op. 120: Scherzo - Lebhaft - Trio - Etwas zuruckhaltend
9. Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op. 120: Langsam - Lebhaft - Schneller - Presto

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5303 in Music
• Released on: 1997-02-11
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: .24 pounds

Amazon.com essential recording
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

Customer Reviews

Some of the maestro's best work
I live in a part of America where the PBS classical programming director loves the Schumann symphonies and schedules a different recording 2-3 days a week while I listen via Internet stream. They are so ridiculously overscheduled a coworker and I send e-mails to each other announcing the obligatory "Schumann hour" has commenced for the day, in case one of us should miss it. Ergo, I have heard most of the famous and infamous versions of the Schumann symphonies, including a couple of Lenny's New York recordings. I don't think Schumann was a great symphonist (he certainly was not a great orchestrator) and I don't believe, all things considered, that his four symphonies stand up to the quad of Brahms, the Mendelssohn five, Tchaikovsky's half-dozen, the nine of Beethoven, Mahler and Bruckner, the 15 of Shostakovich, or even the 3 from Rachmaninoff. Well, maybe they're better than Rachmaninoff. But you'd never know there were any limitations by listening to these glorious CDs from Bernstein and the Vienna Philharmonic, whose concertmaster said the 1984-85 collaboration resulted in some of the most memorable recording sessions of his lifetime (all "live" by the way...meaning not dead?) It is easy to hear that enthusiasm on these CDs. Bernstein, who could be too loud, too fast, too indulgent and just about too everything except timid, seems to me more perfectly mated to Schumann's manic-depression than just about any conductor in history. For once, Lenny's overindulgence seems perfectly at home...when it comes in the beginning of the "Rhenish"...or in the return of the first movement's big subject in "Spring"...or the drama of the Fourth Symphony's concluding Lebhaft. I thought Lenny got everything just right in these recordings. He played up the schmaltz each time it was nearby and it always sounds wonderful, evocative and appropriate. That's something I could almost never say in his other Vienna recordings, which have been reissued by DG. His Beethoven symphonies, in particular, were in my view regularly marred by exaggeration, ill tempo or inappropriate tenuto. But those gooey effects seem to enhance the drama and schizophrenia of the Schumann symphonies. I don't know another conductor who could do such a sympathetic job with the symphonies of Robert Schumann.

Beyond Belief
I have grown up with Maestro Bernstein. When I was young there was fire in all of the performances that I owned. Bernstein and Ormandy were at the top of the list when it came to fiery and great orchestral performances. I had his Beethoven cycle, several of the Mahler symphonies both with Mestroes Bernstein and Ormandy.

When I lost my first collection,to a fire,I did not buy recordings for some time. But, when I did, I went back to my old Ormandy favorites and started purchasing Muti PHO recordings and started to learn to listen to the more expres-sive and refined recordings. They were as maginificently played, as before, but I had grown and my listening powers had grown to appreciate phrasing and nuance and deeper emotional conducting. I had learned to tell the difference between the 'warhorse' style and the 'expressive' style.

I must say that this is the most beautiful, introspective conducting I might have ever heard. I say buy this set for the adagio of the 2nd symphony alone. Tears were streaming down my face at the end of it. The soaring of the strings in the final moments, I was sobbing! I don't know how the Maestro was able to conduct the finale, it was a live performance after all, although the time between movements was not on the recording itself. Musicians and conductor had to take a really deep breath after that because it was absolutely breathtaking! Then the finale was so positive so enlightening. I must say I have never heard a finer performance.

I used to have the old recordings of the first and fourth by the Maestro and also the Szell recordings, which were considered the standard, especially the second. These were not the deeply expressive performances we have here. I will say greatly performed, but 'warhorse'type performances.

Again, the instrospection and how Maestro Bernstein brings the virtuosity of the orchestra and the refinement of the strings. Yes there is fire when it is needed, but the refinement, the change of tempo, the nuance of every phase. Did Ricardo Muti study with him?

I don't know about you, but the audience noise does not bother me because recorded perfomances are usually much more intense and incredibly better in front of an audience. Isn't that what a performer dreams of doing anyway? Isn't that the life of a performer to give his/her all infront of a live audience?

Well, there is no disappointment here because the guts of every performer, including the Maestro, are laid out on the stage for all to feel and hear.

My highest recommendation!

A recording from the far side of the pendulum.
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.