Leonard Bernstein Conducts West Side Story [Soundtrack]

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
Controversial as an essential Carreras recording, West Side Story isn't an opera, and neither is the tenor, operatic star José Carreras, an American-born Broadway singer. But the music is operatic in quality--let's say in durability. It is Bernstein's most established masterpiece, his surest claim to be remembered as a composer a century from now; the source is Shakespeare and the music has a seriousness, color, and intensity worthy of its subject. And this recording represents the way the composer wanted it to sound, with his choice of the best available voices. Carreras sounds like he was born to sing "Something's Coming," "Maria," and "Tonight." Perhaps he was born to sing them in Spanish, but opera lovers regularly take bigger language problems than that in stride for the sake of vocal quality. --Joe McLellan

Customer Reviews:

Fair performance, lousy remaster SACD sound.......2006-05-28

These performances, dating from the early '60s, are Bernstein being Bernstein - emotional and flashy. While it's good to have the master conducting his own works for posterity, some of the performances are, truthfully, far from his best. The "Candide" Overture is far more satisfying on the original cast album - here it seems forced, rushed and fussy. The "Waterfront" music has always struck me as bombastic and treachly - I guess Lenny thought he needed to hit moviegoers over the head (this was his sole effort as a film composer), and as lovely as passages of the dance music from "West Side Story" are in this suite, the whole business seems an after-thought to a great show. That leaves "Fancy Free," and there are far better recordings, including the one (probably out of print) Lenny did a few years after the premiere in 1943. That version, with the original recorded vocal prologue by Billie Holiday, was far livelier and rang with the big-band sensiblities of the era. Also better are the old Ballet Theater Orchestra recordings of the score. As for the sound on SACD, it's pretty miserable: Columbia was doing a lot of multiple miking by the early '60s but these recordings (all from different sessions with different producers and engineers) sound weirdly distance and unfocused, as though the mikes were in the upper balcony of a vast, empty opera house. I'd suggest you skip this and get the Royal Edition Sony CD which has the same recordings of "Fancy Free" and "Waterfront" and a big bonus - a short suite of Lenny's dance music for "On The Town."

Adding my five stars.......2005-09-11

Seeing that the reviewer who inexplicably gave these great performances three stars got posted twice, I thought I'd add another five-star review to balance that error. Unbeatable recordings, and the sound is excellent for its era--big, broad, brassy stereo from the sixties.

Bernstein Blazes.......2001-12-23

Bernstein leads these performances with snap, drama and excitement. The SACD remastering improves the original sound considerably.
There may be others, but no one does it like Lenny.

Great performance, mediocre sound.......2001-11-01

This SACD is a wonderful compilation of Bernstein's works conducted by himself. The drawback of this album is the sound quality. As it is a compilation taken from various recording sessions, the sound is varied due to different microphone placement and the approach of each session's concept. Keep in mind Columbia recordings are not always up to the audiophile standard like ones from RCA or Mercury Records in the same period. Nevertheless, the DSD transfer of this SACD is superb and it allows you to hear clearly the difference of the tonal character from different recording sessions. Buy it if you're Bernstein's fan but if it's for sonic alone, you won't be satisfied with this album.

Great performance, mediocre sound.......2001-11-01

Bernstein Conducts Gershwin, Bernstein, Barber

Average customer rating:

Bernstein Conducts Gershwin, Bernstein, Barber

Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Modern & 20th Century | Historical Periods | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Deutsche Grammophon: Music | Specialty Stores | Music

4-for-3 Classical | 4-for-3 Music | Stores | Music

4-for-3 All Music | 4-for-3 Music | Stores | Music
ASIN: B000001GBG
Release Date: 1990-03-29

Tracks:

Rhapsody In Blue
On The Town: I The Great Lover
On The Town: II Lonely Town: Pas de deux
On The Town: Times Square: 1944
Adagio For Strings
Overture to 'Candide'
'West Side Story': Symphonic Dances: Prologue
'West Side Story': Symphonic Dances: 'Somewhere'
'West Side Story': Symphonic Dances: Scherzo
'West Side Story': Symphonic Dances: Mambo
'West Side Story': Symphonic Dances: Cha-Cha
'West Side Story': Symphonic Dances: Meeting Scene
'West Side Story': Symphonic Dances: 'Cool', Fugue
'West Side Story': Symphonic Dances: Rumble
'West Side Story': Symphonic Dances: Finale
'West Side Story': Symphonic Dances: America

Average customer rating:

Mostly valuable for what's not duplicated

Bernstein Conducts Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Deutsche Grammophon: Music | Specialty Stores | Music
Similar Items:

Mahler: The Complete Symphonies
The Copland Collection: Orchestral & Ballet Works, 1936-1948

ASIN: B00006L76Y
Release Date: 2003-04-08

Customer Reviews:

Mostly valuable for what's not duplicated.......2006-09-21

Once he departed for Europe, Bernstein rarely recorded again in the U.S. These recordings demonstrate his loyalty to the Israel Phil., with whom he duplicated many things he had already recorded in New York. This set is equally a testimonry to his love affair with the Vienna Phil, which sounds a little out of touch in American music. The original recordings from NY on Sony surpass the remakes in vigor and freshness. Even so, it's nice to get the Kaddish Sym. with revised narration, and to hear Gidon Kremer in the Serenade for violin and orchestra.

This 7-disc set also includes later Bernstein compositions that never appeared on Sony, in particular Songest and Jubilee Games. But the singers aren't particularly good in the former recording and the piece isn't very good in the latter. All in all, I think only a Bernstein completist would seek out this collection. Better to stick with the wonderful recordings originally made in New York in Bernstein's heyday.

Leonard Bernstein Conducts West Side Story

Average customer rating:

The perfect version of West Side Story
A wonderful recording, a wonderful West Side Story
Emotional Performances with the Lenny Touch
Great voices, great orchestra....a bit too much though
Absolultely Fabulous

Leonard Bernstein Conducts West Side Story
Leonard Bernstein , Kiri Te Kanawa , José Carreras , Tatiana Troyanos , Kurt Ollmann , Marilyn Horne , Stephen Sondheim , and Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
Manufacturer: Polygram Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Te Kanawa, Kiri | Divas | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

General | Musicals | Broadway & Vocalists | Styles | Music

General | Soundtracks | Styles | Music

General | Vocal Pop | Pop | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

The Making of West Side Story - Leonard Bernstein
West Side Story (1997 Studio Cast) (First Complete Recording)
West Side Story (1957 Original Broadway Cast)
With a Song in My Heart
South Pacific (1986 London Studio Cast)

ASIN: B000001G62
Release Date: 1990-10-25

Tracks:

West Side Story: No.1 Prologue (Instrumental)
West Side Story: No.2 Jet Song (Riff)
West Side Story: No.3 Something's Coming (Tony)
West Side Story: The Dance At The Gym: Blues (Instrumental)
West Side Story: The Dance At The Gym: Promenade (Instrumental)
West Side Story: The Dance At The Gym: Mambo (Instrumental)
West Side Story: The Dance At The Gym: Cha-Cha (Instrumental)
West Side Story: The Dance At The Gym: Meeting Scene (Tony, Maria)
West Side Story: The Dance At The Gym: Jump (Instrumental)
West Side Story: No.5 Maria (Tony)
West Side Story: No.6 Balcony Scene (Tonight) (Tony, Maria)
West Side Story: No.7 America (Anita)
West Side Story: No.8 Cool (Riff)
West Side Story: No.9 One Hand, One Heart (Tony, Maria)
West Side Story: No.10 Tonight (Ensemble) (Riff, Anita, Tony, Maria)
West Side Story: No.11 The Rumble (Instrumental)

Tracks:

West Side Story: No. 12 I Feel Pretty (Maria)
West Side Story: No. 13 Ballet Sequence (Tony, Maria)
West Side Story: Transition To Scherzo (Instrumental)
West Side Story: Scherzo (Instrumental)
West Side Story: Somewhere (A Girl)
West Side Story: Procession And Nightmare (Entire Company)
West Side Story: No. 14 Gee, Officer Krupke (Jets)
West Side Story: No. 15 A Boy Like That (Anita, Maria)
West Side Story: I Have A Love (Maria, Anita)
West Side Story: No. 16 Taunting Scene (Instrumental)
West Side Story: No. 17 Finale (Maria, Tony)
Symphonic Suite From The Film 'On The Waterfront': Andante (With Dignity) - Presto Barbaro
Symphonic Suite From The Film 'On The Waterfront': Adagio - Allegro Molto Agitato - Alla Breve (Poco Piu Mosso) - Presto Come Prima
Symphonic Suite From The Film 'On The Waterfront': Andante Largamente - More Flowing - Lento
Symphonic Suite From The Film 'On The Waterfront': Moving Forward - Largamente - Andante Come Prima
Symphonic Suite From The Film 'On The Waterfront': Allegro Non Troppo, Molto Marcato - Poco Piu Sostenuto
Symphonic Suite From The Film 'On The Waterfront': A Tempo (Poco Piu Sostenuto)

Amazon.com essential recording

Controversial as an essential Carreras recording, West Side Story isn't an opera, and neither is the tenor, operatic star José Carreras, an American-born Broadway singer. But the music is operatic in quality--let's say in durability. It is Bernstein's most established masterpiece, his surest claim to be remembered as a composer a century from now; the source is Shakespeare and the music has a seriousness, color, and intensity worthy of its subject. And this recording represents the way the composer wanted it to sound, with his choice of the best available voices. Carreras sounds like he was born to sing "Something's Coming," "Maria," and "Tonight." Perhaps he was born to sing them in Spanish, but opera lovers regularly take bigger language problems than that in stride for the sake of vocal quality. --Joe McLellan

Customer Reviews:

The perfect version of West Side Story.......2005-08-09

I bought this album after having being introduced to it through the dvd - the making of West Side Story. Both the cd and the dvd are wonderful and I recommend that you buy them both.

I think it's a real treat to hear the songs performed by classically trained singers and not - like Bernstein himself says on the dvd - performed by dancers who also can sing somewhat. In my opinion the songs benefit greatly from being sung by artists like José Carreras and Kiri Te Kanawa. What I don't like about this recording is Bernsteins decision about not letting the singers perform the spoken dialogue as well as the singing. And why, oh why did Bernstein have to choose his own children for the task? To me they sound uninvolved in the play and I guess it must be hard to get into the right lovestruck mood when acting against your sibling! But they're the only problem with this recording and a minor one that is.

The whole cast is doing an excellent job on this recording. José Carreras is an exceptionally good Tony. His "Maria" is out of this world. And the duet "one hand, one heart" with Kiri Te Kanawa is heart-wrenching. "Tonight" is also outstanding. Something that never ceases to amaze me about him is his ability to make his voice express exactly what he's singing about. In the song "something's coming" he's singing ...."around the corner or whistling down the river".... You get the feeling that something's really whistling down the river. Listen and you'll understand what I'm talking about.

Kiri Te Kanawa is better here than in many of her other recordings. Sometimes she sounds very, very posh when singing, but it's hard to beat her in the duets "a boy like that" and "I have a love", performed with Tatiya Troyanos.

The song "America" makes you wanna get up and dance. And so does "Gee, officer Krupke". The songs have an energy and a freshness about them that makes you unable to sit still. In addition they're quite funny and you just have to laugh.

However, in the end Tony gets shot, leaving you devastated when he dies. I always get this strange "void" inside after hearing the final song where Tony suddenly stops singing and you realize that he's actually dead.

Due to the fact that Leonard Bernstein is conducting the play himself one must assume that this is the recording he would choose, since he most probably made the whole cast perform just the way he intended them to when he wrote this music. And what's good enough for Leonard Bernstein certainly works for me!

A wonderful recording, a wonderful West Side Story.......2003-06-29

First of all, this recording is basically Bernstein's WSS. Perhaps the fact he conducts his own score prevents anyone from criticizing his conduction. Anyway, the result is really extraordinary, it is not only a big names's question. The recording has no cuts except the Ouverture and the Changes of Scene, so, all the score - that is very complex- is enhanced by Bernstein fantastically and, above all, the instrumental pieces acquire the prominence they merit: the prologue expresses such a youth vitality and a lightheartedness: it is a very, vivid portray of an American street, it is really theatrical even if it's only music - without a choreography to be seen- , and this single piece would be sufficient to make Lenny's genius clear. And you can feel this lighthearted climate change and turn into something more serious. The Rumbles are so dramatic and striking. The dances at the gym are conducted in an wonderful manner, too. The Mambo, for instance, is exceptionally rich of vitality and energy, so that it makes you eager to stand up and to start to dance, and so that the following Maria-cha cha is so longing: it is charming, fascinating, for its exotic softness. Anyway, one of the highest moments of this recording is the Ballet Sequence. I would never manage to describe how the music is capable to fly in the 'Scherzo', which the dramatic force of the Procession and nightmare is, or that sense of hope and vagueness at the same time you can feel in the last bars ( somehow someday...) with the wind instruments seeming to look at the sky and the timpani bringing back down you, which is present in the Finale, too, but in a different way. Anyway the sung parts are not worse at all, on the contrary, they are marvelous. The whole cast is quite good, including the chorus and the soloists in "Gee..." . Horne superbly sings Somewhere: she is vocally excellent and infuses a dreaming melancholy in the song. Ollmann is a brilliant Riff, joining vitality together with leadership. Troyanos, who, in this recording, is more similar to a musical or jazz singer than to an opera singer, gives "America" brio with an overflowing verve - but without exaggerating - and gives "A boy..." outstanding dramatic weight: a perfect Anita. About the two protagonists, surely, they don't seem to be two kids, and if you saw them at theatre they would be ridiculous, but, in an audio-recording, it is very interesting to listen to their interpretations, for they reach a notably high artistic result, conveying the feelings of two lovers, with great sensitiveness. They are opera-singers, which is not a defect, and if they lack youthfulness they neglect this side of the score in favor of a more poetic expressiveness. Carreras has a very beautiful voice, and he portrays a romantic and passionate Tony. Te Kanawa is excellent: her voice is fine, (and better than in other recordings) but her accent and phrasing are so expressive that the charm of her voice is not the most important feature of her performance, which could amaze you, if you have noticed how many times and how much she has been "cold" in operas. Also, her operatic technique gives her the possibility to face a piece like "A Boy"/ "I have a love", so that she and Troyanos create a stunning moment. Duets with Carreras are fantastic: "One Hand, One Heart" for instance, my not-so-good command of English language forbids me to describe it in a suitable manner. So, is everything perfect? No, Lenny's children are horrible. I mean: even if they are not very bad actors, nor they seem to be two lovers ( and if they did, it would sound incestuous).
Alexander seems a silly kid, who has a crush (and it isn't his true love) on a girl, and Nina, sometimes, is rough, almost brutal (for instance when she says "I cannot stay GO QUICKLY"), maybe in order to imitate a Spanish accent. Anyway, she is as expressive and as sensitive as an ice statue. Apart from that, the biggest problem is the fact that the two singers and the two actors have not a similar conception of the same character, and their interpretations are too much different, for Carreras and Te Kanawa don't seem two kids, (and they aren't). However, this remarkable difference you can feel between the sung and the spoken parts, is compensated by the exceptional general level of the recording (and by the fact that it is an only-audio-recording, so that you can listen to the music and concentrate on it, without taking care of the spoken dialogue).
So, you could hear different interpretations of this musical, because this is not the only valid one, but I think that it hardly could be exceeded.

Emotional Performances with the Lenny Touch.......2002-02-02

Much has been written about this CD/album. Many have criticized Bernstein's choices for some of the roles, however, with the exception of Tatiana Troyanos (absolutely horrible voice), the recording is laden with emotion-packed renditions of what has to be Bernstein's work of genius.

I really do not care what critics said about José Carreras in the role of Tony (his accent, etc.). Never have I ever heard a more beautiful renditon of ¨Maria.¨ His lovely, magnificent voice gives such an intensity and sensitivity to this most magnificent piece. Additionally, his ¨One Hand, One Heart¨ duet with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is so absolutely beautiful it just destroys my heart.

I also own the video, ¨Leonard Bernstein Conducts West Side Story¨ and it is so interesting to see the making of this gem. Such an inspiration to the soul!! Leonard Bernstein will always be one of our country's most amazing treasures!! God Bless him forever!!!!

Great voices, great orchestra....a bit too much though.......2001-12-23

I have to agree with most of the other reviewers in that this recording is amazingly beautiful and extremely moving but for me it lacks the modern, raw edge audiences must have felt when the piece was first performed over 40 years ago. The singers on this recording have great voices, that cannot be denied but they are almost too operatic for this throbbing, charged score. I am a great lover of opera and Jose Carreras has always been my favorite tenor particularly because of his ardent, earnest, youthful quality (compared to the polish and refinement of Domingo or the sheer power and beauty of Pavarotti) and it is this that makes his interpretation of Tony more persuasive than Te Kanawa or Troyanos. The voices of the other two are just too "womanly" and mature sounding to convince me that they are young girls in love.

The orchestral playing is of course first rate under the baton of Bernstein and I've never heard the score more beautifully performed. It is however a little too lush for my liking and doesn't have the bite of some of the more muscular versions out there.

This recording sounds to me more like modern romantic opera and not the modern musical drama that West Side Story was originally conceived as.

Absolultely Fabulous.......2001-07-12

This is far and away the best recording of "West Side Story" availible, and it is very well complemented by the superlative Suite from "On the Waterfront." "West Side Story" has long dwelt on the fringes of acceptance by the classical mainstream, and it is in this recording that the work's true artistic potential finally comes into full bloom. The orchestra (yes, a full size, honest-to-goodness orchestra, not one of those microscopic ensembles we are so accustomed to hearing in other recordings) is brilliant, the singers are spectacular, and the whole work is ultimately more moving and overwhelmingly powerful than any other version yet in existence.

The 'operatic' emphasis in this recording produces a stunning effect, particularly in the more Romantic parts of the musical, most brilliantly in 'Somewhere', which is sung by Marilyn Horne. Kiri Te Kanawa is a superlative Maria; Jose Carreras is a sensational Tony, singing the most gorgeous rendition of 'Maria' imaginable. The two combine in an incomparably moving 'Tonight', easily the most beautiful and touching that I have ever encountered.

I also deserves to be said that the Suite from "On the Waterfront" contains some of Bernstein's most powerful and emotional music, and in its slow section it sings with a bittersweet lyricism that is not easily forgotten.

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