Stravinsky: Les Noces, Mass / Leonard Bernstein, English Bach Festival Orchestra

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
Les Noces is a screaming, shrieking, flat-out masterpiece. Leonard Bernstein himself has referred to it as Stravinsky's greatest work, and listening to this incendiary performance, it's awfully hard to disagree. Scored for voices, four pianos, and percussion, the work provided the inspiration for the entire career of Orff (of Carmina Burana fame), but it's so much better as sheer music than anything Orff wrote. And what a cast! The pianists for this performance include Martha Argerich, Krystian Zimerman, Cyprien Katsaris, and Homero Francesch, four certified virtuoso performers, while the singers of the English Bach Festival Chorus really cover themselves with glory in both works. A stunner. --David Hurwitz

Stravinsky: Les Noces, Mass / Leonard Bernstein, English Bach Festival Orchestra, Music, Paul Hudson, Igor Stravinsky, Leonard Bernstein, English Bach Festival Percussion Ensemble, Patricia Parker, English Bach Festival Orchestra, Cyprien Katsaris, Homero Francesch, Krystian Zimerman, Martha Argerich, Anny Mory, John Mitchinson, 20th/21st Century Ballet, Ballet, Choral, Classical, Classical Music, Hymn

Stravinsky: Les Noces, Mass / Leonard Bernstein, English Bach Festival Orchestra
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Stravinsky at his mildest and wildest converge

Two important masterworks by Stravinsky - performed well led by Leonard Bernstein

Better than Stravinsky could do himself?

Excellent performance, awful Russian.

Stravinsky: Les Noces, Mass / Leonard Bernstein, English Bach Festival Orchestra

Manufacturer: Polygram Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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General | Sacred & Religious | Classical | Styles | Music
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ASIN: B000001G8Y
Release Date: 1990-10-25

Tracks:

Svadebka: First Tableau
Svadebka: Second Tableau
Svadebka: Third Tableau
Svadebka: Fourth Tableau
Mass: Kyrie
Mass: Gloria
Mass: Credo
Mass: Sanctus
Mass: Agnus Dei

Amazon.com essential recording

Les Noces is a screaming, shrieking, flat-out masterpiece. Leonard Bernstein himself has referred to it as Stravinsky's greatest work, and listening to this incendiary performance, it's awfully hard to disagree. Scored for voices, four pianos, and percussion, the work provided the inspiration for the entire career of Orff (of Carmina Burana fame), but it's so much better as sheer music than anything Orff wrote. And what a cast! The pianists for this performance include Martha Argerich, Krystian Zimerman, Cyprien Katsaris, and Homero Francesch, four certified virtuoso performers, while the singers of the English Bach Festival Chorus really cover themselves with glory in both works. A stunner. --David Hurwitz

Customer Reviews:

ok.......2006-09-04

The piano playing is excellent. The soloists and singers are actually good. But compared with the Pokrovsky Ensemble recording, one can tell a lot of edge and musical effects have been lost simply from not being comfortable with Russian. Also the Pokrovsky recording uses a smaller choir which gives it a more transparent and agile sound. Bernstein's recording is definitely not the final word on Les Noces but it is a good one.

Stravinsky at his mildest and wildest converge.......2006-01-21

In all candor I don't know either Les Noces or the Mass well enough to judge whether this is a four- or five-star recording. The original LPs, made in London in 1977, got transferred to mid-line CD in pretty gritty, glaring sound that has been softened in the current remastering. Bersntein had no great performance history with either work that I know of, but he finds an appropriate, distinct style for Les Noces, with its barbaric, almost frightening percussive sonorities, and the Mass, which is one of his mildest works, a study in religious stasis much of the time. Is the Mass a masterpiece? I don't think so--it seems cramped in its harmonic strait-jacket to me and almost gray in its monotone mood, but I can imagine that religious listeners, and those attuned to restrained ritual, will appreciate it more than I can.

Les Noces is probably Stravinsky's most radical modernist work after Le Sacre and before he turned to 12-tone composiiton in the Fifties. The jarring vocal style reeflects ancient peasant practice in Russia, there is much shouting and percussive paino pounding, but Bernstein tames the assaualt to some extent. He is aided by singers and musicians who remain musical at all times, resisting the urge to hurl themselves into chaos. I'm surprised at those reviewers who claim that this reading is either very precise or very imprecise. How can they tell in such wild cacophony? I can recognize Les Noce for the masterpiece it is, but I would be going too far to say that I can listen straight through without frayed nerves.

Two important masterworks by Stravinsky - performed well led by Leonard Bernstein.......2005-12-20

As a tenor in the chamber choir at the University of Michigan School Music, I was totally unfamiliar with "Les Noces" when our conductor, Thomas Hilbish, decided we would perform it one term (along with Bernstein's "Chichester Psalms"). I have to admit that during the first rehearsals I had no idea what to make of the music. But as the term went along it really grabbed me. When I finally heard it with the percussion and four pianos I was blown away. That final sound of the pianos and the chimes still haunts me.

"Les Noces" took the strangest and most convoluted development path of all his pieces. He went to Russia in 1914 to get some source material that did end up in several works. However, his first work on this piece included a very large orchestra. Over the course of ten years he tried various combinations, including one with a pianola, before settling on the final version we have here. It was originally conceived as a dance-cantata and was danced in its early years, but when performed nowadays, like the great early ballets, it is most often performed as a concert piece.

One of the problems for performing this clearly great masterpiece is that it is in Russian. It doesn't really tell a story, but provides snippets of dialogue around a peasant wedding in Russia. Also, the soloists do not strictly represent characters. The soprano is the bride to be, but also the Goose. The groom is sung by the tenor, but after the marriage the bass sings the husbands words. But the Russian is a problem because it is so difficult for non-Russians to sing. There is a French translation (hence the name we use "Les Noces" for "The Wedding"), but Stravinsky did not like what it did to the work. He even worked on an English translation for a recording in 1959, but gave it up. So, Russian it is. Now, the real choice is do we perform the work with singers singing Russian approximately to badly or do we only allow Russians to perform the work, which would be nearly never. Obviously, we want performances in the best Russian we can get, but we do want performances. Just as we are willing to accept Bach in poor German, and Verdi in bad Italian and so forth.

The performance here is pretty darn good. The rhythms are punchy and layered. We also get four really good pianists. Two of them are great pianists: Martha Argerich and Krystian Zimmerman. The soloists are also quite fine. The whole thing comes off quite well. I also like the disk of this work and others conducted by James Wood and the New London ensemble and recommend that to you as well.

I also find it interesting that its premier in England in the mid-twenties was received so poorly that H.G. Wells wrote a note condemning its critics and providing great insight to the importance of the work. It was printed and handed out with the programs.

The Mass is also a very important work by Stravinsky from twenty years later. It is performed well here. It is a work for chorus, soloists from the chorus, and double wind quintet and was intended by Stravinsky for liturgical use. The harmonies and counterpoint are all quite beautiful and he makes it easy to hear the actual text of the mass, which Bernstein also emphasizes well. This recording uses trebles (boys voices) instead of sopranos as the composer indicated.

Better than Stravinsky could do himself?.......2002-04-21

Stravinsky failed in his attempt to create conductor-proof music. In fact, he did quite the opposite - he created music so complex in its layering that only a virtuosic ensemble led by a master conductor can pull it off correctly, and even then, it still proves difficult. This is very much the reason that it is difficult to find good recordings of Stravinsky's revolutionary masterpieces. However, every so often there emerges a Stravinsky recording that stands out as possibly being the definitive version. This particular version of Les Noces, conducted by Leonard Bernstein, is a perfect example of one of the few Stravinsky recordings that can be called definitive. Even Stravinsky himself believed Bernstein to be the best conductor of his music. If you want to know why, then just listen to this recording of Les Noces. Bernstein, arguably the century's greatest conductor, really works his magic and outdoes himself in this recording. He is very rythmically precise(as is required when playing Stravinsky) and yet he and his ensemble of virtuoso pianists, percussionists and the chorus never sound like they're making an exercise of this piece. So often conductors sacrafice emotion, mood and color when they play a piece with extreme precision. But not Bernstein. He is able to elicit a great deal of emotion and warmth from his performers while maintaining a high level of precision. Great performance, but that's not all. The sound quality is amazing, almost sounding as if the listener were there live. The engineers and technichians really did great work as well. This is truly an essential Stravinsky CD of unparalleled quality. The mass is the filler, which actually sounds quite a bit more BACHic than STRAVINSKYesque, but it's still well written and performed, but the highlight is Les Noces. A must hear!

Excellent performance, awful Russian........2001-05-16

The musicianship on this disc is excellent. If you do not speak Russian you will enjoy the performance of Svadebka immensely. However, if you do speak Russian the atrocious pronunciation and intonation of the English Bach Festival Orchestra will grate on you. Unfortunately, until Gergiev decides to take a stab at this excellent work, Bernstein's recording will have to do.

Stravinsky, Shostakovich: Bernstein's Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon

Average customer rating:

Always Good to Study Bernstein Again
Irregular Stravinsky and Shostakovich jewels.
Not the best of Bernstein, but there are some gems

Stravinsky, Shostakovich: Bernstein's Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon

Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Ballets | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

Modern & 20th Century | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Sacred & Religious | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

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Deutsche Grammophon: Music | Specialty Stores | Music
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Release Date: 2005-11-08

Customer Reviews:

Always Good to Study Bernstein Again.......2006-05-09

Now that Leonard Bernstein has entered the canonization of American conductors it is healthy to review his recorded output to understand the impact he had on classical music in America (and the world, for that matter). Not all of Bernstein's recordings are worthy of placement in the upper echelon of the library, but his approaches to scores are always deserving of attention. This boxed set (six CDs) from DGG represents all of the recordings Bernstein made with that prestigious recording company and while not all of them are his best, they each carry a halo of growth and altered approach Bernstein offers after his long years of conducting.

Included in the box set are Shostakovich Symphonies 1 and 7 with the Chicago Symphony, and 6 and 9 with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Both ensembles are first rate and Bernstein elicits fine playing from them. If he dwells a bit long in the tooth on the languid portions of Shostakovich, his other recordings give spikier accounts.

For the works of Stravinsky (long associated with Bernstein until the 'new breed' of conductors usurped that throne) Bernstein conducts the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, an orchestra over which he held great authority, in fine performances of the second suite from 'L'oiseau de feu', the 1947 version of 'Petrushka', 'Pulcinella', a varied 'Le Sacre du printemps', the 'Symphony in C' and 'Symphony in Three Movements'. The performances include some of his most insightful conducting as well as some of his least involved!

Fortunately DGG includes Bernstein's superb performance of 'Les Noces' for vocal soloists, chorus, 4 pianos & percussion with John Mitchinson, English Bach Festival Percussion Ensemble, Homero Francesch, Paul Hudson, Martha Argerich (!), Krystian Zimerman (!), Patricia Parker, Cyprien Katsaris, Anny Mory in a rhythmically secure, propulsively conducted and controlled manner. Using the same forces he encores the 'Mass, for chorus & double wind quintet', a work still too infrequently performed today.

There is always something to learn from hearing Bernstein conduct (and talk! - remember those superb Sunday televised encounters?) and it is to DGG's credit to present this wide range of recordings in one set. Grady Harp, May 06

Irregular Stravinsky and Shostakovich jewels........2006-03-07

DG is releasing some of the most interesting Bernstein's performances they have launched in other series or kept in their catalogue. This 6 CDs box offers the works by two Russian composers Bernstein loved very much and with whom he had an enormous feeling and empathy. Those are Igor Stravinsky and Dimitri Shostakovich.

First of all DSCH, that is the really best in this box...

Symphonies 1 & 7 are the only recording, as far as I know, Leonard Bernstein did with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a group of players with a very long tradition in the American music and with a great technical playing good enough to play quite all the repertoires.

Like in the case of his Mahler's 9 with Berlin, Bernstein only recording with this orchestra is a miracle that happens once and never more, because of many reasons, the first one because this is a live recording in the Medinah Temple and the emotions felt in this CD could not happen again.

I always thought Chicago is a very appropriate orchestra to play DSCH's music, because of the characteristics of the orchestra and of Shostakovich's music, very hard and very sensitive at the same time. One of the symphonies it's better to this couple DSCH & CSO is the 7th that it's not the most complex between DSCH's works, from the technical and musical point of view, but that demands a great and powerful orchestral response, something you can listen perfectly in this amazing recording, in which CSO gives his best, with a baton that understand very well the score, as far as he can... I think no one could understand completely the meaning of the Leningrad not being in the place of the siege or in the scenario described in the double-program of the symphony, probably linked to the oppression Stalin made with his politics to the pre-communist life of Saint Petersburg. I remember Goethe's words, when he said that reading a book is more complex than reading a book. Of course good Goethe talked about understanding a work, and Lenny, even not living that situation gives us a description of the fears, sadness, oppression, etc, really convincing from the very first bar.

Symphony Nº1 is a piece from DSCH's conservatoire years, from 1926, when the composer was only 19 years old and he was suffering a very disturbing economical situation, after his father's death and in the poor CCCP after the Revolution and the Civil War. It's known DSCH had to work in a cinema, under very hard conditions to eat, and that Glazunov took care of having some official assistance for his conservatoire pupil in order to Dimitri gave attention only to composer. The piece is not a great work like symphonies 5, 7, 8, 10, 13... but it shows some details and the personality of the maestro clearly. It was a great success from the same premiere and it made appear Shostakovich as the emergent figure of the new soviet composers, formed in the communist conservatoire... That was what the regime said, because in fact Leningrad conservatoire was mainly what it was before communist regime.

Leonard Bernstein performance of this symphony is a glory from all the points of view, perfectly played and recorded, the piece is fresh, full of tension and emotion, and even that parts not so fine orchestrated shine with real genius. The fourth and final movement is specially outstanding and the way the symphony ends is so good that sometimes I repeat the last minute when it finish. I really don't know any other version played with this very deep conviction on CD.

Seventh Symphony "Leningrad" is OUTSTANDING too, in every movement the orchestral playing and Lenny's conducting is breathtaking. The gigantic crescendo of the first movement is really a monument in the way Lenny control the dynamics perfectly, having an end that is really impossible to repeat, with the scales of the metals and drums full of terror, like watching the face of the death in front of you, in front of the city.

Central movements are wonderfully described too, the dynamics and the control of the tempo is amazing, as we listen in the second movement, a clear example of alternation between fortissimos and pianissimos, as between an atmosphere were everything is like suspended in fears and moments of pain.

The last movement is another Bernstein's `show', because of the way he proclaims the victory of the initial motif, which we could say is not completely affirmed in order to create that two-senses possibilities in the symphony reading. From the very dark beginning of the movement Lenny creates a crescendo that finally leads an explosion in the last bars, outstanding one more time.

The recording is fine, very present, full of body but not so clean like his recordings with Vienna in the 80's (I think about his DSCH's 6 & 9, for example; too on this CDs box), but it worth very, VERY, very much.

I could not say this is the only possible version, as I read in other reviews. I know about 5 or 6 performances (Rostropovich, Jansons, Haitink, Barshai...), apart from some others life, and of course this is the one I like much more, but not the only possibility, I try to discover always new ways in art, specially in music performances. Jansons' version in EMI is very good too, and we can not forget DSCH music always use to ask for the soviet performances, which are a very different way of understanding the works generally. Kondrashin or Rozhdestvensky shows another ways too.

If Symphonies 1 & 7 with Chicago are good, Symphonies 6 & 9 with Vienna are extraordinary too. I have read sometimes critics about the slow tempo Bernstein used, but I've to say this tempo brings new views and conceptions about these marvellous scores. First movement of Symphony Nº6 sounds deep and spacious, technically perfect like the rest of the performance. Second and third movements are really amazing, hard to believe because of the incredible level of the Vienna players, in a tempo that allows you to listen all the instruments and musical phrases perfectly defined. Symphony Nº9 performed by Bernstein was said it is too much triumphal... I really like it very much in the way it's played, like the Sixth marvellous form any point of view.

Stravinsky is good, but the orchestra is not at the same level than CSO or WP. Petrouchka is very, very good and very theatrical. Le Sacre is savage, furious and very interesting. The most important works are, in this way, those better conducted by Lenny and best played by the Israel Orchestra.

We have to mention Noces and Mass, not very usual on CD and with fine performances on Bernstein hands.

Sound is better in DSCH recordings, as in Stravinsky there are some works (Noces, Mass) in ADD recordings.

Anyway, a very, VERY interesting 6 CDs Box which worth for all those who don't have these Shostakovich performances and for those who want to have good performances of some of the best Stravinsky's works.

Not the best of Bernstein, but there are some gems.......2006-01-22

This DG bargain box of 6 CDs brings together recordings of Stravinsky and Shostakovich that, with few exceptions, are remakes of considerably better earlier ones. The Stravinsky works mostly date from 1982 with the Israel Phil. They would be considered quite good except that the earlier NY Phil. recordings are great. The same holds true for the Shostakovich, though perhaps not to such an extent, since the Vienna Phil. plays so spectacularly on two of them.

As a quick overview:

Stravinsky: The best readings here are the Firebird Suite from Tel Aviv and a pairing of Les Noces and Mass from London in 1977. The last two arena't remakes. The Isael account of Le Sacre is certainly very good in spots but rather slack in other spots. The little-heard Scenes de Ballet gets an elegant, sinuous reading with not a trace of excessive underlining, while the Sym. in Three Movements is plodding (neither of these is a remake). The Petrushka is dull and uninvolving. In all, more than half of the music on these three CDs stands up very well.

Shostakovich: The best is Sym. #9 with the marvelous Vienna Phil. from 1985, a cheerful, refined reading that eschews darkness. The Sym. #6 from the same source, but a year earlier, sounds noncommittal and underplayed. Sym. #1 and 7 come from 1988, quite late in Bernstein's career. The Chicago Sym. plays elegantly in the First, but everything seems a bit tired. The Seventh was a Bernstein specialty; he had made a huge hit recorded and is almost as good, though lacking the uncanny communiction of the first version. I found the playing too refined at times, but Bernstein never played this piece for its potential savagery. In all, this Seventh and the Ninth have worn the best.

All the sonics here are exceptionally good. Bernstein got good analog sound from Columbia when he was with the NY Phil, but these digital remasterings leave those old versions in the dust. It's a trade-off, then, since as an interpreter Bernstein never excelled his youthful self in these works.

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