‘Bernstein Century’ Enormously Gratifying

Sun., July 4, 1999

Peter Dobrin Philadelphia Inquir

The Bernstein Century “Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic” (Sony Classical)

Picture a 5,000-ton freight train barreling down the tracks, and you have some idea of Leonard Bernstein’s approach to the first movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, the Eroica. Not that Bernstein’s boisterous 1964 take on the Eroica (four stars) with the New York Philharmonic starts with an unusually speedy tempo, but the momentum is admirably unrelenting. The journey left me a little breathless, but enormously gratified.

Most of the recordings in the “Bernstein Century” series were made with the Philharmonic at a particularly coarse time in its history. Bernstein himself was sometimes sloppy, but his ferociously emotional podium personality is the considerable compensation. Verve is everywhere in these releases.

Another in the latest from the series: A 1963 recording of the Berlioz Symphony fantastique (three stars) which is both exuberant and finely sculpted. Bernstein’s talk on the work “Berlioz Takes a Trip” is indeed a little trippy.

The opening phrase of Brahms’ Serenade No. 2 (in A Major, Opus 16 - twinned on this CD with the Brahms Symphony No. 1 (four stars) - pours forth from the New York Philharmonic like molten saltwater taffy. Silkiness proves an ephemeral concept, unsustainable by the woodwinds throughout the piece. Still, Bernstein’s tendency to turn a small phrase into a big drama makes his Brahms eminently involving.

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