CD REVIEW
Tom Vallance compares Bernstein's musical interpretations of New York through three of his most successful works,
eonard Bernsrein h ad rh ree grear successes on rhe Broadway musica l srage :md all rhree were se r in New York, rheir pul sm ing scores reflecring rhe excirement and rhyrhm s of rhar grear c iry. O n Th e Town (1944), rhe srory of rhree sa ilo rs on a joyous 24-hour spree in rhe ciry, is full of bras h o primism and bri o. Wonderful Town (1953) al so celebrares rhe c iry, bur adds a wry and somewhar cy nica l rouch tll the way rhe Clry responds [() rhe asp irati o n s of rwo ambirious girls from O hio; while West SIde Stor)' (19')6) has <1 darker [O ne altogerher, reflecring rhe ch:mge in N ell' York irself since rhose innoce nt and o ptimistic days o f rh e Forr ies , with racial prejudice and gang warfare pa rr o f its up-d aring of Romeo and] fili et The CD Leonard Bernstein's New York (No nesl/ch 7559-79400-2) rakes rh e bri1.1 iant id ea o f se lecti ng ire ms from rhese sco res a long wlrh music from Bernstein's ba ll e t Fanc\' Free ( rhe genesis of On The Toum) , and rhe film On The Waterji'ont (se r around rhe cir\,'s doc ks), to ma ke an immense ly enjoyable and evocat ive programme. A srarry lin e-up of pe rformers - Dawn Upsh aw, Do nn a Murphy, Mandy Patinkin, Audra tv!cDonald, Judy Blazer and Richard Mu en: - has been as sembled to perform Bernsrein 's sup re me mare ri a l (one musr nor forger rhe lyrici sts, Beny Comden, Ad olph Green and S rephen Sondheim). panicularl y lik ed rhe version by Murph y, Muenz and Upsh aw o f \V'onderfrd Town's Whar A Wasre (wirh so me lyrics nor heard before) and Judy Bl aze r's account of a song cur from rhm sh ow, Th e Sto ry o f My Life (ir was
Mon,,,
'feUl. IUllI1 "I~ . .UU H',IUmlll 'f
fJ'~~y
IUUUIIHIIK.\I """11 JJ
re pl aced by rhe more humorous On e Hundred Easy Ways). Ma ndy Parinkin is touchingl y subd ued o n Some Orher Time a nd jo ins Blazer a nd Murphy for O n Th e Town 's rousing sh ow-stopper Yo u G o t Me. Rich ard Mue nz rende rs an effectively simpl e A Quier Girl from Wonderfu l Town, A udra McDonald is a ppea li ng ly winsome on rh e sa me sh ow's A Little Bit in Love, and Dawn Upshaw demonstrates once mo re that sh e is the best of all 'c rossove r' singe rs with exquis ire renditions o f Lonely Town and Somewhere. Th e latte r song fro m West Side Story leads in w the infecti o us music for th e roofrop ha ll er, and one musr give d ue pra ise to the O rc h estra of St Luke's under the baton of Eri c Stern . Whether dissonam and jazzy o r
soa rin g an d se n suous, rhey caprure all rhe pla yful ness and pass ion of Bernsrein's mu sic. On The Town recei ves rhe M as rerwnrk tremment on C DTER2 121 7. In common with o ther releases in this series, rhat means for rhe firsr time on record rhe comp lere musical score of rhis landma rk show (as impo rtan t in its way as the prevI ous season 's Okla homa'). The Nati o nal Symphon y O rch esrra und er Jo hn Owen Edward s is la rger rh an rh a r o n rhe N onesuch disc and plays rhe considerab le amou m of ballet music wirh approp ri ate gusto and commirment. Th e casr is srrong, wirh Erhan Freem an a viril e Gabel' (and h ow pleasing to hea r suc h fine dicri on), Kim Cri swell a n impi sh Hildy and in or he r lead ing rol es Tim Fl av in, Judy Kaye and Gregg Edelman , while Loui se Gold contributes an hilari ous cameo as rhe ulti mare torc h sin ge r. Bernsrein himself conducted an a lbum of hlghlighrs in rhe Fift ies which was strongly casr wirh N a ncy W a lk e r, Be rry Comden and Ad o lph G reen and which is h ard to bear on so me counts. On So me Orh er Time, for insrance , Ka ye and Criswell a re roo forceful to be a pprop ria te ly wisrfu l, bur ove ra ll rhis is a fine perform ance, and it in c lud es a number cur from rhe Broad way producrion, Gabey's Coming. M as te rwork s al so present a nOther supe rlati ve score in irs entirery wir h South Pacific (CDTER2 124 2) . If as ked to pick a fav o urire Rodge rs and H ammerste in score from rheir four or fi ve grearesr (rhe ream 's own was Carol/sel) I wou ld c h oose rhis one, and ir is gra nd to hear for rhe fir st t im e on di sc the beaut iful cho ral rep ri ses of Bali Ha'i and rhe martial music remin iscent of Rodgers' wo rk for rhe T V series Victory Af Sea. I doubr rh ar anyo ne ca n ever equal aurall y rhe endea ring naive ry o f rhe original N e llie Forbush (Mary M a rtin) or rh e so norou s passion of rh e firsr Emile De Becque (Ezi o Pinza), bur rhe leads here, Paige O' H ara and J usrino Di az, have played rheir parts wirh grear success o n srage a nd give toral convicrion and vocal expe rtise to rheir roles (and ir is good to h ea r linking dia logue in this beautifull y imeg rared sco re ). The album srarrs di sappointingly with a so mewhat turgid accou nt of th e Overture, while in contras t (and as in most recent produ crions o f the show) the tempo adopred fo r A Wonderfu l Guy is too fa st, mi ss ing rh e infect io us lilt to be found o n the orig inal performance. Otherwi se, no co mplaims, a nd the chorus work is te rrific - never has the men 's number in praise of Bloody Mary sou nd ed so rohust. â&#x20AC;˘
;:' U GU ST 19 97
APPLAUSE
37