As with the Stravinsky CD I reviewed recently (see
review),
this issue contains music conducted by Leonard Bernstein
followed
by a talk
discussing aspects of that music. This time it’s Beethoven,
and the most celebrated of the symphonies, the fifth.
In fact, the illustrated talk was recorded some five
years
before the symphony, at a time when Bernstein was giving
full rein to his educational pursuits.
The talk is quite brief, and, a little
frustratingly, discusses only the first movement of the
symphony. It’s well worth hearing, though, for Bernstein
gives a fascinating insight into the composer’s working
processes. As a creative artist himself, he understood
these processes well, and he drives home how the apparent
inevitability of the way one idea follows another in
the symphonic argument was in fact the outcome of a detailed
and lengthy sifting and rejection of material and treatment.
This applies even to details of the orchestration, and
it is revealing to hear, for example, the famous opening
with the addition, as Beethoven originally intended,
of
flutes to the strings. It sounds most peculiar, and one
has to agree with Bernstein that the final version that
we know today has far greater power of utterance.
I suppose that Beethoven is not a composer
one immediately associates with Bernstein, as one does
Mahler, Stravinsky or Copland for example. But his music
meant an enormous amount to the American maestro, and
one of his very last public musical acts was, famously,
to
conduct Beethoven’s 9
th in Berlin soon after
the destruction of the Wall. This 5
th, though
it will not be to everyone’s taste, is a performance
of enormous character and commitment. For me, the first
movement
is the least convincing; it has a breadth and a seeming
lack of urgency which is almost perverse. It is, as a
performance, the diametric opposite to the Harnoncourt/Norrington
school;
nonetheless, on its own terms, it works, for the surge
of energy which occurs in the coda has the sense of a
dam bursting, of pent-up energy surging forth. There
are some
telling details, too, with, for example, the oboe emerging
from the texture
before its solo cadenza (track
1, around 5:10).
The Andante is beautifully done, at a serenely
flowing tempo, and with flexible, expressive playing from
wind and strings, despite a surprising split note from
2
nd trumpet (track 2 around 3:12). The scherzo,
interestingly, is on the quick side, and Bernstein emphasises
the light and shade, giving the music a suitably furtive
feel. And as you might expect from this most theatrical
(in the best sense!) of conductors, the tense transition
to the fourth movement is magnificently done, with the
great crescendo held back to the very last moment carrying
us into the triumphant blaze of the finale’s opening theme.
And once more, Bernstein’s sheer commitment and energy
keeps the momentum of this movement up to the very end,
particularly impressive when – as the disc’s liner notes
proudly announce – this is a performance with all the repeats
in place. Well, that’s not rare these days, though it
is surprising how many conductors still do omit the exposition
repeat in the finale. All told, a highly successful performance,
typical of the conductor in its expressive power and
dynamism,
but completely free of his less admirable mannerisms.
Gwyn Parry-Jones
New York
Philharmonic Orchestra/Leonard Bernstein (symphony) 
