THE GERSHWIN & BERNSTEIN CONNECTION / Navona Records / Review

THE GERSHWIN &

BERNSTEIN CONNECTION

Eliane Rodrigues & Nina Smeets, Pianos

Carlo Willems & Koen Wilmaers, Percussion

Navona Records 6230

 

Two pianos and percussion, what could be more exciting? The cult classic is the recording on Deutsche Grammophon by Martha Argerich and Nelson Freire, partnered by Peter Sadlo and Edgar Guggeis, with works by Bartok and Ravel. This album of George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein by the mother-daughter duo of Eliane Rodrigues and Nina Smeets with percussionists Carlo Willems and Coen Wilmaers comes very close. A programme of sheer exuberance and infectiousness of rhythms, coupled with excellence of execution. What more could one desire?

 

To be honest, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue does not really benefit from added percussion, so these come like extra bells and whistles. At close to 20 minutes, it is also on the slow side with the opening introduction needing an extra push. But when push comes to shove, there are truly exciting moments which all build up to a frenetic close. This reading is adapted from the full-length orchestral version (not the truncated piano solo version), which proves to be the right choice.

 

There should, however, be no reservations whatsoever for Gershwin’s Concerto in F, with the percussion parts added by Thomas Schindl. The original highlights the timpani from the outset, so percussion is an essential element of what makes this work rock. The foursome have the idiom down pat. Jazzy rhythms are incisively delivered, and with percussion not being optional extras, sonorities generated have an truly orchestral feel. Also, something is right when the solo trumpet of the central slow movement’s blues is not missed. The driving rhythms of the “Spanish” finale are exhilarating, and the recalling of themes from earlier movements tautly unites the work as a whole. The spectacular tam tam crash near the end is also pure Hollywood. Totally memorable.  

 

Wedged in between both Gershwin works are the Symphonic Dances from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story, adapted from the two piano version by John Musto. The vital link between this and that legendary Argerich and Co. album is the late Peter Sadlo (1962-2016), who arranged the percussion parts. Like the concerto, this is another sonic spectacular. The finger snaps and police whistle have been retained, but there is no room for the “Mambo!” shouts, instead replaced by two brusque chords and glissandi. At any rate, the voices of just four people would have sounded a tad underwhelming. Here is a totally enjoyable disc of memorable music, memorably transcribed, and brilliantly performed. Cult status due soon.

 

This album may be purchased, downloaded or streamed at:

The Gershwin & Bernstein Connection – Navona Records

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, February 2011)

JORGE BOLET
THE ROMANTIC VIRTUOSO
Decca 478 2374 (4CDs)

*****

The Cuban-American pianist Jorge Bolet (1914-1990) was fortunate to have lived long enough for his Romantic sensibilities to be appreciated by a generation of listeners bred on Teutonic musical puritanism. These Decca recordings come from his last decade, when waning technical facilities were gloriously supplanted by the warmth and largesse of his playing. All four discs in this retrospective play for a generous 80 minutes each. Start with the selection of Encores, where Chopin miniatures are heard alongside Godowsky’s uproarious amplifications. The nonchalant ease in which he tosses off Paul de Schlozer’s finger-busting Étude or Liszt’s super-vulgar Grand Chromatic Gallop is simply stunning.

The all-Rachmaninov disc is highly satisfying if not jaw-dropping. The Third Piano Concerto is magisterial in its approach although it could do with added voltage, but the broad sweep achieved in the Chopin Variations is breathtaking. Liszt was Bolet’s specialty, capturing the spirit if not outright virtuosity in Totentanz, Hungarian Fantasy, the rarely performed Malediction and Liszt’s arrangement of Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy. For more “serious” repertoire, his solid and unmannered takes on Brahms’ Handel Variations and Schumann’s Fantasy put Bolet among the elite of interpreters. No pianophile should be without this.

BERNSTEIN Theatre Works
Deutsche Grammophon 477 8853 (7CDs)
***1/2

There is a fine line differentiating the operas and musicals of Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990). For example, does West Side Story qualify to be an opera? And why is the serious subject matter in Candide treated with outright frivolity? This is the essence of Bernstein – his music defies to be pigeon-holed. This budget boxset brings together arguably his five most concert-worthy pieces of musical theatre. His 1984 recording of West Side Story is contentious, with the miscasting of Kiri Te Kanawa and José Carreras, with their hoity-toity operatic voices, as Maria and Tony. The 1989 Candide remains definitive, its Rossinian pacing and sense of farcical satire inimitable.

On The Town, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, is high class musical, plain and simple. A Quiet Place is serious opera, incorporating an earlier one-acter Trouble In Tahiti, a social commentary on hum drum suburban values. Finally, A White House Cantata, conducted by Kent Nagano, rehashes scenes from the Broadway flop on the American presidency, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Alas this attractive package, boasting vocal superstars by the truckload, is let down by a booklet with neither libretto nor synopses, which is a real pity.