Bernstein - Wonderful Town / Audra McDonald, Kim Criswell, Thomas Hampson, Wayne Marshall, Simon Rattle, Berlin Philharmonic Review

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(More customer reviews)'Wonderful Town' is not Leonard Bernstein's best score, but you wouldn't know it from this exuberant performance in the unlikeliest of places: New Year's Eve 2002 at the Philharmonie, the home of the Berlin Philharmonic. Led by their new chief conductor, Sir Simon Rattle, and featuring an all-star cast of American singers, this semi-staged BPO concert version of the Bernstein's 1953 Broadway hit is amazingly right in all its particulars. From the jazzy overture to the encore of 'Conga!' in which Rattle entreats (in German) the gala audience to get up and form a conga line, the joy and esprit of this concert has to be seen and heard to be believed. The singers are as good as they get. Kim Criswell, one of the best Broadway singers of recent times, plays the aspiring writer, Ruth Sherwood, with brass, spunk, and shaky cynicism; her 'One Hundred Ways to Lose a Man' had the audience roaring. Ruth's sister Eileen is performed by the delectable Audra McDonald, winner of three Tonys before the age of 28. (Interestingly, it's a homecoming of sorts for McDonald; she was born in Berlin in 1970.) A graduate of Juilliard, McDonald has one of the most gorgeous voices around these days, and personality to spare. Her 'A Little Bit in Love' is scrumptious. One number that brings a lump to the throat is the sisters' duet, 'Ohio' ('Why, Oh Why, Oh Why Oh, Why Did I Ever Leave Ohio?').
Singing multiple roles in his marvelous baritone, the handsome Brent Barrett sings 'Christopher Street' and rocks the house with 'Pass the Football.' I was frankly amazed that the German audience seemed to have no trouble understanding some of the 1950s American slang in that and other songs. They clearly were having the time of the lives. Thomas Hampson, as Baker, sings 'A Quiet Girl' and the duet with Eileen 'It's Love' in his world-class baritone and flawless diction. Secondary roles, including some taken by the chorus, European Voices (in American accents), were ably done.
Simon Rattle, known for his love for classic American light music, is completely in his element in this complex Bernstein score with its rapid changes of meter, tricky accents, and jazzy harmonies. More than that, he was obviously enjoying every moment. But even more amazing was the patent enjoyment of the ordinarily staid Berlin Philharmonic musicians. It is often said that European musicians just don't 'get' American popular music, but that clearly is not the case here. One is unlikely to ever hear a more beautiful instrumental performance of this score. In 'Swing!' the licks by the BPO brass were worthy of any of the famous Big Bands of the thirties and forties. The Raschèr Saxophone Quartet were in the pit to add to the Big Band sound. British keyboardist Wayne Marshall (best known as an organist, but a frequent collaborator with Rattle, including the jazz piano role in Rattle's recording of 'Porgy and Bess') played the dazzling orchestral piano part.
I cannot recommend this DVD highly enough.
1 DVD; Sound: PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1, or DTS 5.1. Subtitles: English, German, French. Running time: 76 minutes
Scott Morrison

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BERNSTEIN:WONDERFUL TOWN - DVD Movie

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Leonard Bernstein's Candide (Great Performances) (2005) Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a splendid performance of Candide. But before you go any further, you should realise that this is a concert performance, not a full scale operatic staging of the work. That said, the singing is glorious and the acting, despite this being a concert performance is outstanding. It is driven to milk all the comic elements out of the play. It all works delightfully. It is so brimful of joie de vivre, it leaves you smiling and humming all day. I must disagree with a previous reviewer who said, Bernstein wouldn't be amused. This is precisely what he would have wanted to achieve.
Sir Thomas Allen is superb as Dr. Pangloss who doubles as the narrator of the concert. Paul Groves and Patti LuPone are both excellent. But the star of this Candide is surely the lovely Kristin Chenoweth as Cunegonde, who in addition to having a magnificient voice shows that she is a natural comedienne and actress. This recording of Candide immediately goes to the top of the list. Now, if only we could have Bernstein's own production of Candide recorded live at the Barbican Theatre in London. That recording under the Deutsche Grammophon label is yet to appear on DVD.
I should comment on the camerawork which received criticism from a previous reviewer. It is a mark of the electric quality of this bravura performance that most viewers don't even notice the occasionally almost amateurish shakiness of the camera. The cameraman was shaky at times and faces occasionally went in and out of focus but a large part of what I initially attributed to poor camerawork was in fact artificially introduced motion artifacts. This is a problem with the DVD encoding and not the camera. These cause apparent jumps in the picture. But this is present only in DVD players with low end video processors. Switching to a better DVD player or processor solves the problem.
The DVD by Image Entertainment is in 1.78:1 widescreen (anamorphic enhancement). Picture quality is very good, clear, sharp and with rich natural colors. The picture is flawless provided you play it on a good DVD player. It comes with 3 audio tracks, DTS 5.1, Dolby Surround 5.1 and Dolby Stereo. Excellent immersive sound. It would have been good if they had included an uncompressed PCM track as well but I suppose that's asking a bit much. All in all, an outstanding concert and one to be forever treasured.Technical note: As noted above I noticed a strange problem with this particular DVD. It seems to play quite flawlessly on certain systems, yet throw up irritating problems on others. On one set-up I noticed numerous motion artifacts and lots of combing issues. Motion appears jerky and horizontal scan lines appear whenever fast movements occur or rapid scene changes take place. I'm not quite sure why they should be there but I attibute it to faulty encoding or improper flagging. No other DVD exhibits these errors on this particular system. I believe what one of the previous reviewers complained about could be due to this. The problem goes away when switching to an alternate system with a better deinterlacer / video processor. However that does not absolve Image Entertainment from responsibility for producing a sub-standard DVD which requires high end equipment to compensate for its deficiencies.
P.S. Bernstein's Candide can be interpreted in many ways. Some approach it as serious opera, others as light operetta, still others as a Broadway musical or even farce. Liking or disliking a particular production is very subjective. If you adhere to Bernstein's final vision of this work, enshrined in his by now legendary Barbican performance (Final, revised edition, first premiered 1988 by Scottish Opera and later performed with the LSO at the Barbican in 1989 with high powered opera stars singing all the roles), then you will tend to view this more as Opera and consequently your attitude to any performance that detracts from that operatic image (like this one) will be very negative. But you must remember that for many years, and for most Americans, Candide was considered a Broadway musical and at most a comic operetta. The two contrasting visions are equally valid and are a testament to Bernstein's genius and Candide's status as a true masterpiece.

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Leonard Bernstein's brilliant comic operetta comes to dazzling new life under theguidance of director Lonny Price (A Class Act). Based on the classic Voltaire tale of an innocent young man's journey through a life filled with colorful characters and unexpected life lessons, this tune-filled frolic features Tony Award©-winners Patti LuPone and Kristin Chenoweth heading a dazzling cast with Paul Groves, Stanford Olsen, Sir Thomas Allen and the Westminster Symphonic Choir. The impeccable score (with lyrics by luminaries including Lillian Hellman, Dorothy Parker, Stephen Sondheim, Richard Wilbur and John La Touche) includes a host of delightful songs such as "Life Is Happiness Indeed," "It Must Be So," "You Were Dead, You Know" and "Make Our Garden Grow." Now enjoy this all-new production of a musical comedy favorite with Broadway's top stars!

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