Since deserting Decca for Sony Classical‚ Joshua Bell has interspersed his high­minded classical releases‚ like Nicholas Maw’s Violin Concerto (1/00) with lighter fare‚ including a so­called Gershwin Fantasy directed by John Williams (A/98). His new disc is different again in that it has a foot in both camps. At its heart lies a characteristically restrained and ‘classical’ account of one of Bernstein’s finest concert works. The Serenade after Plato’s Symposium wasn’t much aired in the composer’s lifetime and yet it’s now poised to overtake the Barber as the most played of all American ‘violin concertos’. David Zinman‚ who has a fine recording of the work already under his belt‚ matches his soloist’s polish and poise rather than swinging rhythms and hyping climaxes in the manner of Bernstein himself. Bell’s sweet‚ suave‚ firmly focused tone is at its most alluring in the serene introspection of the exquisitely achieved central adagio or ‘Agathon’ (track 7). Orchestral playing is excellent throughout and the wonderfully clean and lucid sound is an added attraction‚ with the violin naturally placed. And yet I am less convinced by other aspects of the collection. Sony’s presentation gives greater weight to the West Side Story Suite which we learn has the imprimatur of the composer’s daughter and co­workers. It’s a curious conflation‚ too‚ neither a crowd­pleasing pot­pourri of hits‚ nor the sort of résumé that preserves a sense of the show’s narrative. Instead‚ arranger William David Brohn flits restlessly from snippet to snippet‚ pointing out the motivic links between themes in the early stages‚ but forgetting to entertain or to move us. While some of the lyrical numbers work well enough‚ decked out in virtuoso finery‚ Bernstein’s own de facto operatic treatment of West Side Story tells a very different story. The transmogrification of freestanding excerpts from On The Town I found less distracting‚ the effect paradoxically less bitty. For once‚ Bell’s double­stopping is not quite unimpeachable but the lustre is there. John Corigliano goes a stage further in his rethink of the big closing number from Candide – a characteristically grandiloquent mix of Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony and Stravinsky’s Firebird that it’s impossible to imagine rescored straightforwardly for violin and orchestra. And indeed Corigliano’s audacious‚ harmonically speculative solution may be too radical for the style­conscious MOR crowd at whom this package would seem to be aimed. I counted an incredible 11 photos of the personable soloist in the booklet alone. And not a single image of the composer.