Bernstein; Bolcom Piano Concertos
A fine coupling of two American works for piano and orchestra that sees Marc-Andre Hamelin in typically sparkling form
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: William (Elden) Bolcom, Leonard Bernstein
Label: Hyperion
Magazine Review Date: 11/2000
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 60
Catalogue Number: CDA67170
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Symphony No. 2, '(The) Age of Anxiety' |
Leonard Bernstein, Composer
Dimitry Sitkovetsky, Conductor Leonard Bernstein, Composer Marc-André Hamelin, Piano Ulster Orchestra |
| Concerto for Piano and Orchestra |
William (Elden) Bolcom, Composer
Dimitry Sitkovetsky, Conductor Marc-André Hamelin, Piano Ulster Orchestra William (Elden) Bolcom, Composer |
Author: Peter Dickinson
After Hamelin’s fantastic virtuosity in the outrageously difficult Godowsky Studies on Chopin’s Etudes (Hyperion, 5/00) these two works for piano and orchestra are – for him – the merest bagatelles. But this is an impressive release since it contains the most convincing recent account of Bernstein’s Symphony No 2 (1949) I have come across, benefiting from a richer sound than Kahane under Litton.
The whole piece is Bernstein’s obsessive response to Auden’s poem The Age of Anxiety, published the year before, about four characters struggling to sort themselves out in New York City. Even though Auden apparently disliked it, I increasingly hear Bernstein’s Symphony as saturated with the poem, its ideas and atmosphere. Often programmatic, it represents a particularly original approach to piano and orchestra and is personal in countless ways – the gentleness of the soft opening and its mystical descending scale, the precisely engineered variations, memorable tunes, a splendid jazzy Scherzo and so on. Hamelin and the Ulster Orchestra in fine form under Sitkovetsky deliver a well-paced and cogent performance right up to the deliberately inflated, optimistic ending.
Bolcom is one of the most idiosyncratic American composers of the next generation. His 1976 Piano Concerto draws widely on various types of popular music, which he has always performed so superbly. The Concerto was written in memory of Bolcom’s teacher, Milhaud, who would have loved it. The opening movement is captivatingly serene until the blue notes get out of hand; the slow movement is more stable and serious; but the finale comes over as a riotous celebration of Americana. Unfortunately Bolcom intended it to be ironic as a kind of anti-bicentennial tribute. But tunes like these have a habit of occupying centre stage on their own terms. Hamelin is again utterly scrupulous and idiomatic and delivers all the musical styles with supreme confidence – nobody could have mixed them up like Bolcom.'
The whole piece is Bernstein’s obsessive response to Auden’s poem The Age of Anxiety, published the year before, about four characters struggling to sort themselves out in New York City. Even though Auden apparently disliked it, I increasingly hear Bernstein’s Symphony as saturated with the poem, its ideas and atmosphere. Often programmatic, it represents a particularly original approach to piano and orchestra and is personal in countless ways – the gentleness of the soft opening and its mystical descending scale, the precisely engineered variations, memorable tunes, a splendid jazzy Scherzo and so on. Hamelin and the Ulster Orchestra in fine form under Sitkovetsky deliver a well-paced and cogent performance right up to the deliberately inflated, optimistic ending.
Bolcom is one of the most idiosyncratic American composers of the next generation. His 1976 Piano Concerto draws widely on various types of popular music, which he has always performed so superbly. The Concerto was written in memory of Bolcom’s teacher, Milhaud, who would have loved it. The opening movement is captivatingly serene until the blue notes get out of hand; the slow movement is more stable and serious; but the finale comes over as a riotous celebration of Americana. Unfortunately Bolcom intended it to be ironic as a kind of anti-bicentennial tribute. But tunes like these have a habit of occupying centre stage on their own terms. Hamelin is again utterly scrupulous and idiomatic and delivers all the musical styles with supreme confidence – nobody could have mixed them up like Bolcom.'
Bernstein; Bolcom Piano Concertos
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