Leonard Bernstein
New York Philharmonic
Sony Classical G010003710793V There is no point pretending that Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is not the greatest love story ever told – and more than ever, given the glut of recordings, Tchaikovsky’s fantasy-overture needs to sound like it. Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic, performing in 1957 – the same year Bernstein’s West Side Story was premiered on Broadway – bring the piece to life with such searing emotional impact that it really is like hearing it for the first time. This is the earliest of Bernstein’s three recordings and is the only one of them I’d recommend. His other version with the New York Phil, from 1989, is less edgy, plus a bit too soupy in the love music; and the live performance with the Israel Philharmonic from 1978 sounds lumpenly heavy-handed.
The atmosphere here is powerfully wrought from the outset and the characterisation of the themes is second to none. Bernstein creates immense tension in the build-ups and, best of all, the fight scenes are absolutely ferocious: here the knives are most definitely out and there are casualties. In the love theme, we can relish supple, flexible rubatos and eloquent articulation, as well as the occasional portamento that either is your thing or is not, but is very much mine. But just listen to the transition to the fight music afterwards. This passage is sometimes a casualty of those conductors who lose sight of their storytelling, but Bernstein ups the energy straight away: if the rival gangs are planning the ‘rumble’, it’s going to be fearsome. And so it is – before carrying us through to the second eruption of the love music, which is quite different from the first and suitably devastating in its effect.
The New York Philharmonic’s playing is actually not 100 per cent perfect, but most of it, especially the violins and trumpets, is hot enough to melt your
Leonard Bernstein brings Romeo and Juliet to life with searing emotional impact
hi-fi equipment. The recorded sound, though remastered, affects the woodwind tone slightly, but that doesn’t stop the warmth, drama, colour and sheer thrilling immediacy from sweeping all before it.
The conductor who composed his own version of Shakespeare’s tragedy in West Side Story doesn’t hold back for one moment; that huge purple thing on his sleeve is indeed his heart. But why bother with Romeo and Juliet if you don’t want strong emotions? Faced with the intensity and all-out passion of this magnificent account, there is only one thing I feel I can do – and that’s surrender.