Second
Time Around
Leonard
Bernstein
A Total Embrace:
The Composer (Sony Classical/Legacy)
Although his contributions to American music have been great, Leonard
Bernstein's champions can sometimes be hard to find. His fate, it seems,
is to fall into a no-man's-land bordered by traditional classical music,
the experiments of so-called new music, and popular music – a gap
that was perhaps deepened by a personal life that raised eyebrows and
by a declining artistry during his last years. In fact, Bernstein is
a crucial figure in the annals of American music, a worthy heir to the
legacy of George Gershwin, and more. That he was capable of tackling
almost any style as a composer and conductor speaks not to a compromised
talent – a jack of all trades, a master of none – but to the
breadth of his genius.
Think about this when you listen to the triple-disc A Total Embrace:
The Composer. It's more than slightly disorienting to try to settle
down with the first CD, which begins with 1965's "Psalm 108,"
from Chicester Psalms for Chorus and Orchestra, and then hopscotches
through selections from, among others, Age of Anxiety (1965),
I Hate Music: A Cycle of Five Kid Songs for Soprano (1960), La
Bonne Cuisine (Four Recipes) (1960), and Kaddish (1964).
The second CD includes music from On the Town, Fancy Free, Wonderful
Town, and Candide, and number three begins with a handful
of songs from West Side Story and ends with 30 minutes of Mass.
The latter is a powerful, evocative piece of music and about as American
as could be: a Jewish composer borrowing from popular, classical, and
sacred traditions to compose a Catholic mass. At the end of the day
that was Bernstein's gift to America – and probably, although they
wouldn't say it, the thing his critics objected to; classical traditionalists
loved things European. His music was the stuff of post-WWII optimism,
of America the melting pot. We are today the same country, but battered
by Selma, Vietnam, savings-and-loan scandals, Rodney King riots, energy
famines, corporate greed, and war in Iraq, we have so many reasons to
define ourselves differently. To those who deny our heritage, I say
this: turn your backs on Leonard Bernstein as you do to thine own selves
– and at your own peril. (J.H. Tompkins)
