11-Albums Celebrating Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein \ Credit: Al Ravenna, 1955, courtesy of the Library of Congress

Sony Classical celebrates the 2018 centenary of Leonard Bernstein – one of the 20th century’s most celebrated, multi-faceted and influential musicians – with a box set devoted to his complete RCA Victor and Columbia Masterworks recordings as pianist in a limited original jacket collection. Leonard Bernstein – The Pianist, 11 CDs in a clamshell box with booklet, is a fitting tribute to the man whom Arthur Rubinstein called “the greatest pianist among conductors, the greatest conductor among composers, and the greatest composer among pianists.”

The impact of Bernstein as conductor, composer, educator and inspirational figure in the worlds of the concert hall and musical theatre tends to overshadow his considerable prowess as a piano virtuoso. Yet he always considered the piano his first love, and often led concertos from the keyboard, collaborated in chamber music projects, and accompanied singers whom he admired. Bernstein took to the piano from an early age, studying with a variety of teachers, including his future secretary Helen Coates, although his keyboard gifts fully matured at the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with the redoubtable Isabelle Vengerova.

Bernstein’s youthful piano recordings for RCA Victor include his own Seven Anniversaries, Ravel’s Concerto in G major, a classic reading of the Piano Sonata by his friend and mentor Aaron Copland, and his whimsical song cycle I Hate Music with mezzo-soprano Blanche Thebom. Most of the works for piano and orchestra thatBernstein recorded for Columbia as pianist/conductor were his lifelong showpieces: the Ravel, Mozart’s K 450, K 453 and K 503 Concertos, Beethoven’s Concerto No. 1, Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2, and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.

Bernstein was justly proud of his Mozart and Schumann collaborations with the Juilliard Quartet, while his long friendship with mezzo-soprano Jennie Tourel yielded many memorable recordings that include Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death, Bernstein’s own songs, plus a document of their March 2, 1969 Carnegie Hall concert. This collection also includes the long-unavailable performance of Mahler’s Das Knaben Wunderhorn in the piano version with mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig and bass-baritone Walter Berry live in Vienna, plus Ludwig’s Brahms lieder recital, and a Mahler program with baritone Dietrich Fischer Dieskau.

Contents

1

Mozart:

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 17 in G Major, K. 453

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 15 in B-flat Major, K. 450

2

Mozart:

Concerto for Three Pianos and Orchestra in F Major, K. 242

Concerto No. 25 in C Major for Piano and Orchestra, K. 503

3

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15

4

Shostakovitch: Concerto No. 2 For Piano and Orchestra, Op. 102

Ravel: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in G Major

Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue

5

Ravel: Piano Concerto in G

Bernstein: Seven Anniversaries

Copland: Piano Sonata

Blitzstein: Dusty Sun (1941)

Bernstein: I Hate Music

6

Mahler: Des Knaben Wunderhorn

7 

Mahler:

Four Songs from Rückert-Lieder

Lieder und Gesänge aus der Jugendzeit

Phantasie aus Don Juan

Errinerung

Ich ging mit Lust durch einen grünen Wald

Frühlingsmorgen

Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen

8

Schumann: Liederkreis, Op. 39

Strauss: 8 Gedichte aus Letzte Blätter, Op. 10, No. 8: Allerseelen

Tchaikovsky: 

The Night, Op. 60, No. 9

To Forget so Soon, TH. 94

6 Romances, Op. 16, No. 1: Cradle Song

6 Romances, Op. 16, No. 2: Wait!

6 Romances, Op. 73, No. 5: Amid Sombre Days

Rachmaninoff: Oh, Cease Thy Singing, Maiden Fair

9

Duparc: La Vie Antérieure

Debussy: Fêtes galantes, Set I, CD. 86

Satie: Trois mélodies

Liszt: 12 Songs, Vol. 2, No. 3: Oh! Quand je dors

Poulenc: Air vif

Offenbach: 

Ô mon cher amant ...

Ah! Quel Diner

Bernstein: I Hate Music! A Cycle of Five Kid Songs for Soprano

Bernstein: La Bonne Cuisine (Four Recipes)

Poulenc: 

Hôtel

Voyage à Paris

C

Mussorgsky: Songs and Dances of Death

10

Brahms: 

Zigeunerlieder, Op. 103

Der Tod, das ist die Kühle Nacht, Op. 96, No. 1

Immer leiser wird mein schlummer, Op. 105, No. 2

Feldeinsamkeit, Op. 86, No. 2

Ständchen, Op. 106, No. 1

Liebestreu, Op. 3, No. 1

Mädchenlied, Op. 107, No. 5

Sapphische Ode, Op. 94, No. 4

Ruhe, Süssliebchen, im Schatten, Op. 33, No. 9    

Die Mainacht, Op. 43, No. 2

Von ewiger Liebe, Op. 43, No. 1

11

Schumann: Piano Quintet in E-Flat Major, Op. 44

Mozart: Quartet in G Minor for Piano and Strings, K. 478