Search - Ludwig van Beethoven, Bernstein, Nyp :: Symphony 5

A potentially brilliant CD, ruined by atrocious programming

albertatamazon | East Point, Georgia USA | 04/13/2002

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This recording consists of what has come to be known as Leonard Bernstein's most famous single lecture (part of the "Omnibus" TV series and NOT the "Young People's Concerts")--his reconstruction of the first movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, in which he inserts portions of the rough drafts of the music, taken from Beethoven's actual sketchbooks, in a wildly successful effort to show us what the music might have sounded like if the great composer had used these sketches instead of the final version of the symphony. It made him a TV celebrity overnight in 1954, and was the first of his many lectures on music over the next twenty-plus years. It is heard here on this album word for word and note for note, followed by a complete performance of the symphony in its final version as we know it.



This would be one of the highlights of anybody's CD collection, if the manufacturers hadn't committed an awesomely stupid stunt. The lecture is heard in several languages, not consecutively, but SIMULTANEOUSLY, with one channel each given over to one language! In order to hear it correctly, one must turn the balance knob completely either to the left or right, depending on the language. And to eliminate crosstalk (sound from the other channel unintentionally drifting in), one must switch on the "Dolby" button---that is, if you have one on your system! (Most elaborate hi-fi systems do, but car radios and boom boxes don't, and most boom boxes don't have a balance button that enables one to switch over completely to either the left or right channel.) To make matters worse, the programming on the jewel case neglects to mention that although the lecture begins on, say, Track 3, it continues onto the following track. This carelessness may lead listeners to program only one track, and therefore deprive themselves of half the lecture!



Apparently Bernstein recorded his lecture in different languages for different countries, and that is all well and good, and extremely conscientious of him. But I can assure you from listening to the LP in my high school library years ago that the lecture could only be heard in English in English-speaking countries.



However, the ... executives at Sony apparently decided to save themselves the cost of distributing foreign language versions of the CD in non-English speaking countries by putting the several language versions on one CD, cramming them all onto this format because they feared that programming them consecutively (one language at a time, that is) might mean that the running time could not be accomodated. (The lecture lasts about 15 minutes, so four versions of it would mean an hour's worth of lecture, plus a symphony that plays for about 35 minutes.)



The recording executives who made the decision to release the CD in this format should be pilloried. BTW, I have seen that the lecture has apparently not been released as part of the "Bernstein Century" series, so apparently, we still have to wait. The fact that the lecture is available only in this crazily arranged version is one of Sony Masterworks' most insensitive decisions."

Great sampler! Great price! Great performance!

Joseph Montano | Phoenix, Arizona | 07/19/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For about eight dollars (plus the price you pay for shipping and handling), you can listen to Leonard Bernstein's analysis of the first movement of Beethoven's fifth symphony in four different languages, concluding to his powerful groundbreaking performance of the romantic artist's greatest work ever written! A great introduction to Bernstein's Royal Edition! Crisp sound (Sony upgrated the sound quality about 24 bits)! Don't pass by this one! This has to be the greatest performance of the fifth I have ever experienced!"

Bernstein's Discussion is the Focus

a reader | NC, USA | 08/23/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Bernstein's discussion of alternate Beethoven sketches for this symphony is a constant pleasure, Bernstein is inspired, brilliant, enthusiastic, the timbre of his voice is superb on this recording. As a plus for me, I've always preferred this particular performance of Beethoven's Fifth, I like Bernstein's pace and dynamics very much.



That being said, unfortunately, I completely agree with A Moreno's critique of Sony's implementation for this CD: it is not only annoying to jump to track 3 and change the balance (for English), you never get it right the first time, which means returning to the start of track 3. Worse still the unbalanced presentation of the single channel is grating, and when it's time to listen to the symphony itself you have to restore the proper balance.



I resolved the problem by re-recording the lecture by itself, in which case the very clean content of the CD is significantly better than an equivalent recording from the LP. And the Mono-in-Stereo recording is significantly better than Mono-Left-Channel alone.



The outstanding quality of Bernstein's lecture and the performance of the symphony are still priced a little high at $35+, but, having had this CD for about 10 years, I have to say it's worth it.

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