Bernstein: Candide - Overture

This programme contains a representative collection of important works written between 1901 and 2000. This period is sometimes thought of as the era of ‘modern’ music, when composers sought to break free from the Romantic styles of the 19th century by experimenting with daring new harmonies and forms, but much of the music written after 1900 still harked back to the familiar style of the past. The first CD opens with composers who still wrote in the Romantic style, including Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, Khachaturian, Holst and Elgar, and we also hear part of the slow movement of the most successful concerto written during the 20th century, the Concierto de Aranjuez by Rodrigo. Then come the early innovators who broke new ground like the Second Viennese School of Webern, Berg and Schoenberg, as well as others who continued to use the more traditional methods of composition but who wrote in a more advanced style such as Stravinsky and Bartók. These are followed by later composers who wrote in a wide range of so-called ‘modern’ styles including Takemitsu, Tavener and Adès. The large and prolific school of American composers active during the 20th century is represented by some extremely popular pieces like Barber’s Adagio for Strings, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, as well as more adventurous works by Ives, Reich and Adams. The set also includes extracts from choral pieces by Boulez, Pärt, Tavener, Rutter and Jenkins, and ends with one of the 20th century’s most successful choral works, Orff’s Carmina Burana.

The eight popular pieces on this disc illustrate a variety of aspects of American music. From the impudent piquancy of 18th-century Europe; the picture-postcard colour of Latin America; the urban neon of New York and the metropolitan appeal of the French capital, to the sombre reflection of Barber's thoughtful-provoking Adagio: all are masterpieces of succinct characterisation and orchestral refinement.

These days the Overture to Bernstein's comic opera Candide requires little introduction as it has, within the past few years, taken on a degree of popularity to rival that of the suite from Bernstein's West Side Story.

Leonard Bernstein's Second Symphony of 1949 was inspired by W.H. Auden's poem The Age of Anxiety, published in 1947. The poem seemed perfectly to capture the mood of the 1940s. The story is of a group of lonely souls sitting in a bar at night pondering the human condition. Edward Hopper's famous 1942 painting Nighthawks explores a similar theme.

Bernstein's 1944 ballet, Fancy Free, finds the composer in a much more characteristically up-beat mood with a story of three sailors having a good time on shore leave in New York.

Like Gershwin before him, Bernstein (1918-1990) composed music for the concert hall and for musical theatre. Through the Broadway musical West Side Story his name reached a far larger audience than that of virtually every other modern American composer, with the possible exception of Gershwin himself.The pieces on this disc illustrate Bernstein's work in the theatre. Four of the works, the dance episodes from On the Town, the overture to Candide, the suite from West Side Story and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, were written for the Broadway stage; Facsimile and On the Town are both ballet scores, Mass is a theatre piece for singers, players and dancers and what should have been a purely jazz piece, the Prelude, Fugue and Riffs, ended up being incorporated into the musical comedy Wonderful Town.

A thrilling collection of Overtures and Preludes (with some popular orchestral pieces thrown in for good measure) from Zubin Mehta. As a showman of the best variety, his recordings remains one of the Decca catalogue's richest legacies, and more than half of this collection is being released on CD for the first time.

The sheer variety of Leonard Bernstein’s music can be savoured in this wide-ranging disc, consisting largely of transcriptions. Bernstein’s immersion in theatrical music is reflected in Clare Grundman’s unique transcription of the Candide suite whilst his film score for On the Waterfront is presented in its symphonic suite form in Jay Bocock’s transcription. The nostalgia of the orchestral Divertimento, written for the centenary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, is richly brought out in this adaptation. All performances are by the award-winning University of South Carolina Wind Ensemble.

Comprising professors and band directors, the Taiwan Wind Ensemble is a leading international exponent of the wind repertory, not least in its exciting series of commissions. On this disc it presents a selection of music of orchestrations and originals from around the world. There are a variety of overtures and evocative dances from Bach to Bernstein, as well as Alfred Reed’s richly colorful Armenian Dances. They are complemented by Taiwanese composer Chia-Ying Chiang’s mysterious and beautiful recent composition A Chasing After The Wind, which takes its title from Ecclesiastes.