Bernstein Symphony Edition [Box set]

A simply awesome Leonard Bernstein collection!

This is an exclusively pure symphony music edition and I bought it recently from amazon.de who is the pioneer among all the amazons to release it. My audition is almost completed and the experience has been very pleasant so far; and as you know, it'll take some time to go through all 60 discs in this magic box.

Along with the CDs, there is also a beautiful photo album, which presents not only many working pictures but also some pleasant life moments of this master.

You can find satisfactorily complete symphony cycles from such giants as Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler, Schumann, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky and Bernstein himself, together with symphonies from other great composers.

The taping spans late fifties through early seventies in last century, an era of analogue recording prosperity. Undoubtedly, Bernstein was at the peak of his career and Sony/CBS also in its golden days when these recording sessions were taken. The performances, mostly played by New York Philharmonic, are excellent; the sounds are equally marvelous: warm, spacious, atmospheric and dynamic, well done in both original recordings and CD transfers.

Only the two cycles of complete symphonies by Beethoven and Mahler are absolutely worth the price, to say nothing of those awesome renditions on Berlioz, Copland, Dvorak, Haydn, Ives, Mozart, Prokofiev, Schubert, Shostakovich, Stravinsky and many more. I would like to single out the 1963 rendition of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. Bernstein presents this widely known masterpiece in a so unique but charming way that you have an illusion of hearing it for the first time ever. This is a simply persuasive performance.

It's really a steal at this price level on amazons.

This collection includes one recording of every "Symphony" that Bernstein recorded for Columbia Records between 1953 (Harold Shapero's Symphony for Classical Orchestra) and 1976 (Shostakovich's Symphony No. 14).

Two Bernstein recordings are omitted that arguably should have been included:

1) Mahler's "Das Lied von der Erde" which is a symphony/song cycle, a form that Mahler invented. Another example is Shostakovich's 14th Symphony (which is included).

2) Ives' "Holidays" Symphony. After all, Ives' called it a "Symphony" so it really should be here, even though its really a collection of 4 symphonic poems. Ives' 2nd and 3rd Symphonies are included.

Two of Bernstein's musical analyses are included:

1) "Berlioz Takes a Trip" Bernstein's discussion of the Berlioz Symphonie fantastique.

2) "Leonard Bernstein Discusses Charles Ives" In addition to the 2nd Symphony, Bernstein also talks about "Fourth of July" so the omission of Ives' "Holidays" Symphony from the set seems even more inexplicable.

Bernstein's musical analyses of Beethoven are omitted:

1) The Symphony 3 analysis is available on the "Bernstein Century" edition of Beethoven's 3rd.

2) The Symphony 5 analysis is available on the "Sony Classics Great Performances" edition of Beethoven's 5th. The original TV show this is excerpted from is available in its entirety on a 4 DVD set of Bernstein's "Omnibus" TV series. Highly recommended.

All fillers are omitted. No Beethoven overtures or Tchaikovsky symphonic poems. As a result, total timings per disc are sometimes rather short: Brahms 1st Symphony is all by itself; previous issues coupled it with Brahms' 2nd Serenade. If we're lucky, Sony will issue these short symphonic works in another box.

During the period covered by this set, Bernstein recorded four of these symphonies twice:

1) Beethoven's 7th Symphony was recorded in 1958 and 1964. Both versions were previously issued in the "Bernstein Century" edition. The 1964 version was chosen for this set.

2) Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony was recorded in 1958 and 1975. 1958 was in the Bernstein Century edition; 1975 was in the "Royal Edition" (with a silly watercolor by Prince Charles). The 1975 recording was chosen for this set.

3) Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique was recorded in 1963 and in 1968. Inexplicably, the 1963 version is included here. Its a nice performance, but Bernstein was clearly dissatisfied with it, as he redid it after only 5 years. The 1968 recording has been issued only once; in 1990 as part of the "Great Performances" series (MYK 38476). The 1963 version was previously issued on both the Royal Edition (erroneously labeled as 1968) and the Bernstein Century Edition. The easiest way to tell them apart is by the timings of the third movement: 17:14 in 1963, 15:09 in 1968. The musical examples used in "Berlioz Takes a Trip" are from 1968 - compare them with the 1963 performance on the rest of the disc.

4) Mahler's 2nd Symphony was recorded in 1963 with the New York Philharmonic (included here) and in 1973 with the London Symphony (now available on a DVD from Deutsche Gramophone). Bernstein also recorded isolated movements from Mahler's 5th and 8th Symphonies with the NYPO which were included in the Bernstein Century but are omitted here.

Bernstein also re-recorded the majority of the symphonies in this set for Deutsche Gramophone in the post-1975 period when he was recording with European orchestras

The remasterings used are from the Bernstein Century edition with these exceptions:

1) If an individual work was not issued on the Bernstein Century edition, the remastering from the older Royal Edition was used. There is very little difference between these two remasterings (one exception: Dvorak's 9th Symphony has a lot more visceral impact in the Bernstein Century edition - used here).

2) The disc with Beethoven's 1st and 3rd Symphonies is from the Royal Edition. The giveaway is that the second movement of the 1st symphony is 7:41 on the Royal Edition (used here), but only 5:52 on Bernstein Century. The exposition repeat is observed in the Royal Edition. So far as I can tell, it is a product of the tape editor's skill, not the actual performance. Which would explain why it was omitted from the later Bernstein Century edition.

3) Mahler's complete Symphonies (including the Adagio from the unfinished 10th) are NOT the Bernstein Century remasterings, rather they are the newer and much improved remasterings issued as a box in 2009 (The 8th Symphony is complete on one CD). Bravo!

One final personal word. I was a teenager in the 1960s with no classical music background. These were the performances I learned this music from. I loved them then and I love them now.

I bought this 60 CD set from Amazon for $105. An incredible bargain.

Two complaints (they are the same as every one else):

1) No program notes about the music. No texts or translations for the vocal works. Aargh!
If they didn't want to spend money printing a booklet, they could have put this information on a CD-ROM (costs a few pennies). A serious handicap for newbies to classsical music. It does come with an attractive booklet with photos of and essays about Bernstein, but the really important stuff is missing.

2) The 60 CDs are packaged in a 12 x 12 inch box. Very retro, but it doesn't fit on my shelf. If they had packed it in a 5x5 inch box like EMI uses for its monster sets, it would have been about six inches wide.

It's big, it's black and it's gorgeous, both the packaging and the content. All of Leonard Bernstein's symphonic recordings for Sony/RCA, including reference versions of Mahler and Haydn symphonies, rarely recorded American composers, Liszt's Faust-Symphony and personal renditions of other more popular great composers, from Mozart to Shostakovitch, ny one of the cleverest musicians and musicologists of the last century.
A large box it is (at first I thought it was a set of LPs), and at this price it's the perfect Christmas/Hanukkah/Festivus gift, so what are you waiting ?