West Side Story
$70.00
Out of Stock2-4 weeks add to cart
LEONARD BERNSTEIN
West Side Story
Alexandra Silber, Cheyenne Jackson, Jessica Vosk, Kevin Vortmann, Kelly Markgraf / San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas
[ San Francisco Symphony / 2 CD/Book ]
Release Date: Tuesday 2 December 2014
This item is currently out of stock. We expect to be able to supply it to you within 2 - 4 weeks from when you place your order.
Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony release Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story as you've never heard it before: a live recording of the first-ever concert performances of the complete Broadway score, starring Cheyenne Jackson as Tony and Alexandra Silber as Maria. The 2-hybrid SACD set is sumptuously packaged in a 100-page, hard-bound full colour book.
Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony serve up the most sizzling release of the summer: Leonard Bernstein's legendary musical score to West Side Story. The live recording from San Francisco's Davies Symphony Hall captures the first-ever concert performances of the complete Broadway score, including spoken dialogue. The talented cast is led by two young stars of the stage and screen: gay icon Cheyenne Jackson (30 Rock, Glee, Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida) as Tony, and Alexandra Silber (Carousel, The Woman in White, Master Class) as Maria. There can be no better conductor at the helm of this greatest of theatrical scores than MTT, who is indelibly associated with Leonard Bernstein and his legacy.
The appeal of this West Side Story will be broad, to collectors of classical, musical theatre and audiophile recordings. The sumptuous package features two premium audio hybrid SACDs in a 100-page, hard-bound full colour book featuring a major essay, notes by Jaime Bernstein and Rita Moreno, interviews, a historical timeline, archival photographs, complete lyrics, and extensive rehearsal and performance photos.
"Tilson Thomas's version scores heavily with its casting of the appealingly youthful-sounding Cheyenne Jackson as Tony and Alexandra Silber as Maria...The orchestra swings like the biggest of big bands, with a driving kit drummer and some spectacular trumpet playing...The performance deserves, and demands, tumultuous applause." (Five Stars BBC Music)
"So much of what Michael Tilson Thomas and his San Francisco Symphony Orchestra achieve here hits the spot; nowhere is casting wrong-headed...[Jackson] is idiomatic and engaged...Silber is lovely, too, with more vocal colour than the average show (soubrette) soprano...pretty damn good, and the first serious challenger to the...Broadway original." (Gramophone)
"Even with the dialogue cut to a bare minimum they make the drama genuinely involving - there's no hint of parody in the Puerto Rican accents...while Cheyenne Jackson's Tony is a nicely conflicted mix of sentiment and swagger. Both the choral singing and the orchestral playing are immaculate, too, but the performance doesn't always fizz as it ought to." (Guardian)
"Probably the most complete version of Bernstein's masterpiece ever recorded...It's beautiful, but some of the edginess and energy has gone." (The Times)
Tracks:
Johann Sebastian Bach 1685-1750
1-3 Concerto for two violins BWV 1043
4-6 Violin concerto BWV 1042
7 Invention BWV 772
8-10 Violin concerto BWV 1041
Alfred Schnittke 1934-1998
11-15 Concerto grosso no.3 for two violins, harpsichord and strings
Johann Sebastian Bach
16 Invention BWV 779*
