Bernstein: Wonderful Town
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Release date: 7 September 2018
LSO0813 | 0822231181323SACD Hybrid | Jewel case
Booklet notes in English, French and German
SACD incl. 2.0 stereo | multi-channel 5.1
Total playing time: 68mProducer: Andrew Cornall
Engineering: Classic Sound Ltd
Recorded live in DSD 128FS at the Barbican Hall, London, 16-21 December 2018 -
★★★★★ ‘Already the second strongest contribution to this year of Bernstein.’
Kultur Radio★★★★★ 'The recording, in concert at the Barbican Hall in London, is airy and beautiful in relief’
ON Magazine★★★★ 'Purchasers of the disc will lose nothing of the exhilaration of the live performance.’
Financial Times‘The performance has exactly the right infusion of theatrical vividness.’
'You can feel Rattle urging the strings to melt at the start of the love songs, and zing in the upbeat numbers'
Classical CD Choice
Stereophile 'A significant centenary tribute to Lenny'
MusicWeb InternationalConcert reviews
★★★★★ ‘Infectious.’
Financial Times★★★★★ ‘The saxophone-enriched orchestra and London Symphony Chorus were on terrific form.’
The Times★★★★ ‘An unqualified, uncomplicated delight.
The Guardian★★★★ ‘Umphress and de Niese were both impressive in the lead roles.’
The Arts Desk
£9.99
Sir Simon Rattle
London Symphony Orchestra
Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra pay homage to former LSO President Leonard Bernstein with a new recording of Wonderful Town that captures the energy and excitement of sold-out performances from December 2017.
Bernstein’s five-time Tony award-winning musical follows sisters Ruth and Eileen on their quest to make it big, pursuing careers in writing and acting from their cramped basement apartment in New York’s bohemian Greenwich Village. Fresh from rural Ohio, the sisters end up getting more than they bargained for, realising that life in the Big Apple is not as glamourous as it may seem.
A bright and cheery love letter to the city that never sleeps and the colourful characters inhabiting it, Wonderful Town draws on Fields and Chodorov’s 1940 play My Sister Eileen, which itself is based on a series of autobiographical short storied by the ‘real-life’ Ruth McKenney.
Bernstein’s infectious score includes classic numbers such as ‘Ohio’, ‘One Hundred Easy Ways’, and ‘A Little Bit in Love’, as well as a riotous conga that had delighted audiences dancing in the aisles of the Barbican hall.
| Composer | Leonard Bernstein | |
| Conductor | Sir Simon Rattle | |
| Soloists | Danielle de Niese, Alysha Umphress, Nathan Gunn, Duncan Rock | |
| Performers | London Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Chorus |
1-11: Wonderful Town, Act I:
No. 2, Christopher Street
No. 3, Ohio
No. 4, Conquering New York
No. 5, One Hundred Easy Ways to Lose a Man
No. 6, What a Waste
No. 8, A Little Bit in Love
No. 9, Pass the Football
No. 10, Conversation Piece
No. 11, A Quiet Girl
No. 12, Conga!
No. 14, My Darlin’ Eileen
No. 15, Swing!
No. 16, Quiet Incidental
No. 16a, Ohio (Reprise)
No. 17, It’s Love
No. 18, Ballet at the Village Vortex
No. 19, Wrong Note Rag
No. 19a, Finale. It’s Love (Reprise)
