Bernstein - Symphony No 1 'Jeremiah', Symphony No 2 'Anxiety', Divertimento

'Strong Soloists, idiomatic playing and nuanced conducting bring Bernstein to bustling life.'
Gramophone

This is Leonard Slatkin's first major recording since his appointment as Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Italian/American pianist James Tocco is the soloist for this recording of Bernstein's Jeremiah Symphony. He enjoys international renown as a recitalist, orchestral soloist and chamber musician. He is regarded as the foremost interpreter of American masterworks. His busy international itinerary includes performances around the world with major orchestras, under conductors such as Christoph Eschenbach, Raymond Leppard, Neeme Järvi and Leonard Slatkin.

Michelle DeYoung is the soloist for this recording of Bernstein's The Age of Anxiety. Her prolific engagements include those with the New York Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra and The Metropolitan Opera. The renowned mezzo-soprano has worked with such conductors as Sir Colin Davis, Pierre Boulez and Lorin Maazel.

On 21st August Leonard Slatkin makes his second Proms appearance as Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducting Bernstein's Jeremiah Symphony and will become the first American to conduct a 'Last Night'.

Leonard Bernstein conducted the premiere of his Jeremiah Symphony, completed in December 1942, in Pittsburgh on 28 January 1944 and went on to conduct four New York performances. In May of that year it gained the New York Music Critics Circle Award.

The symphony emerged during World War Two as a passionate indictment of Hitler's persecution of the Jews. The first movement is a sombre prophecy drawing unspecifically on Hebrew melodic inflections; the second is a scherzo in variable metres of the kind Bernstein learnt from Copland and which would regularly enliven his faster music, and, finally, there is a lament for the destruction of Jerusalem, sung in Hebrew and taken from the book of Lamentations.

The Divertimento is a light-hearted celebration of the Boston Symphony Orchestra Centenary. The title of the first number ('Sennets and Tuckets') refers to fanfares in Shakespearian parlance. Ozawa conducted the premiere in Boston on 25 September 1980.

In 1939 the British poet W.H. Auden settled in New York City and in 1946 became an American citizen. It is easy to see why Bernstein became obsessed with this long poem, 'The Age of Anxiety: a Baroque Eclogue (1948)'. Auden was gay but, whilst writing the poem, was having his only extended heterosexual affair - with a Jewish woman. Bernstein was bisexual and was driven by problems comparable to those of the four characters in The Age of Anxiety. In his symphony Bernstein saw himself in the role of pianist and autobiographical protagonist. It was dedicated to Serge Koussevitsky who gave the premiere with Bernstein and the Boston Symphony Orchestra on 8 April 1949 at Symphony Hall, Boston.

'…an assured orchestral contribution from the BBC Symphony Orchestra…'
Fanfare on CHAN 9874 (Howells)