Leonard Bernstein - Fancy Free; Dybbuk (Andrew Mogrelia)

Information

Composer: Leonard Bernstein

• (01-19) Dybbuk, ballet
• (20-29) Fancy Free, ballet

Mel Ulrich, baritone
Mark Risinger, bass
Abby Burke, vocal
Stephen Kummer, piano
Roger Spencer, double bass
Samuel D. Bacco, drums

Nashville Symphony Orchestra
Andrew Mogrelia, conductor

Date: 2006
Label: Naxos
https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.559280

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Review

Dignity and solemnity from Bernstein - fancy-free it isn't

If when Jerome Robbins and the New York City Ballet commissioned Dybbuk from Leonard Bernstein they were expecting a populist pot-boiler like Fancy Free, then Bernstein instead turned in one of his most psychologically and compositionally complex scores. Based on the drama by Israeli writer Shlomo Ansky, Dybbuk (1974) draws on a broad range of Jewish folklore and other source material; the opening vocal chanting by two male voices is based on the Jewish Sabbath Service, while the work has a dignified solemnity that obviously came from somewhere deep.

Bernstein's own recordings aside, Dybbuk hasn't fared well in the recording studio and it's refreshing to hear this cogently conceived interpretation. Like his Kaddish Symphony, Bernstein puts tonal material into a testy dialectic with atonal commentaries, but while this strategy gives Kaddish a natural curvature of the spine, Dybbuk is episodic and needs clear structural direction. Andrew Mogrelia assembles Bernstein's sections into a taut mosaic, and the lavishly detailed playing of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra showcases Bernstein's savvy orchestral timbres. The sometimes sparse and pointillistic nature of the writing is unexpected, and this is one of his most disciplined and cerebral scores.

Thirty years earlier, Fancy Free was wowing New York musical life for precisely the opposite reasons. The exuberance of Bernstein's imagination let the music all hang out, and Mogrelia certainly enjoys the hang. The unnamed orchestral pianist does a fine job with the swinging obbligato piano part, and it's good to hear a full version of the introductory “jukebox” song “Big Stuff”. Great stuff.

-- Philip Clark, Gramophone

More reviews:
ClassicsToday  ARTISTIC QUALITY: 9 / SOUND QUALITY: 9
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2007/Mar07/Bernstein_Fancy_Free_8559280.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2007/Apr07/Bernstein_Fancy_Free_8559280.htm
http://www.classicalsource.com/db_control/db_cd_review.php?id=4526
http://www.classicalcdreview.com/8559280.html
https://www.allmusic.com/album/bernstein-fancy-free-dybbuk-mw0001393356
https://www.naxos.com/reviews/reviewslist.asp?catalogueid=8.559280&languageid=EN
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dybbuk-Fancy-Free-complete-ballets/dp/B000IY065W

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Leonard Bernstein (August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American composer, conductor, author, music lecturer, and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the US to receive worldwide acclaim. His fame derived from his tenure as the music director of the New York Philharmonic, his concerts with most of the world's leading orchestras, and his composition. As a composer he wrote in many styles encompassing symphonic and orchestral music, ballet, film and theatre music, choral works, opera, chamber music and piano pieces. He also gave numerous television lectures on classical music.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Bernstein

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Andrew Mogrelia is a British conductor. He has a varied career conducting symphonic works, ballets and a large discography for the Naxos label. Mogrelia has conducted many orchestras around the world. He was Conductor-in-Residence at Birmingham Conservatoire (1992-2002) and served as Music Director of the San Francisco Ballet (2003-2005), the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Orchestra (2005-2012) and the Queensland Ballet (2013-2015). He has recorded dozens of CDs for the Amadis, Marco Polo and Naxos record labels, with works by Handel, Suk, Vieuxtemps and others.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Mogrelia

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