New York Philharmonic

Following the less than enthusiastic reception of his only full length opera, Copland arranged an orchestral suite from the score. It includes the love duet, the lively square dance, and the stirring and beautiful The Promise of Living drawn from the quintet at the end of the opera's first act. The composer was gratified when the Suite garnered the good reviews he had hoped the opera would inspire. In 1996, Murry Sidlin created a new suite for soprano, tenor and chamber ensemble based on his successful reduced orchestration of the opera, which uses the same scoring as the 13 instrument version of Appalachian Spring.

Hector Berlioz: Harold en Italie, Op. 16; La mort de Cléopâtre, scène lyrique
William Lincer, viola; Jennie Tourel mezzo-soprano; New York Philharmonic; Leonard Bernstein
Classical | 1 CD | EAC Rip | 346 MB; 3% Recovery| FLAC+LOG+Cue | Full scans | RS + 4shared links
Publisher: Sony Classical | Recorded: 1961 | Published: 1999

Harold is an electrifying reading that captures the raw passion of Berlioz better than any other. Throwing caution to the winds, Bernstein and Linzer (the Philharmonic's first-chair violist) are rough, edgy and incredibly exciting, eschewing entirely the refinement that passes for idiomatic Berlioz in other hands. Inexplicably omitted from the Royal Edition, this is one of the truly great Bernstein performances, giving Berlioz, the wild rebel of his time, his full due. It took a musician of Bernstein's youthful boldness to defy our established tradition to restore the composer's essential spirit. (Cleopatre, already in the Royal set, is a wonderful performance of Berlioz's early cantata.) - by Peter Gutmann

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E flat major Op. 55 "Eroica" + How A Great Symphony Was Written
New York Philharmonic Orchestra; Leonard Bernstein
Classical | 1 CD | EAC Rip | 305 Mb | FLAC+LOG+M3U No cue | Scans | 4 RS links
Publisher: Sony Classical

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
Just what was the Leonard Bernstein phenomenon all about? This disc–part of Sony's ongoing series of reissued performances from the conductor's years with the New York Philharmonic–goes a long way toward recapturing at least two aspects of his protean musical career. Bernstein's astonishing powers of communication as both conductor and teacher permeate this account of the landmark Eroica Symphony (recorded in one day in 1964 under legendary producer John McClure); filling out the disc is a lengthy excerpt from his broadcast discussion of the work, "How a Great Symphony Was Written." The charismatic rapport between Bernstein and his New York colleagues crackles with live-wire intensity. Throughout, the sense of excitement in bringing Beethoven's untamable profusion of ideas to life is unjaded…

Early in 1935, the American violinist Louis Krasner suggested to Berg that he write a violin concerto, but Berg, involved with the orchestration of his opera Lulu, was not then interested in a new project. However, the death from poliomelytis of his young friend Manon Gropius, daughter of Mahler’s widow, that spring so saddened him that he decided to compose a concerto as a memorial to her. Te score was finished on August 11, 1935 – record time for the slow-working, meticulous Berg. Dedicated ‘to the memory of an angel’ the Violin Concerto was to be his last completed work, for on December 24 he died of septicemia of the age of fifty. Krasner gave the world premiere on April 19, 1936, in Barcelona, under Hermann Scherchen.