FREE UK SHIPPING OVER £30!

Bernstein - Candide

£18.15

In stock - available for despatch within 1 working day

Label: LSO Live

Cat No: LSO0834

Barcode: 0822231183426

Format: Hybrid SACD

Number of Discs: 2

Genre: Opera

Release Date: 15th October 2021

Works

Bernstein, Leonard

Candide

Artists

Leonardo Capalbo
Jane Archibald
Anne Sophie von Otter
Thomas Allen
London Symphony Chorus
London Symphony Orchestra

Conductor

Marin Alsop

Works

Bernstein, Leonard

Candide

Artists

Leonardo Capalbo
Jane Archibald
Anne Sophie von Otter
Thomas Allen
London Symphony Chorus
London Symphony Orchestra

Conductor

Marin Alsop

About

Marin Alsop leads the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in a new recording of Bernstein’s riotous satirical operetta Candide.

Made almost three decades after the composer’s own iconic recording with the Orchestra, Alsop’s new version was captured during celebratory concerts marking Bernstein’s centenary year, and features an outstanding array of soloists, including Leonardo Capalbo (Candide), Jane Archibald (Cunégonde), Anne Sofie von Otter (The Old Lady) and Sir Thomas Allen (Dr Pangloss, Narrator).

With lyrical contributions from acerbic writers Richard Wilbur and Dorothy Parker and a young Stephen Sondheim, Candide marries raucous humour with the extraordinary genius of Leonard Bernstein.

“The best of all possible productions” - The Telegraph

“The rhythms snapped and crackled, the colours were bright and the energy didn’t flag” - The Times

“Marin Alsop conducted a lively LSO in music the orchestra must have in its bones” - Financial Times

“A hundred per cent irresistible” - Bachtrack

Sound/Video

Paused

1

Overture
2

Act 1 Westphalian Fanfare - Good evening, ladies and gentlemen
3

Act 1 Life Is Happiness Indeed - Parade
4

Act 1 The Best of All Possible Worlds
5

Act 1 Class is dismissed - Happy Instrumental
6

Act 1 Oh, Happy We
7

Act 1 What is he doing to my sister - Candide Begins His Travels
8

Act 1 It Must Be So (Candide's Meditation)
9

Act 1 The helping hand - Battle Music - Westphalia Chorale - Battle Scene
10

Act 1 Candide, liberated by the battle
11

Act 1 Dear Boy
12

Act 1 Candide and Dr Pangloss board a crowded ship - Storm Music - Earthquake
13

Act 1 Auto-da-fé (What a day)
14

Act 1 Candide's Lament
15

Act 1 The Paris Waltz
16

Act 1 Glitter and Be Gay
17

Act 1 Suddenly, Candide rushes in - You Were Dead, You Know
18

Act 1 Quick, Madame, The Jew! - Entrance of the Jew - Entrance of the Archbishop
19

Act 1 Barcarolle
20

Act 1 I Am Easily Assimilated (Old Lady's Tango)
21

Act 1 The roués, though captivated!
22

Act 1 Quartet Finale
23

Act 2 Universal Good
24

Act 2 Welcome back
25

Act 2 My Love (Governor's Serenade)
26

Act 2 Senor, I must take advice
27

Act 2 We Are Women (Polka)
28

Act 2 Meanwhile, Candide stumbles on through the South American jungle - Alleluia
29

Act 2 Introduction to Eldorado - Sheep Song
30

Act 2 Ballad of Eldorado
31

Act 2 Having arrived in Surinam
32

Act 2 Bon Voyage
33

Act 2 Of course, the ship sinks
34

Act 2 What's the Use
35

Act 2 Cunegonde! - You Were Dead, You Know (Reprise)
36

Act 2 Sir, unhand that Odalisque - Barcarolle (Reprise)
37

Act 2 Universal Good (Life is Neither) - Come, cast aside all vain speculations
38

Act 2 Make Our Garden Grow (Finale)

Europadisc Review

Combining Voltaire’s witty Enlightenment satire of religion, politics and culture with Leonard Bernstein’s affectionate, exuberant tribute to European music in all its rich variety, Candide has long been among Bernstein’s most popular works. Composed in initial collaboration with playwright and author Lillian Hellman at the height of the McCarthyite anti-Communist era (both Bernstein and Hellman were listed in the notorious Red Channels of supposed Communist sympathisers), it had a less than successful opening run of just two months on Broadway from December 1956 to February 1957, but the original cast recording did much to rescue the music’s reputation. Numerous subsequent productions brought extensive revisions, with a string of authors and lyricists from Hugh Wheeler and Richard Wilbur to Stephen Sondheim and John Wells all making contributions. A Scottish Opera production of 1988 prepared by John Mauceri served as the basis for Bernstein’s own definitive operatic version, performed with a starry cast and the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Centre in December 1989, with an audio recording made a few days later with the same forces.

Almost three decades later, in December 2018, Bernstein protégée and champion Marin Alsop led the LSO at the same venue in two semi-staged performances as part of the Bernstein centenary celebrations, and they serve as the basis for this new issue from the LSO Live label. Alsop herself, together with stage director Garnett Bruce, prepared this new version of a work that has had almost as many iterations as productions (in this respect, Candide stands as a quintessentially theatrical operatic work), but with Bernstein’s own final version, including his refinements to the orchestration, as the clear basis.

Captured in excellent sound (with Surround Sound option on these hybrid SACDs), this is almost as starry an affair as Bernstein’s DG recording, with Thomas Allen in the duo role of Narrator and the optimist philosopher (and Candide’s mentor) Dr Pangloss, tenor Leonardo Capalbo in the title role, coloratura soprano Jane Archibald as Cunegonde (the object of Candide’s steadfast affections), and mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter as The Old Lady (a role previously taken by such legends as Irra Petina and Christa Ludwig). With huge experience of Bernstein’s music to her credit (her Naxos collection of orchestral works was one of the centenary year’s highlights), Alsop leads a performance that is vibrant, lively, engaging, buoyant and yet fundamentally lyrical, very much in the mould of Bernstein himself. She secures playing from the LSO that combines refinement, subtlety, richness and incisiveness in ideal measure, alive to all the myriad stylistic debts that inform the dazzling score.

Thomas Allen makes an excellent Narrator, and knows exactly when to transfer from heavily-laden irony to sincerity, in a libretto where the dividing line between satire and genuine emotion is sometimes very fine. As Candide, Capalbo has a fine lyrical voice, sensitively coloured yet with enough power to carry above the orchestra, and his more reflective numbers (such as his Act 1 Lament) are exquisitely delivered, while his stamina sustains him through what is the work’s most substantial vocal role. Jane Archibald’s Cunegonde is outstanding, and her account of ‘Glitter and be gay’ is absolutely spectacular (any applause from the audience has been discreetly removed), suppressed emotion alternating with stunning, pinpoint coloratura. Anne Sophie von Otter has a high time as The Old Lady, unaffectedly grand and enjoying the opportunity to deploy a variety of accents in her set-piece tango ‘I am easily assimilated’; she need fear no comparison with her celebrated predecessors in the part.

Minor roles are all taken with aplomb (notably Carmen Artaza as Paquette and Marcus Farnsworth as Maximilian), but the other real stars of this performance are the London Symphony Chorus (in excellent, enthusiastic and beautifully-shaded voice) and the LSO themselves, whose infectious, vibrantly colourful playing conjures up the shifting locations and predicaments of Candide’s adventures more vividly than any staging ever could, with particularly splendid brass and percussion contributions. By the end of the performance (and notwithstanding a very few minor missteps in the dialogue), the cumulative effect is enormously touching, and Bernstein himself appears to reveal his true self (after all his mercurial musical mask-changing) in the closing ‘Make our garden grow’, which builds to a thrilling a cappella climax.

Even if they already have Bernstein’s own DG recording (or, indeed, the original Broadway cast recording), opera, operetta and musical lovers will want to add this to their collection as one of the most consistently engaging and finely recorded performances now available, with every word clearly audible, every detail of the remarkable score hitting home. Enthusiastically recommended!