Leonard Bernstein
West Side Story ("The Original Score")

* Soloists, Nashville Symphony Orchestra/Kenneth Schermerhorn, cond.
Naxos 8.559126  {DDD} TT: 75:16

Summary for the Busy Executive: First thoughts.

As a callow teen when the movie West Side Story came out, I remarked
to a girl I was trying hard to impress that I found it as sugary as a
gingerbread house.  As far as the girl was concerned, I sunk my own boat,
but at least I went down firing my own guns.  I never particularly cared
for "Romeo and Juliet" stories, although I loved the Shakespeare play.
I guess I missed in all those adaptations Shakespeare's underlying
political toughness.  To me, the Shakespeare play was never really about
star-crossed lovers, but about the consequences of social breakdown.
Even so, parts of Bernstein's score -- the "edgy" parts like the "Prologue,"
"Cool," "Rumble," and "Officer Krupke" -- appealed to me right away, to
the extent that I bought the piano/vocal score with my own money.  As I
grew up, Bernstein's music for the sentimental parts of the score --
"Somewhere," "One Hand, One Heart," "Tonight," "I Feel Pretty," and
finally even the treacly "Maria," all superbly-crafted (even inspired)
melodies -- finally won me over.  Resistance, as they say, is futile.
Furthermore, over the years, I've gotten a kick out the memories of
Tchaikovsky and Wagner in Bernstein's melodies.  For example, one hears
Tristan in the opening to "Somewhere" and Swan Lake in the same song (at
"Hold my hand and we're halfway there").  Extra secrets of the score.

I now own four CDs of this show: the Original Broadway Cast album,
the movie soundtrack, Bernstein's "opera" version on DGG, and this one.
Of the four, I like the Broadway version best.  Bernstein's version hit
me at first as Yet Another Lenny Exercise in Self-Indulgence, with Jose
Carreras as the "Irish" Tony tripping over English in every measure.
But that was counter to what *I* wanted -- ie, a stab at realistic drama.
Once I accepted what Bernstein himself wanted -- gorgeous voices singing
gorgeous music -- it became a wonderful album, though I still prefer Max
Goberman's leaner, meaner reading on Sony.  Indeed, it stands as one of
the rare instances where someone other than Bernstein beats out the
composer in his own work.  Goberman puts the score closer to the ambiance
of Kazan's On the Waterfront, for which, of course, Bernstein wrote the
music.  The movie soundtrack collects dust.  It just seems "off" somehow,
as did the movie itself, mainly through poor casting.  Robert Wise, a
very good director, is still no Kazan.  Indeed, West Side Story is the
musical Kazan *should* have directed.

If you've got even two of the first three recordings, why do you need
this one?  In brief, the CD contains music you won't find anywhere else.
The liner notes by premiere orchestrator Sid Ramin confuse me a bit.
Here's what I surmise.  Bernstein delivered a score to Ramin and Irwin
Kostal (the co-orchestrators) with indications of instruments and long
discussions about each number.  During rehearsal and tryout, Jerome
Robbins, the choreographer and director, wanted cuts, out-and-out rewrites,
and orchestration changes.  The result differed from the original score
and orchestration, which this CD seeks to restore.  The CD also includes
little transitions not in the Original Cast album and (I haven't checked
this) possibly not even in Bernstein's "opera" version.  I find the
differences fascinating and instructive.  The album answers the question
of how a composer tightens a score, for in almost every case, the final
version packs more punch.  The "Prologue," for example, begins minus its
familiar opening tritonal fanfare, which sets up so much of the show's
thematic content.  The electrifying "Mambo" differs in its original form
from the stage version, although I'm glad to have both.  Ramin and Kostal
outdid themselves in a virtuoso part for percussion.

As far as dramatic impact goes, Schermerhorn's reading leans more toward
Goberman than toward Bernstein.  It emphasizes the gritty, and the
Nashville players surpass the Broadway pit band (or whoever actually
recorded the first album), perhaps because they've had decades to let
the music seep into their bones.  Rhythms pack a wallop, at the expense
of a sweetness of sound, which I, for one, don't really miss.  As I say,
I gravitate more to the muscle in the score than the sweets.  In general,
the singers act well when they sing, less well than they speak.  After
all, Tony was originally played by Larry Kert, Anita by Chita Rivera
(nobody else on record comes close to her output of sexual volts without
going over the top), and Riff by Michael Callin, so the Nashville cast
runs into some fairly stiff competition.  The Nashville punks have nothing
on their Broadway counterparts, who really did seem to come from the
streets of New York.  The Nashville Jets (it even sounds wrong; Jets
belong in New York) sound like they're trying to imagine what New York
must be like.  Mike Eldred's Tony is fine, except that occasionally his
tone gets too nasal.  On the other hand, Betsi Morrison's Maria improves
on Carol Lawrence's both vocally and dramatically.  Lawrence always came
across to me as a bit of a drip, self-consciously and manipulatively
waif-like.  Morrison shows you the openness and strength of the character.

If a bit off-beat, the Schermerhorn recording is good enough to become
part of the Bernstein canon.  The sound is preternaturally clear.

Steve Schwartz