Leonard Bernstein - Mass / Nagano, Hadley, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin

Jerry Hadley - Leonard Bernstein - Mass / Nagano, Hadley, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin

Leonard Bernstein - Mass / Nagano, Hadley, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
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CD Details

Artist: Jerry Hadley
Composer: Leonard Bernstein
Conductor: Kent Nagano
Orchestra: Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Import
CD Release Date: 2004-10-12
Music Label: Harmonia Mundi Fr.
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
  1. 1. Antiphon: 'Kyrie Eleison'
  2. 2. Hymn And Psalm: A Simple Song
  3. 3. Responsory: 'Alleluia'
  4. 1. Prefatory Prayers
  5. 2. Thrice-Triple Canon: Dominus Vobiscum
  6. 1. In Nomine Patris
  7. 2. Prayer For The Congregation
  8. 3. Epiphany
  9. 1. Confiteor
  10. 2. Trope: 'I Don't Know'
  11. 3. Trope: 'Easy'
  12. V. Meditation No.1
  13. 1. Gloria Tibi
  14. 2. Gloria In Excelsis
  15. 3. Trope: 'Half Of The People'
  16. 4. Trope: 'Thank You'
  17. VII. Meditation No.2
  18. VIII. Espistle 'Word Of The Lord'
  19. IX. Gospel-Sermon 'God Said'
Music CD 2
  1. 1. Credo In Unum Deum
  2. 2. Trope: 'Non Credo'
  3. 3. Trope: 'Hurry'
  4. 4. World WIthout End
  5. 5. Trope: 'I Believe In God'
  6. XI. Meditation No. 3
  7. XII. Offeratory
  8. 1. 'Our Father...'
  9. 2. Trope: 'I Got On'
  10. XIV. Sanctus 'Holy! Holy! Holy!...'
  11. XV. Agnus Dei
  12. XVI. Fraction 'Things Get Broken'
  13. XVII. Pax:Communion 'Secret Songs'

Music reviews of Leonard Bernstein - Mass / Nagano, Hadley, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin

Music Review: Which of three "Masses" to choose?
Rating: 3 Stars

"Mass" was considered a major embarrassment when it opened the Kennedy Center in 1971, and critics fell over themselves mocking its jejune lyrics, solipsistic religiosity, and cringing amabition to imitate the success of "Hair." No work from a major composer was more tragically hip. But if Bernstein was quick to leave a painful fiasco behind ("Mass" is the only big piece of his that he never re-recorded), the gaudy music and street-fair theatrics somehow survived. Now a new generation is responding, although I have a sneaking suspicion that Christian fundamentalism may have something to do with this (imagine Bernstein's reaction).

There are three recordings to choose from, and I thought it would be helpful for prospective buyers to know how they difffer.

1971 Bernstein: This is the original cast album, made after the Washington D.C. premiere, with a huge panoply of performers. No ohter recording has assembled so many musicians and singers. For grandiosity and exuberance, Bernsteein's interpretation is unmantched. His critics may have smelled cheese, but the composer flung himself into his own expression wholeheartedly. Alan Titus as the young Celebrant is equally fervent, a hippie-apostle who believes every word, however clunky, put in his mouth. Titus went on to a notable operatic career in Europe but had a knock for the Broadway vernacular that runs through "Mass." Sony's bright, closely-miked sound has a lot of digital glare in its first CD version, but I haven't heard the latest incarnation.

2004 Nagano: As a transplanted American, Kent Nagano brought the true Bernstein idiom to Berlin for this high-energy reading with the Deutsches Sym. Orch. Production values are high, although nowhere close to the original. The recorded sound is very good. This would have been a total success except for Jerry Hadley as the Celebrant. Never much of a vocal actor, Hadley applies the cliches of an operatic tenor, complete with sobs, to a role that above all requires innocence, or at least guilelessness. He's also too old for the part of a post-adolescent searching for faith in a faithlesss world.

2009 Jarvi: The newest recording pulls back from the gaudiness of the score, attempting through a decent restraint to give "Mass" more dignity. In a way this is a half measure. The eye-popping embarrassments that litter Stephen Schwartz's flower-child lyrics (a ripeness of schlock unique in musical history, I think) cannot be erased. But Celebrant Randall Scarlata, the weakest vocally of the three choices, does the best in avoiding excess. His delivery has a Midwestern flatness that's not as cringe-worthy as Broadway glitz. Conductor Kristian Jarvi is competent, as are the various singers and musicians. The American idiom is spotty -- the recording venue was in Austria -- but I like the slimness of the forces involved. A pared-down "Mass" is saved from grandiosity. On the whole, Chandos's up-to-date sound is the best of the three versions.

Which of the three recordings would I choose? It depends on my mood. If I want the full hallucinatory impact, I turn to Bernstein's unvarnished electro-shock enthusiasm. If I feel too embarrassed for that, Jarvi's relative restraint does the best by a score that will always be green eggs and ham.
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