Leonard Bernstein's Serenade based on Plato's "Symposion", performed by Midori and the WDR Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Constantinos Carydis. Recorded live on 22.09.2023 at the Kölner Philharmonie.
Leonard Bernstein - Serenade after Plato's "Symposion"
00:00:00 I. Phaedrus: Pausanias
00:07:32 II. Aristophanes
00:12:42 III Eryximachus
00:14:23 IV. Agathon
00:22:48 V. Socrates: Alcibiades
Midori, violin
WDR Symphony Orchestra
Constantinos Carydis, conductor
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Introduction to the work:
Leonard Bernstein, the exuberant musical genius: as a conductor, he was the great antipode to Herbert von Karajan at the other end of the scale for several decades - highly emotional, hyper-lively, humorous, sensuous. With his Dionysian power, Bernstein turned even the conservative Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra into musical revolutionaries, for example in their joint Mahler interpretations. As a composer, his hits from "West Side Story" such as "Tonight", "Maria", "Somewhere" and "America" and his overture to "Candide" alone earned him a place of honour in the musical Olympus. However, his star shone even brighter than the aforementioned successes - with a diversity of light that is not easy to grasp.
Anyone who didn't look and listen carefully suspected Bernstein of being a showman who wrote a few catchy evergreens. But that is precisely what most of his more than one hundred compositions are not. Bernstein not only had a lot to say about music - his "Young People's Concerts" on television were legendary - but as a composer he also had a lot to say about music. Major works such as his three symphonies are quite unwieldy and need to be explored first. His "Serenade after Plato's Symposium" is also a weighty piece, whose sound surface is challenging despite the joy of playing. Bernstein drew his inspiration for this composition from Plato's writing "Symposion", which means nothing other than 'banquet' or 'drinking party'. At this imagined feast, nine people who have actually lived meet and exchange their understanding of love. Each has their own position, sometimes emphasising the excessive, sometimes the ecstatic, sometimes warning of the harmful effects of Eros. Each of the nine gives a more or less passionate speech, taking up the ideas of the previous speakers, adding to them, rejecting them or even being outraged by them.
Bernstein recreates precisely this dramaturgy in the Serenade. He also translates the dialogue and disputes at the banquet into music: the motifs and themes interact in the same way as the speakers' thoughts and arguments. A lively and stimulating philosophical-musical discourse.
(Text: Otto Hagedorn)
11 июл 2024
