Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra – Bernstein: Candide (2021) [FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

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 (Cun gonde), Anne Sofie von Otter (The Old Lady) and Sir Thomas Allen (Dr Pangloss, Narrator). With lyrical contributions from acerbic writers Richard Wilbur, Dorothy Parker and a young Stephen Sondheim, Candide marries raucous humor with the extraordinary genius of Leonard Bernstein.

With his ‘comic operetta’ Candide, which opened unsuccessfully on Broadway in 1956, Leonard Bernstein and his librettist Lillian Hellman used Voltaire’s play to hit back at the United States’ terrible era of the anti-communist witch-hunt under the aegis of the infamous Senator Joseph McCarthy.

A dizzying tribute to European music, with its brilliant and tender pastiches of opera and operetta, Candide had suffered a long and difficult genesis, interrupted by setbacks, cuts and constant rewrites. A hybrid work between opera and operetta with a sophisticated and refined style, Candide was most assuredly not the work that the fans of musicals were expecting. Despite all the revisions and additions by new lyricists such as Stephen Sondheim and John Wells, the work never found its audience. And yet Bernstein worked on it until the end of his life, conducting and recording for Deutsche Grammophon a final ‘definitive’ version in New York and at the Barbican Centre in London in December 1989, only a few months before his death.

This new Anglo-American production, recorded live in the Barbican Centre in December 2018 on the occasion of Leonard Bernstein’s centenary, is the work of director Garnett Bruce and conductor Marin Alsop, who was a student of Bernstein with whom she had a difficult relationship; the conductor, though so open-minded and generous, was uneasy with a woman at the podium. This version benefits from a golden cast with Leonardo Capalbo’s Candide, Jane Archibald’s Cunégonde (stratospheric ‘Glitter and Be Gay’) and the presence of prestigious ‘veterans’ such as Anne Sofie von Otter as the Old Lady and Sir Thomas Allen as Dr. Pangloss and the recitation. The whole work is conducted with precision, elegance and spirit under the exacting baton of Marin Alsop, who is one of the main architects of this re-appraisal of a work that urgently needs to be (re)discovered. – François Hudry

Tracklist:
Disc 1 (01:13:03)
1. Marin Alsop & London Symphony Orchestra – Candide: Overture (04:42)
2. Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra & Sir Thomas Allen – Candide, Act One: Westphalian Fanfare – “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen” (02:42)
3. Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Thomas Allen, Leonardo Capalbo, Jane Archibald, Marcus Farnsworth, Frederick Jones, Carmen Artaza & Lucy McAulay – Candide, Act One: Life Is Happiness Indeed – Parade (06:12)
4. Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Thomas Allen, Leonardo Capalbo, Jane Archibald, Marcus Farnsworth & Carmen Artaza – Candide, Act One: The Best of All Possible Worlds (02:42)
5. Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Thomas Allen, Leonardo Capalbo, Jane Archibald & Carmen Artaza – Candide, Act One: “Class is dismissed” – Happy Instrumental (01:36)
6. Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra, Jane Archibald & Leonardo Capalbo – Candide, Act One: Oh, Happy We (02:04)
7. Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Thomas Allen, Leonardo Capalbo, Jane Archibald, Marcus Farnsworth, Frederick Jones, Carmen Artaza & Lucy McAulay – Candide, Act One: “What is he doing to my sister?” – Candide Begins His Travels (01:53)
8. Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra & Leonardo Capalbo – Candide, Act One: It Must Be So (Candide’s Meditation) (01:53)
9. Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Thomas Allen, Jane Archibald & London Symphony Chorus – Candide, Act One: “The helping hand” – Battle Music – Westphalia Chorale – Battle Scene (02:52)
10. Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Thomas Allen & Leonardo Capalbo – Candide, Act One: “Candide, liberated by the battle” (02:46)
11. Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Thomas Allen & London Symphony Chorus – Candide, Act One: Dear Boy (04:07)
12. Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Thomas Allen & Liam Bonthrone – Candide, Act One: “Candide and Dr Pangloss board a crowded ship” – Storm Music – Earthquake Music (01:24)
13. Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Thomas Allen, Leonardo Capalbo, Thomas Atkins, Marcus Farnsworth, Guildhall School Young Artists & London Symphony Chorus – Candide, Act One: Auto-da-fé (What a day) (05:19)
14. Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra & Leonardo Capalbo – Candide, Act One: Candide’s Lament (03:25)
15. Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra & Sir Thomas Allen – Candide, Act One: The Paris Waltz (02:59)
16. Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra & Jane Archibald – Candide, Act One: Glitter and Be Gay (06:06)
17. Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Thomas Allen, Leonardo Capalbo & Jane Archibald – Candide, Act One: “Suddenly, Candide rushes in” – You Were Dead, You Know (03:23)
18. Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Thomas Allen, Leonardo Capalbo, Jane Archibald, Anne Sofie von Otter, Frederick Jones & Liam Bonthrone – Candide, Act One: “Quick, Madame, The Jew!” – Entrance of the Jew – Entrance of the Archbishop – Travel to the Stables (04:58)
19. Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra, Anne Sofie von Otter, Sir Thomas Allen, Leonardo Capalbo & Jane Archibald – Candide, Act One: Barcarolle (04:15)
20. Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra, Anne Sofie von Otter, Jane Archibald, Thomas Atkins, Frederick Jones & London Symphony Chorus – Candide, Act One: I Am Easily Assimilated (Old Lady’s Tango) (03:49)
21. Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Thomas Allen, Anne Sofie von Otter, Leonardo Capalbo & Marcus Farnsworth – Candide, Act One: “The roués, though captivated!” (00:43)
22. Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Thomas Allen, Leonardo Capalbo, Jane Archibald, Anne Sofie von Otter, Marcus Farnsworth & London Symphony Chorus – Candide, Act One: Quartet Finale (03:13)

Disc 2 (43:23)
1. Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra & London Symphony Chorus – Candide, Act Two: Universal Good (01:02)
2. Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Thomas Allen, Leonardo Capalbo, Thomas Atkins, Marcus Farnsworth, Carmen Artaza, Frederick Jones & Liam Bonthrone – Candide, Act Two: “Welcome back” (01:53)
3. Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra, Thomas Atkins & Jane Archibald – Candide, Act Two: My Love (Governor’s Serenade) (02:32)
4. Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Thomas Allen, Jane Archibald, Anne Sofie von Otter, Marcus Farnsworth & Thomas Atkins – Candide, Act Two: “Senor, I must take advice” (01:03)
5. Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra, Jane Archibald & Anne Sofie von Otter – Candide, Act Two: We Are Women (Polka) (03:21)
6. Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Thomas Allen, Leonardo Capalbo, Marcus Farnsworth, Carmen Artaza & London Symphony Chorus – Candide, Act Two: “Meanwhile, Candide stumbles on through the South American jungle” – Alleluia (04:09)
7. Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Thomas Allen, Leonardo Capalbo, Carmen Artaza, Katherine McIndoe, Lucy McAuley & London Symphony Chorus – Candide, Act Two: Introduction to Eldorado – Sheep Song (04:57)
8. Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra, Leonardo Capalbo & London Symphony Chorus – Candide, Act Two: Ballad of Eldorado (03:23)
9. Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Thomas Allen, Leonardo Capalbo, Jane Archibald, Anne Sofie von Otter, Thomas Atkins, Carmen Artaza & Guildhall School Young Artists – Candide, Act Two: “Having arrived in Surinam” (02:02)
10. Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra, Thomas Atkins & London Symphony Chorus – Candide, Act Two: Bon Voyage (02:44)
11. Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Thomas Allen, Anne Sofie von Otter, Jane Archibald & Frederick Jones – Candide, Act Two: “Of course, the ship sinks” (01:29)
12. Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra, Anne Sofie von Otter, Marcus Farnsworth, Frederick Jones, Jonathan Eyers & London Symphony Chorus – Candide, Act Two: What’s The Use (04:04)
13. Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra, Leonardo Capalbo & Jane Archibald – Candide, Act Two: “Cunegonde!” – You Were Dead, You Know (Reprise) (01:01)
14. Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Thomas Allen, Leonardo Capalbo, Jane Archibald, Anne Sofie von Otter, Marcus Farnsworth, Thomas Atkins & Carmen Artaza – Candide, Act Two: “Sir, unhand that Odalisque” – Barcarolle (Reprise) (02:37)
15. Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra, Leonardo Capalbo & London Symphony Chorus – Candide, Act Two: Universal Good (Life is Neither) – “Come, cast aside all vain speculations” (02:27)
16. Marin Alsop, London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Thomas Allen, Leonardo Capalbo, Jane Archibald, Anne Sofie von Otter, Marcus Farnsworth, Thomas Atkins, Carmen Artaza, Guildhall School Young Artists & London Symphony Chorus – Candide, Act Two: Make Our Garden Grow (Finale) (04:39)

Download:

mqs.link_MarinAls0pL0nd0nSymph0ny0rchestraBernsteinCandide20212496.part1.rar
mqs.link_MarinAls0pL0nd0nSymph0ny0rchestraBernsteinCandide20212496.part2.rar

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