While Sony Classical’s vaults bulge with forgotten LPs from Bernstein’s maturity, rival companies have been documenting his apprentice years in exhaustive detail. With this release, RCA complete the CD transfer of their 78rpm legacy. The Stravinsky sessions took place at Tanglewood in August 1947 at a time when Bernstein was thought to be in the running to succeed Serge Koussevitzky as Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Stravinsky himself was not too pleased with the results, to judge from a letter to Robert Craft, but he may have been conscious of the rhythmic inflexibility and inferior ensemble of his own recording of L’histoire. He objects to the percussionist’s use of inauthentic drums and the conductor taking “absolutely arbitrary tempis [sic] against my indications and against already established tradition ... What an intolerable situation for a living author!” The Milhaud was programmed during Bernstein’s first season at the helm of the New York City Symphony, an underfunded and hence short-lived but innovative organization to rival the more traditional Philharmonic. The recording here, credited to the Victor Chamber Orchestra, has considerable documentary interest but, unlike the Stravinsky items, it is a piece the conductor revisited in the studio more than once.
The remainder of the disc is taken up with Bernstein’s own music in which he features as pianist. Admirers will want to hear the previously unreleased recording of Afterthought (a study for the ballet Facsimile), a modest composition subsequently withdrawn and unheard for 50 years. Although its first theme is inspired, the same cannot be said for the vocal line and Bernstein’s own rather pretentious text. While love is a theme in the ballet, the words don’t have much to do with the plot. I hate music is much more successful – clever, witty and beautiful – although the performance itself is a shade disappointing. The notes tell us that a previous recording by these artists was put to one side and yet the singer (a Fricka at the Met from 1944) is still not really on top of these songs. No problems with the pianist though: Bernstein was a very accomplished player in the early years. A subsequent Columbia version with Jennie Tourel, who gave the public premiere at her New York recital debut, was also never released. RCA’s packaging and transfers are fine, with no attempt to radically remake the sound or eliminate every trace of surface noise. Keen followers of Bernstein need not hesitate.'