LSO/Rattle review – celebrating Bernstein's irrepressible versatility

Barbican, LondonThe Leonard Bernstein centenary tribute ranged from his profoundly serious symphony The Age of Anxiety to the frothy, uncomplicated Wonderful TownSimon Rattle’s contribution to the London Symphony Orchestra’s centenary tribute to its former president, Leonard Bernstein, celebrated the irrepressible versatility of Bernstein the composer. On the one side there was the concert version of Wonderful Town, his frothy 1953 musical comedy set in New York, while on the other there was the second of his three profoundly serious symphonies, The Age of Anxiety, completed four years earlier.Last month, Marin Alsop launched the LSO’s celebration with Bernstein’s other two symphonies. Like those works, The Age of Anxiety doesn’t fit into any conventional symphonic template. Inspired by WH Auden’s epic poem of the same name, it’s also a piano concerto of sorts. The rich mix of early 20th-century musical styles – Stravinsky, Nielsen, Hindemith and Copland, throwing in a 12-note row and a jazzy episode too – doesn’t always hang together, even, as here, with the great Krystian Zimerman as the soloist. He, though, was clearly ailing, alternating typically dazzling playing with bouts of coughing; there was even a false entry at the beginning of the second part. Continue reading…
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