Credits:

Leonard Bernstein (conductor)

Description:

Bernstein's performance of Poulenc's religious work "Gloria" and Stravinsky's masterpiece "Symphonie des Psalmes" with chorus, composed in 1959, is a highly dramatic work full of pious devotion to God, and Bernstein plays it with Poulenc's unconstrained lightness and heavenly guidance. Bernstein's performance is heavenly with Poulenc's stylish lightness. In a memorial concert the year after Stravinsky's death, Bernstein also featured the three-movement Psalm Symphony, composed in 1930 during the neoclassical era, which he recorded at Abbey Road Studios. Bernstein's performance is free and spontaneous without being overly serious. (C)RS