CD of the Week (2)

One of the first CD's I bought, back in 1983 when CD's were young, was this classic recording of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue", played and conducted from the piano by Leonard Bernstein, perhaps the greatest American musician of the 20th century.

That well known piece is followed by the Symphonic Dances from "West Side Story", Bernstein's landmark musical adaptation of Romeo and Juliet set in 1950's New York. While possibly rather pretentious, creating Symphonic Dances from a musical movie soundtrack, the dances are more developed, musically, and much more satisfying to listen to than the original, with its purposely untrained singers.

And who better to conduct them than the composer himself, with his favourite Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra.