Home listening - centenary Bernstein on disc – where to start?

The Guardian 0

The RLPO deliver dockside menace and much more. Plus, Marin Alsop and her Baltimore band in Prokofiev, and Blind Willie Johnson and co on iPlayer

• Every orchestra and record label is on the Leonard Bernstein centenary trail, at last giving equal attention to his work as a composer as well as pianist, conductor, educator, showman. Not sure where to start? Bernstein on the Waterfront (BIS), with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Christian Lindberg, provides a spirited survey with the Symphonic Dances from West Side Story (1957), Three Dance Episodes from On the Town (1946) and Three Dance Variations from Fancy Free (1944), the ballet that grew into On the Town. The brilliant overture to Candide (1956) is the disc’s uplifting curtain-raiser.