Tonight, tonight, Won't be just any night, Tonight there will be no morning star. Tonight, tonight, I'll see my love tonight. And for us, Stars will stop where they are!
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Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
West Side Story
(1) Prologue
(2) Jet Song
(3) Blues
(4) Somewhere
(5) Procession & Nightmare
(6) Scherzo
(7) Mambo
(8) Cha-Cha
(9) I Feel Pretty
(10) Maria
(11) Cool
(12) America
(13) One Hand,One Heart
(14) Gee, Officer Krupke
(15) Tonight
(16) A Boy Like That
(17) I Have A Love
(18) The Rumble
(19) Finale
Listen here.
Bernstein’s iconic Broadway score has been reinterpreted countless times. I’m a fan of Stan Kenton’s brassy big band version so approached this disc with trepidation, the numbers arranged by Henk Huizinga for violin and saxophone quartet. I needn’t have worried: this is exciting, zingy stuff. Huizinga makes changes to the show’s running order and takes some liberties with individual songs (“Cool” lasts just over a minute here), but so much of his transcription sounds and feels thoroughly idiomatic. Violinist Gwendolyn Masin impresses, never more so than in the intro to “America”, when she’s soaring over a carpet of burbling saxes. Huizinga’s leaner textures emphasise how jagged and dissonant parts of this score are. That this is a live recording adds to the performance’s edge and excitement.
Read the original here.
