Bernstein: Candide Overture; Symphonic Dances from West Side Story; Symphonic Suite from On The Waterfront; Fancy Free Ballet

One of the most concise and enjoyable samplers of Bernstein’s compositional output. The “Candide” Overture is fast, scatterbrained music from one of the twentieth century’s fastest and most scatterbrained musical minds. Bernstein specifies a quick tempo on the score, but this performance is significantly faster — few eyebrows were left unsinged in the recording studio during this session. The Symphonic Dances from West Side Story and the underrated suite from Bernstein’s score for On the Waterfront are both terrific as well.