Israel Philharmonic Orchestra & Leonard Bernstein - Tchaikovsky: Romeo & Juliet, Francesca da Rimini (Live - Remastered) (2017) [Hi-Res]

Bernstein is at his finest in magnetic accounts of the doom-laden Francesca fantasy (after Canto V of Dante’s Inferno), and the inescapably tragic Romeo and Juliet fantasy overture; both are viscerally exciting, super-charged performances drawn from 1979 analogue sources, now remastered and scarcely inferior to the digital offerings here. The Capriccio Italien and 1812 are delivered with swaggering virtuosity and panache; cannon salvoes, bells and processional brass approach overkill, but with Lenny before a live audience anything could happen, and often did! Michael Jameson