# Leonard Bernstein "Royal Edition"



## flamencosketches

I recently picked up a couple of the "Royal Edition" Bernstein discs. From what I can tell, these were produced in the 1990s as a series of 100, and have been remastered in 20-bit depth. However, I have a few questions about them. The main one is this: what on earth is the connection between Leonard Bernstein and HRH the Prince of Wales? I don't understand in the slightest why all of these classic Bernstein recordings have been issued on CD (some perhaps for the first time) in the prince's honor, and with his lackluster paintings as artwork. Perhaps this is a common knowledge thing that I just missed, being as new to classical music as I am, but I would appreciate any explanation.

My second question is this: how do they sound? I ask because just a few short years later, Sony began the "Bernstein Century" edition, reissuing so many of the same recordings, with much better artwork and packaging. Is it worth collecting more of these "Royal Edition" discs, or had I better hold out for the later issues? 

Thanks for any help with these questions. Just looking for perspective. The discs I grabbed are Nielsen's 2nd and 4th symphonies, and then Beethoven's 1st and 3rd. Very excited to hear both.


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## KenOC

I used to have several of those LPs. They were generally good performances and good sonics, typical Columbia quality of the times. I always figured the deal was Columbia could act all snooty and high class (and sell more records) while the Prince got a chance to show off his uninteresting artwork on record covers all over the world.

Anyway, probably nobody got hurt by the arrangement. I believe the LPs are currently worth just as much (or little) as any comparable LPs, royal or otherwise.


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## Heck148

I have quite a number of Bernstein Royal Editions....highly recommended....lots of essential Lenny.....


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## Larkenfield

Columbia did some great editing in the early 1990s, including the Bruno Walter collection. It was my favorite label with a colorful lineup of artists that included Glenn Gould, George Szell, and Eugene Ormandy. I rarely cared for DG discs because the label seemed more snobbish and I didn’t care for the design of their covers with the use of yellow, yellow, yellow and a particular German conductor that they would push, push, push as the greatest in the world. I didn’t think so because of the editing tampering that sounded false to me that I heard on too many of those albums. I still think of the Sony label as Columbia before one major label kept swallowing up the next and became huge corporate conglomerates. I also miss the Philips label that used to publish the great Claudio Arrau performances of the complete Beethoven sonatas. The sound quality was truly outstanding and has degraded, IMO, under Decca.


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## Rogerx

> The main one is this: what on earth is the connection between Leonard Bernstein and HRH the Prince of Wales?


AS far as I can recall , Charles is a very productive painter and that's why they came up with this idea ,


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## DavidA

The Royal addition was an attempt to pay tribute to Bernstein by linking in with royalty. I don’t know whether also it was Columbia’s answer to the DG Karajan edition which featured some Equally uninteresting paintings By HvK’s wife on the cover.


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## joen_cph

I did a bit of research & Prince Charles personally oversaw the selection of the individual covers of the series for the music. Besides him promoting cultural life in general, I haven't found any info about the relation between the two people, or any further reasons why Prince Charles took part in the project.

Funnily enough, there's an American conductor, Charles Prince, who is, among other things, a student of Bernstein:
https://maestrocharlesprince.com/bio


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## Oldhoosierdude

Why? Executives in a boardroom thought it would sell or somehow otherwise benefit their company. The paintings are negligible to me. A lot of releases have cover art that makes little sense. As for quality, the cd's I have are all re-release material from Bernstein/NYPO. Sound is good, performances are subjective but I like them.


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## Larkenfield

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailypress.com/news/dp-xpm-19940220-1994-02-20-9402200258-story,amp.html


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## joen_cph

Larkenfield said:


> https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailypress.com/news/dp-xpm-19940220-1994-02-20-9402200258-story,amp.html


 Access via this link is only available in some countries, not mine, for example.


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## Rogerx

By the way, DG has similar series




Not painted by Charles of course.


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## Larkenfield

joen_cph said:


> Access via this link is only available in some countries, not mine, for example.


That's a shame. Instead, here are reviews of the individual discs starting about a quarter down the page. I think Sony gave these remastered recordings the first-class "royal" treatment and that contributed to naming this the "royal edition." He deserved it for all the money that he made for Columbia/Sony.

http://www.classicalnotes.net/columns/bernstein.html


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## Itullian

I don't now about the title, but they sound great.


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## DavidA

Itullian said:


> I don't now about the title, but they sound great.


Yes the ones I have are really good


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## geralmar

I bought a fair number of Bernstein "Royal Edition" CDs when they were first issued because they were "mid-price" and hence more affordable than standard issue CDs. The paintings were too tiny to make any impact and hence hardly worth the bother. The series struck me as a vanity project for the Prince; but an affordable way to collect the conductor's Columbia recordings.


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## starthrower

flamencosketches said:


> Thanks for any help with these questions. Just looking for perspective. The discs I grabbed are Nielsen's 2nd and 4th symphonies, and then Beethoven's 1st and 3rd. Very excited to hear both.


Grab the Nielsen 3 & 5 for a few bucks. Bernstein's No. 5 is one of the best! And No.3 is a beautiful symphony.


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## flamencosketches

^I'm new to Nielsen, the Bernstein disc with 2 and 4 is the only music of his in my whole collection. And frankly I can't say I'm much a fan of his yet. I'm hoping Lenny will be the one to convert me. I understand he is a composer who is highly regarded by fans of some of my other favorites (Sibelius, for example) but his music doesn't make much sense to me as of yet.


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## starthrower

It can take a while to grow on you. Nielsen is just different that anybody else. But I think he was a great symphonist. Nos. 3, 5 & 6 are my favorites.

Some analysis of Nielsen's symphonies.


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## D Smith

I bought quite of those when they came out. They were competitively priced. The Brahms is terrific and the Nielsen benchmark in my opinion. Sound is decent. I don't know if they were ever remastered, perhaps in his orchestral collection that came out a few years ago?


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## realdealblues

I'm not sure how the deal was originally struck between Sony and Prince Charles. I just remember reading they wanted to give Lenny the "Royal" treatment after his passing and so they teamed up with Prince Charles to show off his artwork.

I had the entire collection on CD at one point. I still have several of them but they are in my "to get rid of box" just because I now have all of Lenny's recordings in box sets.


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## flamencosketches

realdealblues said:


> I'm not sure how the deal was originally struck between Sony and Prince Charles. I just remember reading they wanted to give Lenny the "Royal" treatment after his passing and so they teamed up with Prince Charles to show off his artwork.
> 
> I had the entire collection on CD at one point. I still have several of them but they are in my "to get rid of box" just because I now have all of Lenny's recordings in box sets.


Lenny is one of the only conductors of whom I would consider buying a big box set. He brings so much insight to so many disparate composers.


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## starthrower

flamencosketches said:


> Lenny is one of the only conductors of whom I would consider buying a big box set. He brings so much insight to so many disparate composers.


If I didn't already have so many Bernstein CDs, I would've bought the symphony box last year. I'm mad that I missed out on the Sibelius set. I hope they issue it again.


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## Merl

realdealblues said:


> .... I still have several of them but they are in my "to get rid of box" just because I now have all of Lenny's recordings in box sets.


Like you, RDB, I've jettisoned a lot of the single discs from this set as I often have sets of the other recordings in boxes. I've only got about 2 left and one I keep because it gets more play than the Mahler cycle it comes from and I can't be bothered fishing through the box for it.


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## starthrower

Other than having all of the recordings in one box, what is the advantage to ditching the older CDs and buying the symphony edition? From what I've read, the only remastered CDs in the set with improved sound are the Mahler symphonies which are available separately.


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## realdealblues

starthrower said:


> Other than having all of the recordings in one box, what is the advantage to ditching the older CDs and buying the symphony edition? From what I've read, the only remastered CDs in the set with improved sound are the Mahler symphonies which are available separately.


For me it was about having "everything". The Royal Edition didn't have everything. The Bernstein Century didn't have everything. I love Lenny, always have since I was a kid. I wanted every recording I could get from Lenny because I love his passion, and even if a particular recording might not be one of the best of a particular work, it still holds value for me because Lenny's love of music still comes across to me.


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## starthrower

It is tempting to go for the box. Presto is selling it for 77 dollars. I'm lacking a couple of the Mahler symphonies and I missed out on the Sibelius bargain box. I'm also interested in listening to his Schumann, and Brahms cycles. And the other Nielsen's.


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## Itullian

I have his Brahms, Schumann and Sibelius on the Royal Edition issues,
They are all excellent.


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## flamencosketches

starthrower said:


> It is tempting to go for the box. Presto is selling it for 77 dollars. I'm lacking a couple of the Mahler symphonies and I missed out on the Sibelius bargain box. I'm also interested in listening to his Schumann, and Brahms cycles. And the other Nielsen's.


You need the Mahler cycle at least man... the Bernstein/NYPO Mahler changed my life  I like the 12CD on Sony, but if I had money I'd go for the big Bernstein Symphony Edition or whatever it's called.


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## starthrower

flamencosketches said:


> You need the Mahler cycle at least man... the Bernstein/NYPO Mahler changed my life  I like the 12CD on Sony, but if I had money I'd go for the big Bernstein Symphony Edition or whatever it's called.


I have all but nos. 2 & 8 on the Bernstein Century CDs. I probably won't get the big box even though it's a great deal. Sony will be milking the Bernstein cow forever so I'll wait and see if anymore smaller boxes get issued. I doubt I would spend much time listening to all of the Haydn, Mozart or Tchaikovsky symphonies. And I already have the Beethoven, William Schuman, and Bernstein discs.


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## Andy1

Hello. I own the complete Leonard Bernstein royal edition. I remember when it was released I was reading classic CD a British classic magazine. At that time I was looking to set up my classic CD list . I looked at mixing up my list or choose one conductor . At the early 90s the list of conductors with lots of recordings but high quality ( not to old) was limited to Karajan and Bernstein. Rattle was to new Solti did. more opera . Most other recordings being much older . So I bought the complete set from the Uk over a year . No internet shopping then . In matter of fact I lived in outback Australia. The cds went to a Sydney and then got mailed to me . All cds are good quality. All of the cds are over 60 minutes of music, often taken from originals which been released on vinyl on several albums. Some have new added recordings never released before. It said that the 100 cds ( many doubles some tripple ) complete the entire Sony recordings? I also own the DG complete recordings by Leonard Bernstein, but I prefer the royal edition. I highly recommended it . I think it is royal to me, the paintings from prince Charles are okay. There landscaping snd mostly match a bit to the album of music. I don’t mind them . Royal certainly sounds great . I really love my collection and happy I bought them .


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## Itullian

The Royal Edition sounds great to me.


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## Rogerx

Andy1 said:


> Hello. I own the complete Leonard Bernstein royal edition. I remember when it was released I was reading classic CD a British classic magazine. At that time I was looking to set up my classic CD list . I looked at mixing up my list or choose one conductor . At the early 90s the list of conductors with lots of recordings but high quality ( not to old) was limited to Karajan and Bernstein. Rattle was to new Solti did. more opera . Most other recordings being much older . So I bought the complete set from the Uk over a year . No internet shopping then . In matter of fact I lived in outback Australia. The cds went to a Sydney and then got mailed to me . All cds are good quality. All of the cds are over 60 minutes of music, often taken from originals which been released on vinyl on several albums. Some have new added recordings never released before. It said that the 100 cds ( many doubles some tripple ) complete the entire Sony recordings? I also own the DG complete recordings by Leonard Bernstein, but I prefer the royal edition. I highly recommended it . I think it is royal to me, the paintings from prince Charles are okay. There landscaping snd mostly match a bit to the album of music. I don't mind them . Royal certainly sounds great . I really love my collection and happy I bought them .


I have the later remasters any day of the week, the DG box is also fabulous.


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## Azol

Verdi's Requiem is one of the treasures of this edition.


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