This is another of my Joshua Bell favorites, along with his CD of Gershwin melodies. I love the "West Side Story Suite," containing at least snatches of all the best music from the great Broadway play and film. Then the selections from "New York, New York" and Candide are very fine, too. It's especially fun to hear Joshua playing the title song from "New York, New York" since he lives there and has for many years. His affection for the city comes through, though he also chose to play "Lonely Town" from the same musical. I had some trouble understanding the "Serenade" after Plato's Symposium until my mind went back to my college days when I read Plato's dialogues for philosophy classes. Each of these serenades is a dialogue between one voice and another. Seen that way, they make a great deal of sense. Thanks, Josh, for the little philosophy lesson.

Soundtrack music, when arranged into an instrumental stand-alone usually ends up sounding ordinary. Some arrangements likewise simply ride on the familiarity and catchiness of the original scoring without infusing anything new. But "West Side Story Suite" piece is nothing like that. You wouldn't dismiss it as just a tribute thing, recorded just for reminiscing purposes, but a work of art of its own.