Contemporary Classics March 6, 2018 Celebrating Bernstein

This episode of Contemporary Classics is devoted to the memory and works of Leonard Bernstein.  2018 is the centennial of the birth of Leonard Bernstein so we will be doing several tributes to Bernstein throughout the year.

Leonard Bernstein's Symphony No. 2 The Age of Anxiety is a piece for orchestra and solo piano. The piece was composed completed in 1949, and revised in 1965. It is titled after W. H. Auden's poem of the same name, and dedicated to Serge Koussevitzky. The work was premiered on April 8, 1949, with Serge Koussevitzky conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Bernstein at the piano. Structurally, there are two parts, each comprising three sections. Each movement is named after the six sections of Auden's poem, trying to mirror the moods and events in the poem.  Part One is comprised of The Prologue, The Seven Ages (variations 1-7) and the Seven Stages (variations 8-14).  Part Two is comprised of The Masque, The Dirge and The Epilogue

Chichester Psalms is a choral work by Leonard Bernstein for boy treble or countertenor, solo quartet, choir and orchestra (3 trumpets in B♭, 3 trombones, timpani, percussion [5 players], 2 harps, and strings). The text was arranged by Bernstein from the psalms in the original Hebrew. Part 1 uses Psalms 100 and 108, Part 2 uses 2 and 23 and Part 3 uses 131 and 133.   The work is sung in Hebrew.  The work was commissioned for the 1965 Southern Cathedrals Festival at Chichester Cathedral by the cathedral's organist, John Birch, and the Dean, Walter Hussey. However, the world premiere took place in the Philharmonic Hall, New York on July 15, 1965 with the composer conducting, followed by the performance in the Chichester Festival on July 31, conducted by John Birch.

Leonard Bernstein's Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, written during 1941-42 and published in 1942, was Bernstein's first published piece.  It is dedicated to clarinetist David Oppenheim, whom Bernstein met while studying conducting with Serge Koussevitzky at Tanglewood during the summers of 1940 and 1941. The piece is about ten minutes in length and consists of two consecutive movements. The first movement is a lyrical grazioso, opening with a musical line reminiscent of Hindemith. The second movement begins andantino (time signature 3/8) and moves into a fast Vivace a leggiero after a tranquil opening.

The Serenade, after Plato: Symposium, for solo violin, strings and percussion is a five-movement concerto written by Leonard Bernstein in 1954. For the Serenade the composer draws inspiration from Plato's Symposium, a dialogue of related statements in praise of love, each statement made by a distinguished speaker. The seven speakers who inspired Bernstein's five movements are:

    I. Phaedrus: Pausanias—marked lento and allegro

    II. Aristophanes—marked allegretto

    III. Eryximachus, the doctor—marked presto

    IV. Agathon—marked adagio

    V. Socrates: Alcibiades—marked molto tenuto and allegro molto vivace

Commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation, the Serenade was dedicated to Serge and Natalie Koussevitzky. The premiere was conducted by Bernstein himself on September 12, 1954, in La Fenice (Venice), with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and Isaac Stern.

Bernstein distilled the essence of On the Town, which was centered around dance, into a compact concert suite. The first episode ("The Great Lover Displays Himself") occurs as part of a dream sequence in which the sailor Gabey indulges in a fantasy about his ideal woman inspired by a subway poster ("Miss Turnstiles"). This brief, snappy number, with its prominent trombone part, gives a flavor of Bernstein's idiosyncratic approach to jazz idioms, spiced with a touch or two of Stravinsky.

Gabey's romantic side comes to the fore in the bluesy shades of "Lonely Town" as he despairs of finding his true love in the anonymous, cold-hearted city. It's a great example of a basic dualism found in much of Bernstein's music: Complex passages of nervous energy are typically set against disarmingly spellbinding melodies that evoke a lost American innocence. In the final episode ("Times Square: 1944")-from the finale to the musical's first act Bernstein spells out the infectious tune subliminally heard in the first episode: "New York, New York," the signature hit of On the Town. A brilliant series of variations on the tune's up-and-down shape sound out a metaphor for the untiring, sexy energy of the American city.

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Bernstein’s Overture to Candide had its first concert performance on January 26, 1957, by the New York Philharmonic with Bernstein conducting.  It quickly became popular and was performed by nearly 100 other orchestras within the next two years. Since that time, it has become one of the most frequently performed orchestral compositions by a 20th century American composer; in 1987, it was the most often performed piece of concert music by Bernstein.   The overture incorporates tunes from the songs "The Best of All Possible Worlds", "Battle Music", "Oh, Happy We", and "Glitter and Be Gay" and melodies composed specifically for the overture. Much of the music is written in time signatures such as 6/4 and 3/2, which are often combined with 4/4 and 2/2 to make effective 5/2s and 7/2s in places by rapid, regular switching between them and 3/2.   While many orchestrations of the overture exist, in its current incarnation for full symphony orchestra, which incorporates changes made by Bernstein during performances in December 1989.