Contemporary Classics October 2, 2018 - Celebration of Bernstein - Episode 3

Tonight is the third show dedicated to the music of Leonard Bernstein on the centenary of his birth.  To night we have both the sacred and the profane.  From the high mass to three sailors loose in New York City.  We are opening with his First Symphony, Jeremiah. Bernstein wrote the Jeremiah Symphony as an entry in a competition organized by the New England Conservatory.  It did not win but came to the attention of Fritz Reiner who ask Bernstein to premiere it with the Pittsburg Symphony Orchestra.  It was premiered on January 28, 1944 to great acclaim with Bernstein conducting and Jennie Tourel as the mezzo-soprano. Three weeks later, Bernstein conducted it with the Boston Symphony also to great acclaim. The remarkable success of Jeremiah came just a few months after Bernstein's legendary conducting debut with the New York Philharmonic as a substitute for Bruno Walter on November 14, 1943.

Symphony #1 Jeremiah is in 3 movements:  I. Prophecy II. Profanation III. Lamentation            The first two movements are instrumental and the third features a mezzo-soprano soloist, singing a Hebrew text from the anguished poems of Jeremiah's Book of Lamentations. While not as explicitly theatrical as his later symphonies, The Age of Anxiety and Kaddish, Jeremiah is clearly motivated by a strong dramatic impulse. As Bernstein described it in his program notes for the March 1944 New York Philharmonic performances:   "The intention is ... not one of literalness, but of emotional quality. Thus the first movement ('Prophecy') aims only to parallel in feeling the intensity of the prophet's pleas with his people; and the Scherzo ('Profanation') to give a general sense of the destruction and chaos brought on by the pagan corruption within the priesthood and the people. The third movement ('Lamentation'), being a setting of poetic text, is naturally a more literary conception. It is the cry of Jeremiah, as he mourns his beloved Jerusalem, ruined, pillaged and dishonored after his desperate efforts to save it."

Next in our celebration of Leonard Bernstein’s centenary we have Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms for Chorus and Orchestra. In early December 1963, Bernstein received a letter from the Very Reverend Walter Hussey, Dean of the Cathedral of Chichester in Sussex, England, requesting a piece for the Cathedral’s 1965 music festival.  Bernstein took a sabbatical from his post as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic to work on several composition projects including this one. Chichester Psalms juxtaposes vocal part writing most commonly associated with Church music (including homophony and imitation), with the Judaic liturgical tradition. Bernstein specifically called for the text to be sung in Hebrew using the melodic and rhythmic contours of the Hebrew language to dictate mood and melodic character. By combining the Hebrew with Christian choral tradition, Bernstein was implicitly issuing a plea for peace in Israel during a turbulent time in the young country’s history. Each of the three movements of Chichester Psalms contains one complete Psalm plus excerpts from another paired Psalm. Musically, the piece is jazzy and contemporary, yet accessible.

The first movement begins with a triumphal introductory phrase with text from Psalm 108 (“Awake, psaltery and harp!”) that draws on the interval of a minor seventh, a significant musical motive that returns in the final movement.  This dramatic introduction prompts a vigorous and bright, scherzo-like dance in 7/4 meter of Psalm 100 (“Make a joyful noise until the Lord”).   

A gentle and lyrical setting of Psalm 23 (“The Lord is my shepherd”) opens the second movement, featuring a boy soloist (eventually joined by soprano voices) with harp accompaniment, a musical evocation of King David, the shepherd-psalmist.  The bitter expression and agitated music of Psalm 2 (“Why do the nations rage”) interrupts this tranquility. At this, the most dramatic moment of the composition, the setting prominently features music cut from West Side Story. Though the upper voices return with the soloist’s song of faith, the tension of suppressed violence lingers throughout the rest of the movement.

The third and final movement is the longest of the piece; its opening section features a more dissonant and rigorous compositional style than the others. With a fiery and elegiac introduction played by the strings, the music recalls the minor seventh figure, the musical motive from the first movement. In a moment of consolation, the orchestra is abruptly hushed for a simple, unsentimental presentation of Psalm 131 (“Lord, Lord, my heart is not haughty”), a rocking lullaby in 10/4. Psalm 133 (“Behold how good”) comprises the coda material, predominantly in the style of a Lutheran chorale, significant for being the only moment in the entire composition for solo chorus, without instrumental accompaniment. Constructed from the work’s opening musical motive, the music and text combine in a visionary plea for reconciliation and unity throughout the world before concluding in a final Amen.

Wecome back to the second hour of this third show celebrating the centenary of Leonard Bernstein Birth.  We begin this hour with his Missa Brevis. The Missa Brevis by Leonard Bernstein is a musical setting of parts of the mass ordinary in Latin for a mixed a cappella choir with countertenor solo and percussion. Composed in 1988, it is also Bernstein's last complete choral work, due to his death a year after its completion in 1989.   It was composed to honor the retirement of Robert Shaw, music director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and was premiered by him  and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Atlanta Symphony Chorus in 1989.    

Next is the Leonard Bernstein’s Divertimento for Orchestra.   Leonard Bernstein composed Divertimento for Orchestra for the Boston Symphony Orchestra's centenary, dedicating the piece, "With affection to the Boston Symphony Orchestra in celebration of its First Centenary." Having served as assistant to BSO conductor Serge Koussevitzky at the Berkshire Music Center which is now Tanglewood Music Center, Bernstein wrote Divertimento with gratitude towards the symphony and his history with Boston - born in neighboring Lawrence, Massachusetts. graduate of The Boston Latin School, and graduate of Harvard University.   The piece is a series based on two notes, B for Boston and C for Centennial.   It is in 8 movements: I. Sennets & Tuckets: Allegro non troppo, ma con brio;          II. Waltz: Allegretto, con grazia; III. Mazurko: Mesto    IV. Samba: Allegro giusto;  V. Turkey Trot: Allegretto, ben misurato   VI. Sphinxes: Adagio lugubre   VII. Blues: Slow Blues Tempo  VIII. In Memoriam: March subtitled "The BSO Forever".           

A performance of La Bonne Cuisine (Four Recipes).  This work is based upon the cookbook by Emile Dumont's La Bonne Cuisine Française which was first published in 1899. "Plum Pudding," adapted by the composer from a larger recipe, Ox-Tails" is taken whole. "Tavouk Gueneksis," a Turkish delight, is also the complete recipe.  Two ingredients of the original recipe are missing from the musical setting of “Rabbit at Top Speed" - nutmeg" and “a glass of brandy"). During his lifetime, the volume sat on the Bernstein kitchen shelf along with other cookbooks.

We are closing this third show devoted to the Music of Leonard Bernstein with his Fancy Free Ballet. Leonard Bernstein and Jerome Robbins first collaborated in the mid-1940s on the instantly popular ballet Fancy Free, commissioned by American Ballet Theatre. First performed on April 18, 1944, this work, a piece about three sailors on shore-leave in New York City, served as inspiration for their next endeavor, the smash hit Broadway musical On The Town, which was a critical success and launched a long-lasting creative partnership between Bernstein and Robbins.

I hope you have enjoyed this episode of Contemporary Classics – our third devoted to the music of Leonard Bernstein.  Tune in next week when we have a special episode featuring a discussion with English composer Alicia Jane Turner.