Bernstein – An Appreciation

The most overused word in the orchestra business is “masterpiece.”  We throw it around so often that it has long since lost all meaning, and now most often serves as a code for “we promise you won’t be offended by this piece.”  That having been said …

I will never understand why more people do not consider Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony #2 “The Age of Anxiety” one of the true masterpieces of the 20th Century.  Last week I had the pleasure of introducing this piece to the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and our audience.  This time, though, I was out front, playing.

My favorite old photo of me was taken in January, 1989.  I was playing in the New World Symphony and the photo shows me in all my early 20’s geeky glory – emaciated thin, bad shave, and glasses that were the envy of any coke bottle.  What makes it special is the other guy in the photo.  Caught pontifically in the act of relaying a story both profound and utterly hilarious, Leonard Bernstein is gesticulating wildly and I’m grinning like a rabid baboon.

Later that night came two of the most memorable moments of my life.  MTT threw a party for Lenny and the orchestra which lives on in NWS history.  I was standing by the entrance to the pool area and Lenny waltzed in.  Someone handed him a large G&T , he looked around, then turned to me and said “My God, what a sexy orchestra!”   By early that morning there were only about 9 of us still conscious, and we were gathered around the piano listening to Lenny play Chopin preludes.  It was truly one of those amazing moments.

By the time Lenny died I was living in L.A. in the conducting program at USC, and I had been a conducting fellow at the LA Philharmonic Institute in the summer of ’90.  Shortly thereafter my friend Lynn Harrell asked me if I would conduct Bernstein’s “The Age of Anxiety” during the summer of 1991 in memory of Lenny, since Bernstein had been the founder of the Institute.  “Sure,” I said, without ever having heard the piece in my life.

Conducting “The Age of Anxiety” was a profound journey for me.  This is a large scale work which shows all of Bernstein’s magic.  Jazz, 12 tone, Broadway, Romanticism – it’s all in the Age.  The main problem is pacing, understanding how everything works together, and figuring out how to keep everything in control for 38 minutes. Not an easy task for a young conductor.  The first problem is to find a great pianist since “The Age of Anxiety” is a symphony for Solo Piano and Orchestra.

For my first performance of the Age I had Bryan Pezzone as my soloist.  Lynn and Ernest Fleishmann (head of the LA Phil at that time) hired him without knowing that we had been at Eastman together, knew each other well, and had studied with the same teacher.  Performing this piece with Bryan at the Institute remains one of my fondest memories, and it’s really the first piece that I conducted where I thought “I can do this.”  The second time I performed the Age it wasn’t as satisfying.  The irony was that it was with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in the late ’90s.  There were two problems, the first being that I didn’t really know the soloist and had a hard time making a connection with him.  The second problem was that I’m sure it was really a good enough conductor at that time to bring a piece like that to the CSO and really make it shine.  Cocky enough to try, for sure, but not enough experience.

Then there was last week.  Having conducted it twice I thought it was time to mix it up a little, so I scheduled myself as piano soloist and my Resident Conductor, Lucas Waldin, took the podium.  I had diligently worked the last 2 months on the solo part, and the more time I spent on it the deeper my appreciation for this piece became.  I had loved it from my first experiences with it, but to know it now as both conductor and soloist gave me a greater perspective of Lenny’s mastery.

The symphony was inspired by the poem of the same name by W.H. Auden.  Bernstein followed the structure of the poem closely, and he managed to distill a massive 60 page poem into this 38′ work.  The Seven Ages; The Seven Stages; The Dirge; The Masque; Epilogue – the words of Auden are reflected brilliantly in the music of Bernstein.  Now, not only could I appreciate the orchestration, I could also appreciate the solo part from a tactile level.  With Bernstein’s imagination and ability at the piano in little doubt, I was not surprised that I found that part to be extremely enjoyable and challenging.  Before last Friday there had only been two others who had played the piano part and conducted the work – Bernstein and his friend Lukas Foss.

Our audience certainly seemed to enjoy being introduced to this piece.  What was more satisfying to me was the reaction of the orchestra.  I had more musicians come up to me during the week and babble “Wow!!! What a great piece!  I didn’t know it before, but WOW!!”  That’s the reaction you want from your colleagues.  It means you have brought them a great piece and managed to convey a convincing argument for why it is great in your performance.

This is the Bernstein effect.  I think it’s only now that we can look back and really get a handle on the scope of Bernstein’s influence on music.  Composer, pianist, conductor, educator, media specialist, humanitarian, etc., etc. – what MTT is doing at the New World and in San Francisco would not be possible without Bernstein blazing the original trail.  What  Ensemble Modern or 8th Blackbird do would not be possible either.  Let alone half of what’s been on Broadway the last 60 years, Glee, and several generations of players and conductors from the USA and around the world who came under his influence, and I’ve barely scratched the surface.

It’s time to reassess Bernstein’s music.  It’s time for new generations of musicians and audiences to play and hear the distinctive voice of one of the most creative minds of the 20th Century.  It is time to admit, once and for all, the profound debt that today’s music owes to Leonard Bernstein.

It is also time for the world to admit – Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony #2 “The Age of Anxiety” is one of the great masterpieces of the 20th Century.