Overture Magazine: 2017-2018 Season FINAL_BSO_Overture_May_June | Page 33

BERNSTEIN AND SHOSTAKOVICH reader, and he was utterly captivated by Auden’s Pulitzer Prize-winning poem, which he discovered soon after its publication in 1947. “From that moment, the composition of a symphony… acquired an almost compulsive quality,” Bernstein remembered, “and I worked on it steadily… in Taos, in Philadelphia, in Richmond, Mass., in Tel Aviv, in planes, in hotel lobbies.” The orchestration was done in the midst of a tour with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, during which Bernstein conducted 25 concerts in 28 days. As was to happen throughout his life, the need to compose was already in conflict with the demands of his exploding conducting career. Bernstein based his hybrid work closely on the six-part format of the poem and its focus on the conversations of three men and a woman during a long, alcohol-fueled night in a wartime New York City bar. “The essential line of the poem (and of the music) is a record of our difficult search for faith. In the end, two of the characters enunciate the recognition of this faith… at the same time revealing an inability to relate to it in their daily lives, except through blind acceptance.” Bernstein explained that “the conception of a symphony with piano solo emerges from the personal identification of myself with the poem. In this sense, the pianist provides an autobiographical protagonist, set against an orchestral mirror.” Appropriately, Bernstein himself played the solo part at “Age of Anxiety”’s premiere performance on April 8, 1949 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by his mentor Serge Koussevitzky. “Age of Anxiety” is an extremely eclectic score in which Bernstein mingled influences from many composers he loved and frequently conducted: Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Britten, Brahms and Rachmaninoff (for the virtuosic keyboard flights). More personal were many borrowings from his own earlier scores, as well as the exhilarating piano jazz of the fifth movement, “The Masque,” based on his flair for improvising jazz at the keyboard. Here are Bernstein’s own descriptions of the Symphony’s six sections: Part I: “The Prologue finds four lonely characters, a girl and three men, in a Third Avenue bar, all of them insecure and trying, through drink, to detach themselves from their conflicts or, at best, to resolve them. They…begin a kind of symposium on the state of man. Musically, the Prologue is a very short section consisting of a lonely improvisation by two clarinets…followed by a long descending scale which acts as a bridge into the realm of the unconscious, where most of the poem takes place. “The Seven Ages. The life of man is reviewed from the four personal points of view. This is a series of variations, which differ from conventional variations in that they do not vary any one common theme. Each variation seizes upon some feature of the preceding one and develops it, introducing…some counter-features upon which the next variation seizes.… “The Seven Stages. The variation form continues for another set of seven, in which the characters go on an inner symbolic journey…leading back to a point of comfort and security. The four try every means…exchanging partners, and always missing the objective. When they awaken from this dream-odyssey, they are closely united through a common experience (and through alcohol) and begin to function as one organism. This set of variations begins to show activity and drive and leads to a hectic, though inconclusive, close.” Part II: “The Dirge is sung by the four as they sit in a cab en route to the girl’s apartment for a nightcap. They mourn the loss of the ‘colossal Dad,’ the great leader who can always give the right orders, find the right solution, shoulder the mass responsibility and satisfy the universal need for a father-symbol. This section employs, in a harmonic way, a twelve-tone row out of which the main theme evolves. There is a contrasting middle section of almost Brahmsian romanticism, in which can be felt the self-indulgent aspect of this strangely pompous lamentation. “The Masque finds the group in the girl’s apartment, weary, guilty, determined to have a party, each one afraid of spoiling the STUDY PARTICIPANTS NEEDED Study on Genetics and Facial, Jaw, & Headache Pain YOU MAY QUALIFY IF: • You are 18 – 65 years of age • You speak and understand English • You are healthy OR have recently had headaches or pain in your face or jaw Compensation for participation and parking vouchers are provided Contact Dr. Colloca’s Lab at [email protected] or at 410 -706 -5975 RE: O T S O E BS TH t gifts • Grea lry ul jewe f i t u a e • B ’s a Alsop ography r t s e a • M te disc en comple r childr o f s k o c bo • Musi e! ch mor u m d n • A Contact us at 410.783.8160 or [email protected] M AY–J U N 2018 / OV E R T U R E 31