TuneUp!New York Philharmonic Young People’s Concert®Saturday,October 18th,2008

BERNSTEIN “The Great Lover” from On the TownCOPLAND “Skyline” from Music for a Great City (excerpt)GERSHWIN “I Got Rhythm” from Girl CrazyBERNSTEIN “America” from West Side Story Suite No. 2COPLAND Fanfare for the Common ManBERNSTEIN On the Waterfront Symphonic Suite (excerpt)SEBASTIAN CURRIER “quickchange” from MicrosymphBERNSTEIN Overture to Candide

Jamie Bernste in , hostDelta Dav id Gier, conductorTom Dulack, scriptwriter and director

T H E P R O G R A M :

W elcome to a new season of Young People’s Concerts!Throughout history, there have been special times when music flowered in specific cities—Capitals of Music—that for a whilebecame the center of the musical world. Much of the music we know today comes from these times and places. But howdid these great flowerings of music happen? That’s what we’ll find out this year as we discover the distinctive sounds of four

of these Capitals. And where better to start than right here in New York? After the Second World War, our city became a cultural capital of theworld. Leonard Bernstein—who became Music Director of the New York Philharmonic 50 years ago this fall—defined music in New York in his

roles as composer, conductor, and teacher. So what was it like in New Yorkback then? Let’s find out from a child of that time—Leonard Bernstein’sdaughter Jamie!BERNSTEIN’S NEW YORK

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CAN YOU IDENTIFY EVERYTHING IN AND AROUND LEONARD BERNSTEIN’S NEW YORK STUDIO? LOOK ON THE BACK PAGE TO SEE WHETHER YOU’RE RIGHT.

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TuneUp!

Conductor, pianist, composer, author, and educator, Leonard Bernstein was only 25 years old when he rocketed to world fame in 1943 as a last-minute substitute conductor of a New York Philharmonicbroadcast. Fifteen years later, he would become music director of the Philharmonic. Bernstein was

greatly admired for his diverse musical talents: he composed hit Broadway shows as well as symphonies andconcertos; he conducted the world’s best orchestras and recorded more music than any conductor before orsince; and he opened up the world of music for adults and kids through television—then a new medium—in avariety of programs including the Young People’s Concerts. Bernstein brought astounding talent and passion toeverything he did. Although he died in 1990, people all over the world still miss him. This year, our whole city iscelebrating Leonard Bernstein’s 90th birthday and the 50th anniversary of his New York Philharmonic directorship.

about the composers and their music…

Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990)

Audiences at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1944 were so wildabout Bernstein and Jerome Robbins’s new ballet, Fancy Free,the composer and choreographer were inspired to develop the

ballet into a Broadway musical, On the Town. Three sailors have 24hours to explore New York City—the musical portrays their fancifuladventures set against the backdrop of World War II. “The Great Lover,”one of three orchestral episodes from the show, is about the romanticdreams of one of the sailors, Gabey, who falls for a picture of “MissTurnstile of the Month” on display in a subway station and decides tosearch for her. If you had only one day and one night to spend in NewYork City, what would you choose to do?

W inner of eight Oscars in 1954, including Best Picture, On theWaterfront is the story of a dock worker’s fight againstcorruption on and around the docks of New York. Filmed in

Hoboken, New Jersey, and starring Marlon Brando, On the Waterfrontportrays the gritty side of life in a big city, including crime, poverty, andhomelessness, and the difference a brave, honest person can make.Bernstein composed the music after the film was already complete. Heneeded to create music that would set the mood for the movie and notinterfere with the actors’ lines or actions. After he finished the score,Bernstein admitted it was some of the hardest work he ever had to do!Then next year, he arranged the music from the film into a concert suitethat conveys the whole story in sound alone. Can you hear what theNew York waterfront was like in 1955?

Based on a book written in 1758 by the French writer Voltaire,Bernstein’s musical Candide tells the story of two lovers—Candide and Cunegonde—who travel the world looking for each

other. They encounter one piece of bad luck after another and try tofigure out what it all means. While Candide premiered on Broadway in1956, it was inspired by both the classical and musical theater worldsand the work has been successfully adapted to the opera stage. TheOverture to Candide reflects the optimism of the title character who,despite all his troubles, always keeps a positive attitude. The Overturewas given its concert premiere by the New York Philharmonic in 1957and was instantly popular: nearly 100 orchestras performed the workwithin two years! What do you think it would be like to play a piece withthe composer conducting?

West Side Story—a musical retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeoand Juliet—is set on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, whereAvery Fisher Hall stands today. The musical portrays young

love set against the cultural and ethnic differences of two rival gangs: theAmerican Jets and Puerto Rican Sharks. Bernstein reflects the culturaldiversity in the story through a fusion of Latin-beat dances and jazzmusic, making West Side Story an important milestone in Americanmusical theater. “America” is a clever musical conversation between twoof the Sharks girls about the differences between Puerto Rico andAmerica. Listen to how Bernstein plays with the rhythm by mixing up themeter—first two beats, then three—always keeping listeners on their toes!

“The Great Lover” from On the Town (1944)

On the Waterfront Symphonic Suite (excerpt) (1955) Overture to Candide (1956)

“America” from West Side Story (1957)

One of America’s great artists, Brooklyn-born Aaron Copland earned the title “Dean of American Composers” forhis influence on generations of American composers and his ability to create sounds that evoke the beauty of theAmerican landscape. Copland skillfully combined American folk themes with modern composition techniques,

such as polyrhythms (the simultaneous sounding of two or more rhythms), percussive orchestration, and harsh harmonies.In this way, he achieved a distinct American style of composition. Copland’s last public appearance was at an AaronCopland Day celebration at Tanglewood where his close friend, Leonard Bernstein, conducted his Third Symphony.

Aaron Copland (1900-1990)

“Skyline” from Music for a Great City (excerpt) (1964) Fanfare for the Common Man (1942)

While many of Copland’s works evoke Americana—from thevastness of the prairies to the quaintness of homespunAmerica—Music for a Great City explores the modernity and

energy of his beloved cosmopolitan New York. Athough Coplandoriginally intended to call it Music for New York, he changed the titlesince the work was commissioned by the London SymphonyOrchestra. In this four-movement descriptive symphony, Coplandalternates between a big-city buzz and softer moments of personalreflection on the urban experience. “Skyline” opens the work with apercussion solo that gives way to a jazzy theme in the brass, piano,and pizzicato strings.

O ne of the most recognizable works in 20th centuryAmerican classical music, Fanfare for the Common Manwas one of many fanfares commissioned by the

Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra to help generate a patriotic spiritduring World War II. Copland’s work, the most memorable of thecommissions, was so successful that the composer worked thetheme into his Third Symphony. Fanfare has been performed bymany popular artists, including the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan.It is orchestrated for brass and percussion.

Born in Brooklyn, Gershwin was a composer who, likeBernstein a generation later, led a double life writingfor both Broadway and the concert hall. Gershwin

often worked in collaboration with his elder brother Ira writinglyrics. Together they gave a musical voice to the 1920s and30s, now referred to as the “Jazz Age.” Many of their songshave endured as jazz standards sung by great artists like EllaFitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, and Louis Armstrong.

George Gershwin was also a virtuoso pianist and even gave the premiereperformance of one of his works with the New York Philharmonic.

George Gershwin (1898-1937) “I Got Rhythm” from Girl Crazy (1930)

O riginally written as a slow song for Gershwin’s musicalTreasure Girl, “I Got Rhythm” became popular in its new,faster setting in Broadway’s Girl Crazy, sung by the

legendary Ethel Merman. But perhaps the song is best knowntoday from the 1951 musical film An American in Paris, sungand danced by Gene Kelly. With its infectious syncopations andclever harmonies, “I Got Rhythm” became a standard for jazzartists from Charlie Parker to Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonius Monk,who all used variations of the “I Got Rhythm” harmonic changesfor their improvisations. Imagine a song that can stay so popularfor so long!

American composer Sebastian Currier—who won theworld’s largest prize for composition, the GrawemeyerAward, in 2007—lives in New York but travels all over

the world for performances of his music. Currier grew up inRhode Island but moved to New York to study music at TheJuilliard School and Manhattan School of Music. He went onto teach at Juilliard and also at Columbia University. Great

performers and orchestras like violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, the Berlin Philharmonic,and the San Francisco Symphony play his music. In addition to traditionalinstrumentation, Currier also writes works that involve electronic media and video.

Sebastian Currier (b.1959) “quickchange” from Microsymph (1997)

T he composer explains that Microsymph is a largescale five-movement symphony that has been squeezed into only tenminutes. The result is a frantically paced, restless, quick-

changing kaleidoscope of sounds and colors, built from a whirl ofdiverse materials. Currier modernizes traditional 18th centuryClassical era music forms, such as sonata form, the waltz, andthe scherzo. In “quickchange,” sonata form is highly compressedso one musical idea races to the next. Microsymph wascommissioned by the American Composers Orchestra andpremiered at Carnegie Hall. Listen to how the New York soundhas changed since Bernstein’s time!

The New York Philharmonic is by far the oldest symphonyorchestra in the United States, and one of the oldest in theworld. It was founded in 1842 by a group of local musicians,

and currently plays about 180 concerts every year. On December18, 2004, the Philharmonic gave its 14,000th concert — a recordthat no other symphony orchestra in the world has ever reached. TheOrchestra currently has 106 members. It performs mostly at AveryFisher Hall, at Lincoln Center, but also tours around the world. TheOrchestra’s first concerts specifically for a younger audience wereorganized by Theodore Thomas for the 1885–86 season, with aseries of 24 “Young People’s Matinees.” The programs were

developed further by conductor Josef Stransky, who led the first Young People’s Concert in January of 1914. The YoungPeople’s Concerts were brought to national attention in 1924 by “Uncle Ernest” Schelling, and were made famous byLeonard Bernstein in the 1960s with live television broadcasts.

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Delta David Gieris music director ofthe South Dakota

Symphony Orchestra,and has been a coverconductor of the New YorkPhilharmonic for the past

10 seasons. He first conducted the Philharmonicin 2000, during the Concerts in the Parks. Aftercompleting his studies, he was invited byRiccardo Muti to spend a year as an apprenticeat The Philadelphia Orchestra. As a FulbrightScholar, he has led many performances inEastern Europe. Mr. Gier has served as visitingprofessor at the Yale School of Music, the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, SanFrancisco Conservatory, and SUNY–Stony Brook.

Delta David Gier

Jamie Bernstein is a narrator, writer,and broadcaster living in New YorkCity. She has created countless

concert and media programs tocommunicate the excitement of classicalmusic. In addition to “The BernsteinBeat,” a family concert about her father,

she has also written and narrated family concerts aboutMozart and Aaron Copland, among others. Ms. Bernsteinalso performs standard concert narrations, such asCopland’s A Lincoln Portrait and her father’s Symphony No.3, Kaddish. She also produces and hosts numerous radioshows in the United States and in Great Britain, includinglive broadcasts from Tanglewood each summer. Ms.Bernstein’s articles and poetry have appeared in suchpublications as Symphony, DoubleTake, Town & Country andGourmet.

Jamie Bernstein

The New York Philharmonic

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Adam Alexander,baritone

Carla Wesby,soprano

Erin Michelle Kemp,mezzo-soprano

Margarita Martinez,mezzo-soprano

Lara Stevens,mezzo-soprano

Lori Engle,soprano

The Young People’s Concerts® and Kidzone Live! are made possible with generous support from the The Theodore H. Barth Foundation.

Tune Up! is made possible by an endowment in the name of Lillian Butler Davey.

MetLife Foundation is the Lead Corporate Underwriter for the New York Philharmonic’s Education Programs.

RAVEL’S PARIS Saturday, November 22, 2008

MOZART’S VIENNA Saturday, March 28, 2009

MUSSORGSKY’S ST. PETERSBURG Saturday, May 2, 2009

What’s coming up at the Young People’s Concerts?

ACROSS2. From 1957 to 1969, Leonard Bernstein wasMusic Director of the oldest orchestra in theUnited States. This orchestra is called the“New York __________.”4. Leonard Bernstein composed for only oneHollywood film, called On the __________.5. Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story is seton which side of Manhattan? (Two words)6. In which New York borough were GeorgeGershwin and Aaron Copland born?10. The name of George Gershwin’s first majorclassical work is called Rhapsody in _____. (Hint: It’s not red or green, but… ?)11. Which good friend of Leonard Bernstein’scomposed works such as Fanfare for theCommon Man and Music for a Great City?12. New York is called the “_____” State.

BERNSTEIN’S NEW YORK CROSSWORD PUZZLE

SO WHAT’S IN AND AROUND BERNSTEIN’S NEW YORK STUDIO?

1. The cover of a recording of West Side Story, conducted by Leonard Bernstein.2. Times Square as it looked in George Gershwin’s time.

3. The Statue of Liberty, of course!4. Leonard Bernstein surrounded by children at one of the Young People’s Concerts—on a 1950s TV.

5. Aaron Copland—teacher, friend, and inspiration to Leonard Bernstein.

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DOWN1. On what Shakespeare play is West Side Story based? (Hint: Oh ____, oh ____, where for art thou ____?) (Three words)3. In which famous Manhattan park does the New York Philharmonic perform free concerts every summer? (Two words)7. Aaron Copland’s work Music for a Great City was originally titled Music for _____ ______. (Two words)8. What is the name of New York’s longest river?9. The name of the street that runs along the north side of Lincoln Center is called “Leonard Bernstein _______.”

To check your answers, go to nyphilkids.org/ypc10182008

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