Bernstein's sabbatical psalms

Synopsis

In 1965, Leonard Bernstein took a sabbatical year from his duties as music director of the New York Philharmonic. In 1964, the busy Mr. Bernstein had just finished conducting Verdi’s opera Falstaff at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and in 1966, would make his debut at the Vienna State Opera, conducting the same work. But he reserved 1965 to concentrate on composing.

“In the course of that year, I had the luxury to do nothing but experiment,” Bernstein recalled. “And part of my experimentation was to try to write some pieces that, shall we say, were less old-fashioned. I wrote a lot of music, 12-tone music and avant-garde music of various kinds, and a lot of it was very good, but I threw it all away. What I came out with at the end of the year was a piece called Chichester Psalms, which is simple and tonal and as pure B-flat as any piece you can think of … because that was what I honestly wished to write.”

Bernstein conducted the premiere performance at Lincoln Center with the Camerata Singers and the New York Philharmonic on July 15th, 1965, and later in the month, traveled to Chichester Cathedral in England, which had commissioned the work in the first place, for the British premiere of his Chichester Psalms.

Music Played in Today's Program

Giuseppe Verdi (1913-1901): Act III excerpt, from Falstaff; soloists; Vienna Philharmonic; Leonard Bernstein, conductor; CBS/Sony 42535

Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990): Chichester Psalms; Camerata Singers; New York Philharmonic; Leonard Bernstein, conductor; CBS/Sony 47162

On This Day

Births

• 1921 - American composer Jack Beeson, in Muncie, Indiana

• 1934 - English composer Harrison Birtwistle, in Accrington, Lancashire

• 1949 - English composer John Casken, in Barnsley

Deaths

• 1789 - French composer and harpsichordist Jacques Duphly, 74, in Paris

• 1857 - Austrian composer and piano teacher Carl Czerny, 66, in Vienna

• 1959 - Swiss-born American composer Ernest Bloch, 78, in Portland, Oregon

Premieres

• 1852 - Spohr: opera Faust (second version in Italian), in London at Covent Garden

• 1942 - Villa-Lobos: Chôros Nos. 6, 9 and 11, in Rio de Janeiro, conducted by the composer

• 1945 - Antheil: Heroes of Today, by the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski conducting

• 1965 - Bernstein: Chichester Psalms at Philharmonic Hall (now Avery Fisher Hall) by the New York Philharmonic conducted by the composer, with The Camerata Singers and boy alto John Bogart. On July 31, 1965, Bernstein attended the U.K. premiere of thiswork (performed by a male-only choir) at Chichester Cathedral in England.

• 1988 - John Harbison: Piano Sonata No. 1 (In Memoriam Roger Sessions), at the Dorothy Taubman Piano Institute in Amherst, Massachusetts, by pianist Robert Shannon