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<em>Candide</em> Playbill, 1956
As a composer, Leonard Bernstein never felt constrained by expectations of genre. One of the few American composers to make meaningful contributions both in concert music and the Broadway theater, he forged his own path in terms of what type of composition he should write. Of Bernstein’s three symphonies, each was programmatic and also unusual in form and conception. The first, “Jeremiah” (1942), told the story of the ancient Hebrew prophet’s warnings about Israelites turning away from God, capped by a finale with a solo mezzo-soprano mournfully singing Jeremiah’s Lamentations. Symphony No. 2, “The Age of Anxiety” (1949), inspired by W. H. Auden’s introspective poem by the same name, followed the poem’s structure fairly closely, but with extensive writing for solo piano, making the piece closely resemble a piano concerto. “Kaddish” (1963), the third symphony, is like an oratorio, combining three settings of an important Jewish prayer with narrator, mezzo-soprano soloist, chorus, and orchestra, addressing nothing less than the relationship between God and humans and the threat of nuclear annihilation, among other issues.
Bernstein never really could decide whether he was a conductor, composer, pianist, or music educator, pursuing all of these careers while sometimes leaning more in one or two directions. In a letter to a friend from May 1955, Bernstein, then thirty-six, actually wrote: “Some day, preferably soon, I simply must decide what I’m going to be when I grow up.” For example, while directing the New York Philharmonic between 1958 and 1969 and also heavily involved with television activities, he wrote only the “Kaddish” Symphony and Chichester Psalms (1965). He completed no musical theater works during those eleven years. New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson spoke for the theatrical community in 1960 when he wrote: “Let’s not speculate on how many vibrant scores the Philharmonic has deprived us of. The thought is too melancholy.”2 Indeed, Bernstein’s forays into musical theater occurred irregularly. The success of the ballet Fancy Free in 1944 inspired turning its scenario into the musical On the Town, but Bernstein’s conducting mentor Serge Koussevitzky disliked his protégé writing popular music. Bernstein concentrated on conducting and composing concert works until the Russian conductor’s death in 1951, except for incidental music he wrote for a production...