The Chichester Psalms were commissioned by Walter Hussey, Dean of Chichester Cathedral, for a summer music festival in England, coinciding with a rare quiet period in Bernstein's life.
Performer Biography
Marin Alsop, the conductor on this album, was a pupil of Leonard Bernstein at Tanglewood and became the first woman to hold the title of Principal Conductor for a British symphony orchestra with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
Compositional Technique
Bernstein's Chichester Psalms sets complete and partial psalms in Hebrew, featuring a dancing 7/4 meter for Psalm 100 and incorporating reworked material from his aborted musical, The Skin of Our Teeth.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Bernstein proudly called his Chichester Psalms "the most B-flat majorish tonal piece I've ever written," believing that in his work, tonality equals optimism.
Recording & Production
This recording was made at Lighthouse, Poole Centre for the Arts, U.K., in April 2003, and was recorded and edited at 192kHz, 24-bit resolution.
Cultural Impact
Bernstein's musical On the Town was groundbreaking, being the first American musical by a symphonic composer, the first bought by a film company, and the first on Broadway to feature white and black dancers together.
Composer Biography
Leonard Bernstein was a prodigious American musician who excelled as a conductor, performer, teacher, and composer, defying musical categories across various mediums.
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