Leonard Bernstein stated that the central conflict in nearly all his major works, including these symphonies, is the "struggle that is born of the crisis of our century, a crisis of faith."
Compositional Technique
The first movement of Symphony No. 1 'Jeremiah', titled 'Prophecy', avoids traditional sonata-allegro form and instead uses motivic development, based on a three-note cell, to generate its musical argument.
Critical Reception
Despite not winning a competition, Symphony No. 1 'Jeremiah' was well received at its premiere in Pittsburgh and went on to win the Music Critics Circle Award for 1943-44.
Compositional Technique
Symphony No. 2 'The Age of Anxiety' features a prominent concertante part for piano, leading some to consider it a piano concerto in all but name.
Performer Biography
Marin Alsop, the conductor on this recording, made history in 2007 as the first woman to head a major American orchestra when she became the music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
Composition History
Bernstein was so impressed by W.H. Auden's Pulitzer Prize-winning 'baroque eclogue' The Age of Anxiety that he immediately felt music singing to him and decided to compose a symphony paralleling its structure.
Composition History
Bernstein's Symphony No. 1 'Jeremiah' was originally conceived from a setting of text from the Lamentations of Jeremiah for mezzo-soprano and orchestra, which he later incorporated into the symphony.
