The Story of Leonard Bernstein's “Music for String Quartet"
In 1936, while a student at Harvard University, Leonard Bernstein composed his "Music for String Quartet." Around that time, he was introduced to our father, Stanley Benson, and the other players in the New England String Quartet who were looking for a fine pianist to play quintets with them in a series of concerts. Bernstein was invited to be their guest pianist, and programs for at least three concerts during the summer of 1938 say the quartet was "assisted by Leonard Bernstein." Two of four musicians, our father and Karl Zeise, went on to become members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. At some point, Bernstein asked the quartet to play through his string quartet composition at a rehearsal and then wanted to know what they thought of the piece-they said they liked it. After the rehearsal, Bernstein asked Stanley if he would like to keep the music, which of course he said he would. The manuscript was handwritten, with each part signed by Bernstein. Stanley later gave the music to our mother, Clara Stagliano Benson, also a violinist, who played it occasionally at home with her own quartet. Our parents and Bernstein remained friends throughout their lives, in Boston, New York, and Tanglewood. Clara kept the manuscript in the family music cabinet for many years. One day while driving to Tanglewood, she told Lisa about the Bernstein String Quartet that she had saved all those years. This surprise to Lisa. While talking about it, they began to realize what a hidden gem it was. At a BSO retirement party at Blantyre one Sunday afternoon, Clara and Lisa told their friend, Boston Symphony Orchestra Music Librarian John Perkel, about the manuscript. He was very surprised to learn that a string quartet composed by Leonard Bernstein existed. After consulting with many music experts and dealers, Clara finally sold the manuscript in a confidential sale. We kept a copy of the music hoping that it would be played so music lovers everywhere could hear it. Now, thanks to the Bernstein family, tonight's audience finally has that chance.
Lisa Benson Pickett and Peter W. Benson Benson family musical tradition continued, as Peter and Lisa both studied with members of the Boston Symphony and played in orchestras. Lisa became a music teacher, and Peter went into business.
In 1936, while a student at Harvard University, Leonard Bernstein composed his "Music for String Quartet." Around that time, he was introduced to our father, Stanley Benson, and the other players in the New England String Quartet who were looking for a fine pianist to play quintets with them in a series of concerts. Bernstein was invited to be their guest pianist, and programs for at least three concerts during the summer of 1938 say the quartet was "assisted by Leonard Bernstein." Two of four musicians, our father and Karl Zeise, went on to become members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. At some point, Bernstein asked the quartet to play through his string quartet composition at a rehearsal and then wanted to know what they thought of the piece-they said they liked it. After the rehearsal, Bernstein asked Stanley if he would like to keep the music, which of course he said he would. The manuscript was handwritten, with each part signed by Bernstein. Stanley later gave the music to our mother, Clara Stagliano Benson, also a violinist, who played it occasionally at home with her own quartet. Our parents and Bernstein remained friends throughout their lives, in Boston, New York, and Tanglewood. Clara kept the manuscript in the family music cabinet for many years. One day while driving to Tanglewood, she told Lisa about the Bernstein String Quartet that she had saved all those years. This surprise to Lisa. While talking about it, they began to realize what a hidden gem it was. At a BSO retirement party at Blantyre one Sunday afternoon, Clara and Lisa told their friend, Boston Symphony Orchestra Music Librarian John Perkel, about the manuscript. He was very surprised to learn that a string quartet composed by Leonard Bernstein existed. After consulting with many music experts and dealers, Clara finally sold the manuscript in a confidential sale. We kept a copy of the music hoping that it would be played so music lovers everywhere could hear it. Now, thanks to the Bernstein family, tonight's audience finally has that chance.
Lisa Benson Pickett and Peter W. Benson Benson family musical tradition continued, as Peter and Lisa both studied with members of the Boston Symphony and played in orchestras. Lisa became a music teacher, and Peter went into business.
Dear Vladimir,
We want to thank you and your great musicians very much for coming to Maryland and playing at our concert.
You were outstanding and wonderful to work with. Everyone enjoyed the music and your performance very much.
- Lisa P.
I have heard nothing but laudatory comments about our talented performers and the outstanding performance they delivered. You all are amazing.
- Ronald T.
LEONARD BERNSTEIN
Leonard Bernstein was born in 1918 in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He took piano lessons as a boy and attended the Garrison and Boston Latin Schools. Before graduating from Harvard in 1939, he made an unofficial conducting debut with his own incidental music to "The Birds." Unknown to the world at large, in 1936 he also composed "Music for String Quartet." After Harvard, he piano, composition, and conducting at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. In 1940, he participated in the inaugural summer season of the Boston Symphony Orchestra's new Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood, with the orchestra's conductor, Serge Koussevitzky. After Koussevitzky died in 1951, Bernstein headed the orchestral and conducting departments at Tanglewood, teaching there for many years. Bernstein was appointed to his first conducting post in 1943, as assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic. On November 14, 1943, Bernstein substituted on a few hours' notice at a Carnegie Hall concert, which was broadcast nationally on radio, receiving critical acclaim. Soon orchestras worldwide sought him out as a guest conductor. In 1951 he married the Chilean actress and pianist Felicia Montealegre. They had three children: Jamie, Alexander, and Nina. Bernstein became music director of the New York Philhamonic in 1958. From then until 1969, he led more concerts with the orchestra than any previous conductor. Bernstein also traveled the world as a conductor and a pianist, working with many of the world's great orchestras and at major opera houses. In addition to three symphonies, Bernstein wrote numerous pieces of chamber music and choral and theatrical works. Among the general public, he is probably best-known as the composer of the music for the landmark 1957 Broadway musical West Side Story, also made into an Academy Award-winning film. His extraordinary Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic began in Throughout his career, Bernstein was a major fixture at Tanglewood, where his master classes for aspiring conductors were famous. last concerts were with the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra in August 1990. He died two months later, on October 14.
Notes by John Perkel
Leonard Bernstein was born in 1918 in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He took piano lessons as a boy and attended the Garrison and Boston Latin Schools. Before graduating from Harvard in 1939, he made an unofficial conducting debut with his own incidental music to "The Birds." Unknown to the world at large, in 1936 he also composed "Music for String Quartet." After Harvard, he piano, composition, and conducting at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. In 1940, he participated in the inaugural summer season of the Boston Symphony Orchestra's new Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood, with the orchestra's conductor, Serge Koussevitzky. After Koussevitzky died in 1951, Bernstein headed the orchestral and conducting departments at Tanglewood, teaching there for many years. Bernstein was appointed to his first conducting post in 1943, as assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic. On November 14, 1943, Bernstein substituted on a few hours' notice at a Carnegie Hall concert, which was broadcast nationally on radio, receiving critical acclaim. Soon orchestras worldwide sought him out as a guest conductor. In 1951 he married the Chilean actress and pianist Felicia Montealegre. They had three children: Jamie, Alexander, and Nina. Bernstein became music director of the New York Philhamonic in 1958. From then until 1969, he led more concerts with the orchestra than any previous conductor. Bernstein also traveled the world as a conductor and a pianist, working with many of the world's great orchestras and at major opera houses. In addition to three symphonies, Bernstein wrote numerous pieces of chamber music and choral and theatrical works. Among the general public, he is probably best-known as the composer of the music for the landmark 1957 Broadway musical West Side Story, also made into an Academy Award-winning film. His extraordinary Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic began in Throughout his career, Bernstein was a major fixture at Tanglewood, where his master classes for aspiring conductors were famous. last concerts were with the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra in August 1990. He died two months later, on October 14.
Notes by John Perkel
An Editorial Note Leonard Bernstein's "Music for String Quartet"
In January 1982, when Leonard Bernstein began to write his final theater work, A Quiet Place, I also embarked on a new endeavor: the job of Bernstein's personal assistant Every morning he handed me sheaves of freshly written music manuscript from which I made a keyboard reduction so that pianists and singers could rehearse this new opera. To the untrained eye, his scribbles looked like mindless chaos, but in no time, I learned to make of it all. Now, almost forty years later, I have had the opportunity to edit what might be Bernstein's earliest surviving manuscript: the individual parts for his "Music for String Quartet." Eighteen years old in 1936, Leonard Bernstein was a precocious pianist but a fledgling composer. He played chamber music and attended a variety of concerts, but from the look of his hand-copied string parts, instrumental pages from which musicians bring a performance to life. Those pages from 1936 appear careless, but I wonder how much he simply didn't know back then about musical notation. He positioned dynamics wherever they fit, mostly above the staff (standard practice is below the staff, except in vocal music). Slurs curve hardly at all and crash into triplet brackets. Accents don't always match from one instrument to another in otherwise identical phrases. At one point, he changed the meter in the first violin, but in the other instruments, that change appears a bar later. How could anyone rehearse from this unruly mess? Later, Bernstein learned much from his mentors, notably Aaron Copland, who once critiqued Bernstein's copying skills in a severely admonishing letter (now in the Library of Congress): for a two-piano arrangement, young man, at least use the right paper! But even at age eighteen, never mind his loose handwriting or whatever rush he was in, Bernstein notated wholly what his music required; all the vital details are there, just as they were decades later in his final opera. In his music, Bernstein always committed himself completely. His untutored manuscripts of 1936 display one more striking feature: a big florid "B" anchors his name on each part's first page. That bold capital emblazoned his signature his entire life. Charlie Harmon, 2020 Harmon, a music editor and arranger, was Leonard Bernstein's personnal assistant and archivist Bernstein's later years, Harmon is the anthor of On the Road and Off the Road, with Leonard Bernstein: My Years with the Exasperating Genius (2018).
In January 1982, when Leonard Bernstein began to write his final theater work, A Quiet Place, I also embarked on a new endeavor: the job of Bernstein's personal assistant Every morning he handed me sheaves of freshly written music manuscript from which I made a keyboard reduction so that pianists and singers could rehearse this new opera. To the untrained eye, his scribbles looked like mindless chaos, but in no time, I learned to make of it all. Now, almost forty years later, I have had the opportunity to edit what might be Bernstein's earliest surviving manuscript: the individual parts for his "Music for String Quartet." Eighteen years old in 1936, Leonard Bernstein was a precocious pianist but a fledgling composer. He played chamber music and attended a variety of concerts, but from the look of his hand-copied string parts, instrumental pages from which musicians bring a performance to life. Those pages from 1936 appear careless, but I wonder how much he simply didn't know back then about musical notation. He positioned dynamics wherever they fit, mostly above the staff (standard practice is below the staff, except in vocal music). Slurs curve hardly at all and crash into triplet brackets. Accents don't always match from one instrument to another in otherwise identical phrases. At one point, he changed the meter in the first violin, but in the other instruments, that change appears a bar later. How could anyone rehearse from this unruly mess? Later, Bernstein learned much from his mentors, notably Aaron Copland, who once critiqued Bernstein's copying skills in a severely admonishing letter (now in the Library of Congress): for a two-piano arrangement, young man, at least use the right paper! But even at age eighteen, never mind his loose handwriting or whatever rush he was in, Bernstein notated wholly what his music required; all the vital details are there, just as they were decades later in his final opera. In his music, Bernstein always committed himself completely. His untutored manuscripts of 1936 display one more striking feature: a big florid "B" anchors his name on each part's first page. That bold capital emblazoned his signature his entire life. Charlie Harmon, 2020 Harmon, a music editor and arranger, was Leonard Bernstein's personnal assistant and archivist Bernstein's later years, Harmon is the anthor of On the Road and Off the Road, with Leonard Bernstein: My Years with the Exasperating Genius (2018).
PROGRAM NOTES
BERNSTEIN - Trio for Violin, Cello, and Piano Leonard Bernstein composed his piano trio in 1937 (one year after he wrote his "Music for String Quartet") while a student at Harvard. The piano trio was one of his first compositions to be published. The three-movement work starts with a rather lyrical duo between violin and cello, followed by a piano solo, and then all three voices join together in a flamboyant, exuberant passage. The second movement is a march, introduced by string pizzicati and rhythmically matched piano accompaniment. This playful movement gives the two strings a chance to play together in a harmonic rhythm, and then Bernstein hands everything off to the piano before ending the movement with the strings playing eighth notes in harmony accompanied by quarter-note chords in the piano. The last movement opens with a beautiful, lyrical passage that moves into an exciting Shostakovich-like section with a strong, rhythmic element. There are echoes of George Gershwin as well, and the piece ends triumphantly with a great flourish.
MOZART - Quartet in G Minor for Violin, Viola, Cello, and Piano, K.478 Mozart was commissioned to compose three quartets for piano and strings in 1785. At that time, no one had composed a particularly memorable piece in this genre. Although it was praised as an excellent composition, the G minor quartet was deemed too difficult for amateur musicians. Mozart had already composed a wealth of great chamber music, including many string quartets, wind chamber music, and of course, symphonic and vocal masterpieces. The three-movement piano quartet is listed in the key of G minor, which Mozart used dramatically a year later in several works, notably his incomparable Symphony No. 40, K.550. With his dramatic use of dotted rhythms in unison, the first movement is rather dark and dramatic and is as long as the next two movements combined. At times, the piano is a thematic partner, but, at other times, is almost a concerto-like soloist. The second movement, mostly in B flat Major, is quite lyrical and has two widely contrasting themes. In the delightful third-movement rondo, the piano states each theme initially, followed by a string trio. It is a charming departure from the dour first movement, and the quartet ends with a jubilant flourish.
SCHUMANN - Quintet in E flat for Two Violins, Viola, Cello, and Piano, Op. 44 Robert Schumann composed the piano quintet in 1842. That was a banner year in which he also composed his three string quartets, a piano trio and Phantasiestücke for piano. Schumann was greatly influenced by the music of Franz Schubert. He dedicated the quintet to his wife, Clara, a very accomplished pianist and composer in her own right. She was scheduled to perform in the first "priva because of illness. Schumann's close friend the composer Felix Mendelssohn filled in on very short notice and sight-read the fiendishly difficult piano part. Clara was able to participate in the first public performance of the quintet on January 5, 1845, at the Leipzig Gewandhaus. The first movement sets a bright tone with wide-leaping intervals. The second theme, marked dolce, is presented as a duet between viola and cello. The second movement is a funeral march in C Minor. The third movement opens with a lively ascending scale. The scherzo the usual one; the second added at the suggestion of Mendelssohn. The finale movement is rondo-like with reappearances of the opening theme. The opening is in a minor key but bustling with energy. The second theme is deliberate, sweet, and in sharp contrast to the opening. The coda begins with a fugue and the piece ends with unbridled exuberance. performance of the work but had to withdraw Leonard Bernstein was the pianist in the 1960s recordings of the Mozart and the Schumann with the Juilliard Quartet.
Notes by John Perkel
BERNSTEIN - Trio for Violin, Cello, and Piano Leonard Bernstein composed his piano trio in 1937 (one year after he wrote his "Music for String Quartet") while a student at Harvard. The piano trio was one of his first compositions to be published. The three-movement work starts with a rather lyrical duo between violin and cello, followed by a piano solo, and then all three voices join together in a flamboyant, exuberant passage. The second movement is a march, introduced by string pizzicati and rhythmically matched piano accompaniment. This playful movement gives the two strings a chance to play together in a harmonic rhythm, and then Bernstein hands everything off to the piano before ending the movement with the strings playing eighth notes in harmony accompanied by quarter-note chords in the piano. The last movement opens with a beautiful, lyrical passage that moves into an exciting Shostakovich-like section with a strong, rhythmic element. There are echoes of George Gershwin as well, and the piece ends triumphantly with a great flourish.
MOZART - Quartet in G Minor for Violin, Viola, Cello, and Piano, K.478 Mozart was commissioned to compose three quartets for piano and strings in 1785. At that time, no one had composed a particularly memorable piece in this genre. Although it was praised as an excellent composition, the G minor quartet was deemed too difficult for amateur musicians. Mozart had already composed a wealth of great chamber music, including many string quartets, wind chamber music, and of course, symphonic and vocal masterpieces. The three-movement piano quartet is listed in the key of G minor, which Mozart used dramatically a year later in several works, notably his incomparable Symphony No. 40, K.550. With his dramatic use of dotted rhythms in unison, the first movement is rather dark and dramatic and is as long as the next two movements combined. At times, the piano is a thematic partner, but, at other times, is almost a concerto-like soloist. The second movement, mostly in B flat Major, is quite lyrical and has two widely contrasting themes. In the delightful third-movement rondo, the piano states each theme initially, followed by a string trio. It is a charming departure from the dour first movement, and the quartet ends with a jubilant flourish.
SCHUMANN - Quintet in E flat for Two Violins, Viola, Cello, and Piano, Op. 44 Robert Schumann composed the piano quintet in 1842. That was a banner year in which he also composed his three string quartets, a piano trio and Phantasiestücke for piano. Schumann was greatly influenced by the music of Franz Schubert. He dedicated the quintet to his wife, Clara, a very accomplished pianist and composer in her own right. She was scheduled to perform in the first "priva because of illness. Schumann's close friend the composer Felix Mendelssohn filled in on very short notice and sight-read the fiendishly difficult piano part. Clara was able to participate in the first public performance of the quintet on January 5, 1845, at the Leipzig Gewandhaus. The first movement sets a bright tone with wide-leaping intervals. The second theme, marked dolce, is presented as a duet between viola and cello. The second movement is a funeral march in C Minor. The third movement opens with a lively ascending scale. The scherzo the usual one; the second added at the suggestion of Mendelssohn. The finale movement is rondo-like with reappearances of the opening theme. The opening is in a minor key but bustling with energy. The second theme is deliberate, sweet, and in sharp contrast to the opening. The coda begins with a fugue and the piece ends with unbridled exuberance. performance of the work but had to withdraw Leonard Bernstein was the pianist in the 1960s recordings of the Mozart and the Schumann with the Juilliard Quartet.
Notes by John Perkel