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All of these composers
were influenced by
Bernstein, even though
they come from different
backgrounds. His legacy
touched so many people.
“
”
Theo Bleckmann
and Lara Downes
a erward I became fascinated
by American music, how it
sounds and why it sounds that
way.”
Later projects included
standard works of Bach and
Stravinsky, but she soon grav-
itated once again to her native
land with a survey of Billie
Holiday tunes. More recently,
she served up the critically
praised disc
America Again
—
a sampler of sorts, with
selections by Lou Harrison,
Amy Beach, Howard Hanson,
Roy Harris, Aaron Copland,
and Chicago’s Dan Visconti.
A work by Leonard Bernstein
was also on the menu, serving
as an appetizer for her latest
release on Sony Classical,
For
Lenny
.
While the composer’s
compositions form the core
of the disc (and the second
of her Ravinia-debut perfor-
mances, on September ), she
approached the project from
many angles.
“I’d been wanting to record
Bernstein’s piano pieces for a
while, but there aren’t quite
enough to t on a CD. en
I came up with the idea of
complementing his pieces
with new commissions that
comment on what he did as a
composer. All of these com-
posers were in uenced by him
to one degree or another, even
though they come from di er-
ent backgrounds. His legacy
touched so many people.”
Downes also researched
repertoire inspired by Ber-
nstein from an earlier time.
Lukas Foss’s
For Lenny:
Variation on ‘New York, New
York’
is a delightfully contorted
tango treatment of the seminal
theme. And appearing for
the rst time on disc is Marc
Blitzstein’s
Innocent Psalm (for
the Bernstein Baby)
, a poignant
lullaby from
in honor of
Lenny’s rst daughter, Jamie.
For those familiar with the
music of Chicago-based and
Pulitzer Prize–winning com-
poser Shulamit Ran, it might
come as a surprise that there
was a connection between
two such di erent artists. She
performed as a pianist at age
with Bernstein leading
the New York Philharmonic
at Carnegie Hall. Ran was
re ective in remarks recorded
for the disc: “He was one of a
kind, larger than life, with an
abundance of talent, a vora-
cious desire to learn, breathe,
and take in as much diverse
music and experience as any
one person could, and then
share it with the world.”
“When Shulamit sent me
the music,” said Downes, “I
wrote back and expressed my
happiness that she captured
the exuberant side of Lenny.
She wrote back in response to
my description, telling me that
she decided to name the piece
Exuberance
!”
Her search for clues of
Bernstein’s life force has prov-
en fruitful. “I’ve had the plea-
sure of meeting people who
have known Lenny at di erent
stages of his life, but my time
with Ned Rorem was espe-
cially moving, as he is one of
the few remaining artists who
knew him at the early stages
in his career.” Rorem’s
Youth,
Day, Old Age & Night
, based
on a poem by Walt Whitman,
taps into a particular vein of
nostalgic Americana.
Another optic comes by
way of a miniature from Bern-
stein’s Anniversaries titled
For Craig Urquhart
—dedicat-
ed to the master’s long-term
assistant. Urquhart, in turn,
contributed a new work to the
project, the contemplative,
melancholy
Remembering
Lenny
.
Another new entry in a
similar vein is the ambling,
wistful
Goodbye Chorale
(For Lenny)
by the renowned
vocalist and composer eo
Bleckmann, the artist who will
be joining Downes for her rst
Ravinia concert, on Septem-
ber . “I heard eo four or
ve years ago, and I found him
to be one of the most interest-
ing, intelligent, and disciplined
artists I’ve ever seen in any
genre. ere is something
very magnetic about him as
a performer. Every note that
he plays seems thoroughly
curated.”
at concert (also Bleck-
mann’s Ravinia debut) will
combine the works of Bern-
stein with those of jazz icon
Duke Ellington. ere is a neat
symmetry to the pairing of
music by a classical composer
steeped in the jazz idiom with
a jazz composer/pianist/band-
leader who at times dabbled in
classical forms. “I think those
two represent everything I love
about American music,” says
Downes. Ellington believed
that pigeonholes had no place
in musical thought, and fa-
mously quipped that there are
only two kinds of music, “good
and bad.”
It may seem quaint in these
polarized times to suggest that
the arts can promote conver-
sation between warring tribes
in America. “We need to be
connected through our music,
and we can at least hope that
bridges can be built that tran-
scend boundaries of culture,
race, and class.”
It’s a tall order to be sure,
but while we dream of the pos-
sibilities, artists like Downes
are here to remind us of the
rich tapestry of American mu-
sic, enthusiastically breaking
down barriers between concert
hall, jazz club, cabaret, and
musical theater.
Michael Cameron is a double bassist
and professor of music at the University
of Illinois. His writings have appeared in
the
Chicago Tribune
,
Chicago Classical
Review
, and
Fanfare
Magazine.
RAVINIA MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER 3, 2018 – MAY 11, 2019
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