Symphony No. 2, The Age of Anxiety

1949 · Piano and orchestra

After Auden’s poem, in six sections. Koussevitzky conducted the first performance in Boston on 8 April 1949, with the composer as soloist. The finale was revised in 1965.

2 recordings · 32 min

In the Hall

Part I: Prologue; The Seven Ages; The Seven StagesLukas Foss, piano; Philharmonic-⁠Symphony Orchestra of New York; Leonard Bernstein · 27 February 1950, New York; issued as Columbia ML 4325
16:37
Bernstein conducts the Philharmonic-⁠Symphony Orchestra of New York, with Lukas Foss as soloist, in a recording made in February 1950, within a year of the first performance of his Second Symphony, The Age of Anxiety. Part I contains the Prologue and the two sets of seven variations.
Listening notes
1. Prologue, two clarinets
  The Prologue opens with a pianissimo duet for two clarinets, one overlapping and echoing the other. A long descending scale for flute follows. Bernstein said this scale is the bridge to the unconscious, where most of the poem takes place.
2. The Seven Ages, opening
  The Seven Ages opens with a piano solo, followed by a series of variations. Bernstein wrote that “each variation seizes upon some feature of the preceding one and develops it.”
3. Variation 3 and the tempo marks
  Variation 3, marked Largamente, ma mosso, begins at about 4:38. The seven variations are marked L’istesso tempo, Poco più mosso, Largamente ma mosso, Più mosso, Agitato, Poco meno mosso and L’istesso tempo.
4. Auden’s poem, 1947
  W. H. Auden’s poem The Age of Anxiety appeared in July 1947 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1948. Its four characters, Malin, Quant, Emble and Rosetta, meet in a New York bar in wartime. Bernstein took Auden’s six section titles for his movements.
5. The Seven Stages, Variations 8 to 14
  The Seven Stages, Variations 8 to 14, follows the characters of Auden’s poem on a symbolic dream-quest in search of “that state of prehistoric happiness”.
6. Variation 9, Tempo di Valse
  Variation 9 begins at about 12:29. It is marked Più mosso (Tempo di Valse). The Hyperion booklet describes it as a waltz related to the passacaglia theme of Variation 8.
7. Variation 14, end of Part I
  Variation 14, the last of Part I, begins at about 16:04. Bernstein described the end of The Seven Stages as “a hectic, though indecisive, close”. Part II follows with the Dirge.
Open in the Concert Hall
Part II: The Dirge; The Masque; The EpilogueLukas Foss, piano; Philharmonic-⁠Symphony Orchestra of New York; Leonard Bernstein · 27 February 1950, New York; issued as Columbia ML 4325
15:35
Part II of the Second Symphony, The Age of Anxiety, in its original 1949 version, comprises the Dirge, the Masque for piano and percussion, and an Epilogue in which the soloist plays only a closing chord. Lukas Foss was the soloist and Bernstein conducted, in a recording made in February 1950.
Listening notes
1. The Dirge, Largo
  The Dirge opens Part II. It is a lament for the loss of a guiding father figure, the “colossal dad” of Auden’s poem. Bernstein wrote that it “employs, in a harmonic way, a twelve-tone row out of which the main theme evolves”, and that it has a contrasting middle section.
2. Commission and dedication, 1949
  The Koussevitzky Foundation commissioned the symphony, and Bernstein dedicated it “in tribute” to Serge Koussevitzky, who conducted the first performance on 8 April 1949. Bernstein finished the Epilogue three weeks before that concert.
3. The Masque, Extremely fast
  The Masque is a scherzo for piano and percussion alone. Bernstein described its piano-jazz as by turns “nervous, sentimental, self-satisfied, vociferous”. In the poem it is the late-night party at Rosetta’s apartment.
4. Orchestra enters before the Epilogue
  Near the end of the Masque the orchestra joins the piano and percussion for four bars of “hectic jazz”, in Bernstein’s description. The piano stops, and a pianino in the orchestra continues the Masque as the Epilogue begins.
5. The Epilogue, 1949 version
  In the Epilogue, marked Adagio, the strings join the winds’ repeated statements of “something pure”. In this version the piano does not play until a single chord at the end. Bernstein revised the finale in 1965 and gave the soloist a cadenza.
6. The single closing chord
  The soloist, a detached observer in Bernstein’s scheme, plays a single chord at the very end of the 1949 score. The Bernstein Office reports that Bernstein’s note takes the chord as a symbol of the unity of man and God.
Open in the Concert Hall

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