Leonard Bernstein - Violin Sonata; Piano Trio

Leonard BERNSTEIN (1918-1990)

Clarinet Sonata (arr. W. Terwilliger for violin and piano)

Violin Sonata

Piano Trio

Peter Pan: My House (arr. E. Stern for soprano, violin and piano)

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue: Take Care of this House (arr. E. Stern for soprano, violin and piano

4 Moments from Candide (arr. E. Stern for violin and piano)

Opus Two: William Terwilliger (violin) & Andrew Cooperstock (piano)

Charles Bernard (Cello)

Marin Mazzie (Soprano)

Bernstein’s many works for stage and concert hall have fared reasonably well on disc, but his chamber works are few and infrequently performed or recorded. Among them is the Clarinet Sonata, the composer’s first published piece, completed in 1942, and heard here in a transcription for violin and piano by William Terwilliger and performed by Terwilliger and Andrew Cooperstock, who have dubbed their duo Opus Two. Written earlier than the Clarinet Sonata, but not published until later, is the Violin Sonata of 1939, Bernstein’s only original work for this combination of instruments. And earlier still, 1937, is the Piano Trio, again, the composer’s only effort in this medium. The arrangements for violin and piano of movements from Candide are self-explanatory, but unless you have a fairly comprehensive knowledge of Bernstein’s output or have read the booklet note, you would not necessarily know that the Two House Songs are arrangements of “My House” from the 1950 incidental music to Peter Pan and “Take Care of this House” from the 1976 White House Cantata: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Two dozen or more recordings exist of the Clarinet Sonata in its original scoring, among which is my favorite on Sony’s The Essential Bernstein album with Stanley Drucker and Leonid Hambro. This is my first time hearing the piece transcribed for violin—I don’t know if it has been done by others—but I have heard a version for cello played by Yo-Yo Ma and Gilbert Kalish, also on Sony. The sonata is brief, only two movements lasting a total of about 11 minutes. Though still a student at Curtis when he wrote the piece, Bernstein challenges academic expectations. There’s some of Hindemith’s playfulness in the score—Hindemith having been one of Bernstein’s occasional teachers—but one already hears hints of the bluesy barrio music and the hyper-syncopated, jazzed-up style to come in the composer’s later works.

Ordinarily, as readers know, I’m not fond of transcriptions, but the Clarinet Sonata is more effective on violin than I expected. In no small part, this is due to Terwilliger’s imaginative playing in which he imitates some of the clarinet’s tonal and coloristic effects by means of harmonics and special bowing techniques such as sul tasto, flautando, and at one point what sounds like sul ponticello.

I was surprised to find so few recordings listed of Bernstein’s Violin Sonata and embarrassed that I don’t have a single one in my collection. Of the four entries found at ArkivMusic, two of them are on Naxos. An earlier album containing a medley of works by American composers includes the Violin Sonata played by Arnold Steinhardt of Guarneri Quartet fame.

The Violin Sonata, also in two movements, is not as inviting. It begins with a brief Moderato assai of somewhat indefinite tonality, which is followed by a theme and variations based on the first movement. It sounds as if Bernstein may have been influenced by Copland’s 1930 Piano Variations. Chords built up in fourths, grating dissonances, and nervous flurries of notes alternate with kinder, gentler passages that hint at melody but never quite seem to consummate it. The difficulties of the piece for listener and players alike may account for its not sparking more interest. Terwilliger’s tone turns a bit rough and raw in places, something I attribute to Bernstein’s less than well-considered demands on the violin. It may be that abrasiveness is what he wanted; it would explain why Bernstein later borrowed some of the sonata’s material for his later “Age of Anxiety” Symphony.

The Piano Trio was written while Bernstein was under the sway of Walter Piston at Harvard, though I don’t believe I’ve ever heard anything by Piston that sounds like this. The three-movement work gets off to a good start with an Adagio introduction that offers some tasty melodic morsels that promise a satisfying meal to come. But the piece soon lapses into a bitonal bitumen of acrid note-spinning. The Trio hasn’t had many more advocates on disc than has the Violin Sonata. Cellist Charles Bernard joins Terwilliger and Cooperstock in a performance that pulls out all the stops for a piece that, frankly, I don’t think is apt to win a large following. Its best movement is its last, a wild, whirling dance flavored by a touch of klezmer.

American actress and singer Marin Mazzie, who sings the Two House Songs, has a voice perfectly suited to musical theater, a field in which she has distinguished herself in numerous stage productions, and has either won or been nominated for several prestigious awards. Eric Stern, who arranged the Two House Songs and the Four Movements from Candide for violin and piano, is a noted Broadway arranger and conductor. These pieces—some probably more familiar than others—are in Bernstein’s later, “popular” style.

This may not constitute the choicest collection of Bernstein’s music on disc, but all of it is given committed performances, and the disc can be recommended as a valuable addition to the composer’s chamber-music discography.

Jerry Dubins

Fanfare, May 2011