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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

10