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And the idea of faith is a thread throughout his music. Bernstein believed fundamentally in the goodness of human beings. SIMON: So is that there as kind of like - to be an instruction, to say between these profound period of aloneness, why not kick up our heels while we have the chance?ĪLSOP: Well, you know, I think sometimes Bernstein just got fed up with all of this weighty, existential searching, and he just couldn't resist a party.ĪLSOP: And ultimately, I think there is incredible meaning in that that when in doubt, just have a party.ĪLSOP: For Bernstein - I think very much like for Beethoven - it was a question of believing in humanity. Then it turns a corner, and we hear some jazz. SIMON: So there's this tense, forbidding section. Eventually, he goes through all of the ages of life but toward the end of these first seven variations, that theme of loneliness returns. And from that variation, it goes to, you know, early adulthood where suddenly, you fit in too well and you don't want to fit in anymore and the monotony and kind of robotic existence can be overwhelming. Adolescence is represented by a variation which is in 5-8 time.ĪLSOP: Five-eight is a - it's a really awkward - if you had to dance to 5-8, you'd need two legs of different lengths and you know, in adolescence, where we're all trying to fit in, and you just can never fit in. Each emerges seamlessly from the other, and we go through the different stages of life. And Bernstein musically portrays this by having a set of variations. And this is followed then - he's exploring the seven ages of life. And I think this opening piano solo, which is so simple and so beautiful, represents that state of existence. SIMON: Marin, what's the piano bring in here?ĪLSOP: Well, in the poem, Auden - W.H. Kind of melds into this next section, called "The Seven Ages." The soloist we're going to hear is Philippe Entremont, and his solo will come in just after that descending scale. SIMON: Now, this is a recording of the piece by Leonard Bernstein, conducting the New York Philharmonic. The first time we hear it, it's represented by the flute. And every time the poem starts sinking into this state of mind, Bernstein represents that by a descending scale. And they're each ruminating about their own, individual lives and gradually, the poem begins to fall into their unconscious mind. They're sitting in a bar, and each one is lost in his or her own thoughts, but each one is acutely aware of that sense of universal loneliness. SIMON: What's the piece capturing by beginning this way?ĪLSOP: Well, the poem and the piece of music opens with four characters - three men and a woman, all strangers. Auden - wrote the poem "Age of Anxiety," and the music piece begins with - let's listen - a couple of lonely clarinets.
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SIMON: This is a great British poet, W.H.
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Maestra, thanks very much for being with us. This coming weekend, the pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will perform Leonard Bernstein's second symphony, "The Age of Anxiety." And here to talk about the work is our friend Marin Alsop, music director of the BSO.
#Auden age of anxiety poem full
Alan Jacobs's introduction and thorough annotations help today's readers understand and appreciate the full richness of a poem that contains some of Auden's most powerful and beautiful verse, and that still deserves a central place in the canon of twentieth-century poetry.(SOUNDBITE OF SYMPHONY, "THE AGE OF ANXIETY") This volume-the first annotated, critical edition of the poem-introduces this important work to a new generation of readers by putting it in historical and biographical context and elucidating its difficulties. Yet reviews of the poem were sharply divided, and today, despite its continuing fame, it is unjustly neglected by readers. rangers in a barroom on New York's Third Avenue, Auden's analysis of Western culture during the Second World War won the Pulitzer Prize and inspired a symphony by Leonard Bernstein as well as a ballet by Jerome Robbins. Beginning as a conversation among four st. Auden's last, longest, and most ambitious book-length poem-immediately struck a powerful chord, capturing the imagination of the cultural moment that it diagnosed and named.
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When it was first published in 1947, The Age of Anxiety -W.