Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
Facsimile (A Choreographic Essay, 1946)
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| Grave of Leonard Bernstein, an American conductor, composer in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
I. Opening: Alone at the Beach 0:00
II. The First Man enters 3:01
III. The Second Man enters
IV. Quarrel
V. Alone again at the Beach
Gordon Boelzner, piano
Robert Irving/Concert Arts Orchestra
Composed by Leonard Bernstein during the early part of his wunderkind years, Facsimile turned aside from the optimistic, jazzy, big-city musical language of such other early Bernstein works as his ballet Fancy Free (1944), the striking musical On the Town (1944), or even his Symphony No. 1 "Jeremiah" from 1942. Facsimile, though inventive enough through its 18-minute duration, was less well received. Much of the blame was laid at the feet of Jerome Robbins, who sought to expand his dance language to embrace psychologically probing works. In this collaboration with Robbins, Oliver Smith, and the Ballet Theatre, Robbins imagined a work that would float between reality and imagination, between surface psychological stability and inner void. Bernstein's score mirrored Robbins' concept only too well. As Fancy Free took form with sparks flying, as Bernstein composed page after page on a speeding train, or wrote out a sketch on the back of a napkin at the Russian Tea Room, the brilliant animation of that work brought its own momentum. The pace and character of Facsimile were something quite different. Three dancers, a woman (danced by Nora Kaye) and two men, portrayed a threesome whose momentary and evolving relationships tell of the distance separating outward animation and inner despair. The critics were quick to point out another kind of separation: the discrepancy between the collaborators' intent and their success in realizing it. The effect, rather than being stimulating, proved numbing. In addition, the general feeling of confusion, which the critics and the audience shared, seemed exacerbated by the choreography. Among the more disturbing episodes was one in which, according to The New York Times, the woman was batted "back and forth like a shuttlecock until she fell sobbing to the floor." The premiere was not a disaster, but neither was it the expected triumph for the composer. Facsimile's subsequent life has been one of gradual acceptance, or perhaps one benefiting from the public's increasing acceptance of, even interest in, the subject of alienation. In addition to serving the dance theaters of America and Europe, the score has become a concert piece, balancing major-key symphonic programs with its somber subject-matter. ~ Erik Eriksson
