Four Anniversaries
Four Anniversaries is a composition for piano written in 1948 by the American composer Leonard Bernstein. Background. "Four Anniversaries" consists of four movements, each written for a different person in Bernstein’s life. Leonard Bernstein composed four works using the same concept: "Seven Anniversaries" (1943), "Four Anniversaries" (1948), "Five Anniversaries" (1949–1951), and "Thirteen Anniversaries" (completed 1988). Each movement celebrates the birthday of a different individual, such as Serge Koussevitzky, Paul Bowles, William Schuman, Stephen Sondheim, and Aaron Copland. The "Four Anniversaries" are dedicated to Felicia Montealegre, Johnny Mehegan, David Diamond, and Helen Coates. Critic Herbert Livingston described "Four  Anniversaries": The first written with restraint and cultivated lyricism, is serene and song-like. There follows a short waspish scherzo, interesting principally for the rhythmic surprises; a slow elegiac piece freely contrapuntal in structure: and a vigorous finale, also predominately contrapuntal, involving sudden extreme dynamic changes. It was first performed by Eudice Podis at the piano on October 1, 1948, in Cleveland, Ohio. Conclusion. The four movements complement each other in that while they remain unique and representative of the unique person they were written for. The piece takes its form from the baroque sonata da chiesa form by alternating  the movements from slow-fast-slow-fast. There are common themes and a sense of tonality that help to bring the work together. Donald Truesdell quotes James Tocco, pianist, who gets to the heart of the piece: Lenny may disagree with me but one finds much more about him in the Anniversaries than the people to whom they are dedicated. I sense that Lenny may have been attracted to certain characteristics of a personality that in some way reflected something in himself-aspects of his own personality that he wished to develop. Leonard Bernstein composed "Four Anniversaries for the Piano  to commemorate the birthdays of four important people in his life and the result is four individual movements that form one coherent piece.