Symphonies: Eclectic Hermit

"The professional critics will no doubt call this work eclectic," said Leonard Bernstein, warming to one of his fireside chats from the podium of Manhattan's Philharmonic Hall. "Very well. Here are the elements you may find: certainly Schoenberg, Mahler, perhaps Bartok. This is the music of a very eclectic man, and you should hear the passion of Spain, the worldliness of Vienna, the German methodology, the English love of tradition." With that, New York Philharmonic Pianist Paul Jacobs sounded the first six notes of the tone row with a crashing force that introduced to the U.S. the haunting Symphony...

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