Music from the Upper West Side

The Music

The Words

Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of the ‘Classical For Everyone’ Podcast… five hundred years of incredible music. My name is Peter Cudlipp and… If you enjoy any music at all then I’m convinced you can enjoy classical music. All you need are ears. No expertise is necessary. If you’ve ever been curious about classical music… or explored it for a while once upon a time… or just quietly wondered what all the fuss was about… then this is the podcast is for you.

And because there’s a lot of music out there each episode has something of a theme. And for this one it is… well, it’s inspired by the cityscape I am looking out on as I record this episode. I’m in New York and in the distance in particular I can glimpse the Ansonia Building.

Completed in 1904 as an apartment hotel, it was for the early decades of the 20^th century popular with visiting European composer/performers who would supplement their income with concert tours of the USA. In particular Sergei Rachmaninoff and Igor Stravinsky both stayed at the Ansonia… with Stravinsky becoming a frequent resident for over a decade.

While researching that building’s pretty impressive connection to classical music, I discovered that a narrow stretch of New York’s Upper West Side around the Ansonia had also featured in the lives of the composers George Gershwin, Gustav Mahler, Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein. So, today you’re going to hear music connected to Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

First up is the slow section of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s fourth concerto for piano and orchestra from 1926. He spent much of each year in the US from 1918 to 1943 and this work was largely a creation of his time in New York. And while he was there, he was soaking up the musical influences of the city - including the early jazz-infused music of George Gershwin. Of Rachmaninoff’s piano concertos this one is I think, unfairly, the poor cousin. Even mad Rachmaninoff fans are far more devoted to the second and third piano concertos. But I hope, like me, you look on the work a little differently after hearing Leif Ove Andsnes playing the piano accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Anthony Pappano with the six minute slow section. And I think here you really can hear something of Gershwin’s influence.

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That was Leif Ove Andsnes playing the piano part accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Anthony Pappano performing The slow section of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s 4^th Concerto for Piano & Orchestra. Now the premiere of that work was in Philadelphia in March 1927 and the following night the whole program was presented in New York. And on the same bill on both nights also by Rachmaninoff were ‘Three Russian Songs’ written for choir and orchestra. Here is the 2^nd one titled ‘Ah you, Ivan’. The folk song Rachmaninoff based the work on is the lament of a woman whose young husband has gone off adventuring and left her to spend winter with her evil father-in-law. Vladimir Ashkenazy conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. It is about 7 minutes long.

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That was Vladimir Ashkenazy conducting the Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra with the song ‘Ah, you Ivan’ from Sergei Rachmaninoff’s ‘Three Russian Songs’.

Next up in this episode of music connected to the Upper West Side of New York is some George Gershwin. Now I mentioned that Rachmaninoff was a fan of Gershwin but the connection was deeper. They certainly met several times but they also lived at the same address on Riverside Drive. But not at the same time. After leaving the Ansonia Rachmaninoff lived in a five story townhouse on Riverside Drive for several years. After he sold it in 1928, the townhouse was demolished and the current apartment building was constructed. And between 1929 and 1933 the penthouse was George Gershwin’s home.

Here is a little gem for solo piano by Gershwin. It is his Prelude No. 2. From 1926. Essentially composed at the same time as the two Rachmaninoff pieces I have played. It is about four minutes long and in this performance the pianist is Simon Tedeschi.

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That was George Gershwin’s Piano Prelude No. 2 and it was played by Simon Tedeschi. Ok. After that excursion to Riverside Drive I’m taking us back to another of the composer / residents of the Ansonia Apartment Hotel… Igor Stravinsky.

But just before that I want to digress slightly to say that if the name ‘Ansonia’ sounds oddly familiar it may be because the building at the centre of Steve Martin and John Hoffman’s comedy ‘Only Murders In The Building’ is called the ‘Arconia’.

Alright. Igor Stravinsky. It would be enough to be remembered for his three ballet scores The Firebird, Petrushka and The Rite of Spring. But by the time Stravinsky was spending more and more time in the US, and living intermittently at the Ansonia, these works were two decades old and had preceded the ghastly rupture of World War One. He would write music until the 1960s but it is all really overshadowed by the three ‘big ballets’. Which is a bit of a shame because he kept writing great music. Here is a section actually from another ballet. The title is Game of Cards or ‘Jeu de Cartes’ commissioned in 1935 by the American Ballet. Here is the third and final section. It is about 7 minutes long and in this performance the composer conducts the Columbia Symphony Orchestra. Igor Stravinsky’s ‘Game of Cards’.

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That was the third section from Igor Stravinsky’s ballet ‘Game of Cards’ and the composer conducted the Columbia Symphony Orchestra.

Alright to continue this meander around the Upper West Side I’m going to walk us a couple of blocks east to the corner of 71^st St and Central Park West to the Hotel Majestic where a couple of decades before Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff and Gershwin were in the neighbourhood another composer was collecting ideas for his 10^thsymphony.

Gustav Mahler had accepted a contract to conduct four seasons of opera in New York at a time when a break from Europe must have been appealing. His tenure as head of the Vienna Court Opera had been marred by anti-semitism and his and his wife Alma’s eldest daughter had just died. Plus the heart condition that would end his life in 1911 had just been diagnosed.

But as he sat in the Hotel Majestic in 1908, I’d assume in a room with a good view across Central Park, he did not know that what he was planning would remain unfinished. It was said after Mahler’s death that he was superstitious about the fact that Beethoven had completed only nine symphonies and it was somehow fated that no one should pass that number. Mahler’s concession to this belief was to not call his tenth symphonic work a symphony but to call it something altogether different and he gave it the title of ‘Song of the Earth’. But then perhaps ultimately the superstition did have its way… as he did not live to complete his 10^th symphony. Here from what he did complete, is the four minute section he called ‘Purgatory’ and it is performed by the Cleveland Orchestra conducted by George Szell.

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That was the section called ‘Purgatory’ from Gustav Mahler’s unfinished 10^th symphony written whilst he was spending close to half of each year living on the Upper West Side of New York and in that recording it was performed by the Cleveland Orchestra conducted by George Szell.

Alright, so this Upper West Side Story has been hovering around 72^nd Street. But if you stroll nine blocks downtown you come to the Empire Hotel. Which is still trading and sits above a very fine establishment where you can get takeaway Margaritas if you so wish.

And, maybe slightly more significantly, it was the home from 1936 to 1947 of Aaron Copland. If there is a composer who remains incredibly popular and who found a musical language that was adopted as quintessentially ‘American’ it is Copland. I’ve played a couple of his works on the podcast and there is a good chance I’ll play his 3^rd Symphony on the next ‘Sunday Night Special’ but for this episode I am going with his ‘El Salon Mexico’ for orchestra completed just as he moved into the Empire Hotel. Copland had been to Mexico City in the early 1930’s and I will let him continue the story...

Perhaps my piece might never have been written if it hadn't been for the existence of the Salón México. I remember reading about it for the first time in a tourist guide book: "Harlem-type nightclub for the people, grand Cuban orchestra. Three halls: one for people dressed in your way, one for people dressed in overalls but shod, and one for the barefoot."

When I got there, I also found a sign on the wall which said: "Please don't throw lighted cigarette butts on the floor so the ladies don't burn their feet." In some inexplicable way, while milling about in those crowded halls, one really felt a live contact with the Mexican people — the atomic sense one sometimes gets in far-off places, of suddenly knowing the essence of a people — their humanity, their separate shyness, their dignity and unique charm.

I really hope you enjoy ‘El Salon Mexico’… ‘The Mexico Room’ by Aaron Copland completed in 1936. It is about ten minutes long and is performed by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra conducted by Antal Dorati.

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That was ‘El Salon Mexico’… ‘The Mexico Room’ by Aaron Copland and it was performed by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra conducted by Antal Dorati.

We’re getting near the end of the episode but Copland’s reminiscences of the Mexican dance hall reminded me that the basement of the Ansonia Building which included a swimming pool… was the location of two somewhat celebrated entertainment venues… in the late 1960’s and the early 1970’s it was a gay bathhouse called ‘The Continental Baths’ and then a few years later a swingers club called ‘Plato’s Retreat’. I’m going to put a link to the Wikipedia entry on the Ansonia on this episode’s web page. Its chequered history is a microcosm of the roller-coaster ride that was New York in the 20^th century.

My name is Peter Cudlipp and you have been listening to the ‘Classical for Everyone’ Podcast. I have another couple of pieces coming up but before I get to them I want to give you a little information that I hope you find useful. If you would like to listen to past episodes, of which there are more than forty, or get details of the music I’ve played please head to the website classicalforeveryone.net. That address again is classicalforeveryone.net And on the individual episode pages of the website there are links to Spotify playlists with the full versions of most of the music played in each of the episodes.

Alright, to finish this episode of music from the Upper West Side of New York City… well, forgive me for the wonderfully obvious…  I have the Prologue from Leonard Bernstein’s ‘West Side Story Symphonic Dances’. But Bernstein had a more direct connection to the neighbourhood than just that title. From 1974 he lived in the Dakota Building on the corner of 72^nd Street and Central Park West, five minutes up the road from Copland’s Empire Hotel, over the road from where Mahler worked on his 10^th symphony, two blocks from Rachmaninoff and Stravinsky’s Ansonia Hotel and then just another three minutes to Gershwin’s penthouse. Here’s Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic.

Thanks for your time and I look forward to playing you some more incredible music on the next ‘Classical For Everyone’.

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That was the Prologue from Leonard Bernstein’s ‘West Side Story Symphonic Dances’ and the composer conducted the New York Philharmonic.

This podcast is made with Audacity Software for editing, Wikipedia for Research, Claude for Artificial Intelligence and Apple, Sennheiser, Sony, Rode and Logitech for hardware… The music played is licensed through AMCOS / APRA. Classical For Everyone is a production of Mending Wall Studios and began life on Radio 2BBB in Bellingen NSW, Australia thanks to the late, great Mr Jeffrey Sanders. The producers do not receive any gifts or support of any kind from any organisation or individual mentioned in the show. But, never say never.

And if you have listened to the credits… here is a little bonus for you… Written in the Empire Hotel on the corner of West 63^rd Street and Broadway by Aaron Copland here are three minutes from his ballet ‘Appalachian Spring’ performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Zubin Mehta.

Thanks again for listening.