Take a Musical Stroll Through a Gallery

GRANTS, NM—This week’s broadcast of the awardwinning series, New York Philharmonic Young People’s Concerts is Young Performers No. 7, an annual presentation. The final broadcast of this concert series under the musical direction of Leonard Bernstein will be next Friday, June 28.

The No. 7 production of Young Performers is “Pictures at an Exhibition” and was originally broadcast on February 22, 1966, at the New York Philharmonic Hall in Lincoln Center. The program featured four pianists and four conductors playing the same composition by Modest Mussorgsky, the 19thcentury Russian composer, and arranged by Joseph Maurice Ravel.

“Pictures at an Exhibition” has ten movements based on ten paintings by the composer’s friend, Viktor Hartmann, on exhibit after the artist’s death. When Mussorgsky visited the exhibit, he was inspired to set the art to music. (Pictures at an Exhibition | Musical Masterpiece, Orchestral Suite | Britannica) The young artists performed four of those on piano and with orchestra. First, a version of the “Promenade”, or “Walk” in French, for piano only. Following the piano, a guest conductor led the orchestra in an arrangement by Maurice Ravel of the same piece.

Opening the program was pianist, Paul Schoenfield playing “Promenade” and “Gnomus”. In “Gnomus” you can hear, through the use of the lower piano keys, a lumbering, awkward gnome character.

Nineteen at the time, and an honor student at Converse College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. He was born in 1947 and died this April 2024 at age 77. After his Young People’s Concert performance, the pianist turned to composition and focused on Eastern European Jewish folk music. (Celebrating 100 years of Ruth Schonthal with a new video, and mourning Paul Schoenfield - Milken Archive of Jewish Music) As the young people in the audience were paying rapt attention, the orchestral version, a “sound painting” as Bernstein called it, and arranged by Ravel, was conducted by James De-Priest.

The late DePriest (19362013), was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, and one of the first African-American conductors on the world stage. Music ran through his veins, his aunt being the singer, Marian Anderson. DePriest career included being the permanent conductor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Laureate Music Director of the Oregon Symphony, and Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies at the Juilliard School. (james depreist conductor - Search (bing.com) What makes his achievements more impressive, is that DePriest contracted polio on a visit to Bangkok in 1964. “He had been sent there by our state department to help build a symphony orchestra,” said Bernstein. Suffering paralysis in both legs, he needed to wear leg braces but persevered, not giving in to self-pity.

The second performance of the “Promenade” was by pianist Stephanie Sebastian, followed by “The Old Castle”.

Sebastian debuted with the Young Musicians Foundation Symphony in Los Angeles in 1966. The next year she performed for Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic. As her career continued, she won the TS Mozart Competition in 1970. She later appeared with major Canadian orchestras, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony, and also on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation recitals. In 1983 Sebastian joined the staff at York University to teach piano and chamber music. (Stephanie Sebastian | The Canadian Encyclopedia) Following Sebastion was Jacques Houtmann, assistant conductor, with the orchestral version of “Promenade”, and “The Old Castle”. The city of Mirecourt, France, where Houtmann was born, is known as “the city of violin makers”. How could anyone born in such a place not come under its influence? He studied violin, chamber music, and music theory at the Music Conservatory in Nancy. Then, in Paris, he studied conducting with Jean Fournet, “and orchestration and composition with Henri Dutilleux at the École Normale de Musique de Paris. That same year he was awarded the first prize at the International Competition for Young Conductors in Besançon, France.” He also has an appreciation for opera and studied in Italy. (Jacques Houtmann - Richmond Symphony) Bernstein, usually the storyteller, spent his introductions in appreciation of the young artists, and the next to receive his admiration was the young pianist David Oei (pronounced wee), only 15. Oei was invited to play “Promenade” followed by “Tuileries”, a piece reflecting the sounds of children playing. After those Oei played another “Promenade” as an introduction to the piece “Ballet of the Chicks in Their Shells”.

Oei, from Hong Kong, had lived in the United States for four years, and at the time of his performance, was studying at Juilliard. His selection was unexpected. At first, he had come to the auditions to accompany a friend, a clarinetist. Artists are generous; they love their art and share their gifts. He was asked to play a solo piece which impressed the judges and was invited to join this performance.

The assistant conductor for the orchestrated part was Dutch conductor Edo De Waart. Only one year earlier, De Waart had been Bernstein’s assistant conductor with the New York Philharmonic. This was his prize for winning the Dimitris Metropoulos Conducting Competition in New York in 1963. (Edo de Waart - Wikipedia ) With “Promenade” De Waart led the introduction to “Tuileries”. Following that he led the orchestra in the “Promenade” played with woodwinds, bass, and strings including the harp. This was an introduction to “Ballet of the Chicks in Their Shells” played by lilting flutes and stringed instruments. With the click, click, click of the snare drum, we could almost visualize the chicks in their ballet.

De Waart, after making major contributions to the fields of orchestral and operatic music, recently announced his retirement, at age 82. (Copilot with GPT-4 (bing.com) “The Great Gate of Kiev”, never actually built, but set to music by Mussorgsky, was the final piece. Pianist Horacio Gutierrez, a Cuban born in Havana, but who left in 1962 during the Castro regime, was the final musician and played “The Great Gate of Kiev”.

With praise for the arrangement by Ravel, Bernstein joyfully conducted the orchestral version of “The Great Gate of Kiev.

A curious person might wonder if any of the young people in the audience were visualizing themselves playing these pieces, or instruments with an orchestra or even as a soloist someday. After all, it was Bernstein’s goal, to influence and educate future artists.