Synopsis

On this day in 1946, Igor Stravinsky conducted the New York Philharmonic in the first performance of his Symphony in Three Movements, a work inspired in part by World War II newsreels.

“Each episode in the Symphony,” Stravinsky wrote, “is linked in my imagination with a specific cinematographic impression of the war. But the Symphony is not programmatic. Composers combine notes—that is all. How and in what form the things of this world are impressed upon their music is not for them to say.”

What Stravinsky did say was that images of goose-stepping soldiers influenced its first movement, and its third movement was inspired in part by newsreels of the victorious march of the Allies into Germany. The themes of middle movement, however, had nothing to do with the war, but consisted of bits and pieces Stravinsky salvaged from his unused and unfinished score for the 1943 movie The Song of Bernadette. The producers decided instead to go with a score by Alfred Newman, a more experienced film composer.

To Stravinsky’s embarrassment, Newman’s score for The Song of Bernadette won an Oscar for the Best Film Score of 1943.

But Igor needn’t have felt too chagrined—his music may have failed in Hollywood, but it triumphed at Carnegie Hall.

Music Played in Today's Program

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) Symphony in Three Movements Berlin Philharmonic; Pierre Boulez, conductor. DG 457 616

Alfred Newman (1901-1970) Song of Bernadette National Philharmonic; Charles Gerhardt, conductor. RCA 184