Four Anniversaries For The Piano

Four Anniversaries For The Piano

The piano composition Four Anniversaries was composed in 1948 by American composer Leonard Bernstein and consists of four movements, each written for a different person in Bernstein’s life. Leonard Bernstein composed four other works using the same concept: Seven Anniversaries (1943), Five Anniversaries (1948–1951), Two Anniversaries (1965), and Thirteen Anniversaries (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.