Thirteen Anniversaries Explained

Thirteen Anniversaries
Type:	Piano music
Composer:	Leonard Bernstein
Related:	No. 12 basis for Opening Prayer
Movements:	13

Thirteen Anniversaries is a composition for solo piano by Leonard Bernstein, published in 1988, commemorating 13 people who played an important role in his life.

Background

Bernstein wrote this set after similar collections, Seven Anniversaries (1943), Four Anniversaries (1948) and Five Anniversaries (1949–1951). Each movement celebrates a person. Some movements are dedicated to a person close to the one commemorated. The work was given its first performance by Alexander Frey in Berlin in 1998.

Movements

The titles, referencing the persons, are:

1. For Shirley Gabis Rhoades Perle
2. In Memoriam: William Kapell (an American pianist who died young in a plane crash).
3. For Stephen Sondheim
4. For Craig Urquhart
5. For Leo Smit (an American composer)
6. For My Daughter, Nina
7. In Memoriam: Helen Coates (one of Bernstein's most esteemed teachers)
8. In Memoriam: Goddard Lieberson (former executive of Columbia Records)
9. For Jessica Fleishmann
10. In Memoriam: Constance Hope
11. For Felicia, on our 28th Birthday (and her 52nd)
12. For Aaron Stern
13. In Memoriam: Ellen Goetz

Sources

• Horowitz, Mark Eden. Leonard Bernstein Collection. Library of Congress. 11 February 2008.
• Truesdell, F. Donald. “The Complete Works for Solo Piano by Leonard Bernstein.” American Music, vol. 4, no. 1 (British-American Musical Interactions, Spring, 1986). pp. 120–21.