Composed 1944; Duration: 10 minutes
First BPO Performance: October 25-26, 1997 (Michael Stern, conductor)
Last BPO Performance: September 30 & October 1, 2022 (JoAnn Falletta, conductor)
Following the success of Bernstein’s score for Jerome Robbins’ 1944 ballet Fancy Free with the American Ballet Theatre, the work was reconfigured as the musical On the Town, which ran until 1946 with 462 performances. This was followed up in 1949 by an MGM film starring Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Jules Munshin.
On the Town was an early career hit that uniquely positioned Bernstein as a champion of both Broadway and concert music, as he had been appointed to the prestigious assistant conductor role with the New York Philharmonic only a year prior. The musical is a romantic ode to wartime New York as three sailors scour the city for love interests. The concert suite, Three Dance Episodes, succinctly captures the musical’s energy, starting with “The Great Lover.”
Here, one of the sailors falls asleep on the train and dreams about a poster girl. In “Lonely Town,” the lush score captures a flirtatious moment in Central Park, but the sailor is unsuccessful in his wooing. The final scene recalls the show’s famous song “New York, New York” in a vigorously dense setting for a scene in the bustle of Times Square. –Chaz Stuart