Symphony No. 2 (Bernstein)

The Symphony No. 2, The Age of Anxiety ( The Age of Anxiety ), for orchestra and piano was composed by Leonard Bernstein 1948/49. Formally, it is a tone poem for a poem of the same name by WH Auden. Bernstein revised the work in 1965. The symphony is dedicated to the Russian conductor Sergei Koussevitzky, who also conducted the premiere in Boston, played in the Bernstein himself the piano part.

The symphony is divided into two parts: the first part includes a prologue and seven variations on the "Seven Ages" ( seven ages ) and the " Seven Steps " ( seven stages ), the second part contains a lament, a masked ball and a epilogue. In the masked ball, the piano plays the solo part in the jazz style.

The work was choreographed in 1950 by Jerome Robbins.