Title: A Superb Black & White Portrait of the Great American Composer & Conductor Leonard Bernstein, with Violinist Isaac Stern and Columbia Records Producer & Clarinetist David Oppenheim at a Recording Session of Bernstein's Composition "the Serenade, (After Plato's Symposium)".
Description: (New York, CBS Records), (1956). (1956). - An 11 inch high by 14 inch wide photograph by Emmerich Gara depicting Leonard Bernstein seated at a desk with recording equipment to his right, a cigarette pensively held up near his mouth. The great violinist Isaac Stern, seated next to him, reaches towards the score, while the classical music producer and clarinetist David Oppenheim stands at left smoking a pipe. The three, together with a partially visible fourth man, appear to be attentively listening to the playback. Photographed by Cellist Emmerich Gara during a studio recording session, with his name & address stamped on the verso of the photograph. Identified by him on the verso as "Leonard Bernstein & Isaac Stern / CBS Recording Session Spring 1956", the photograph is signed by Gara in pencil on the verso. Fine.
The Koussevitzky Foundation commissioned Leonard Bernstein to compose "The Serenade (after Plato's Symposium)" in memory of Serge and Natalie Koussevitzky. Bernstein completed the work for solo violin, strings and percussion on August 7, 1954 and premiered the work in Venice with violinist Isaac Stern and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra on September 12th of that year. Bernstein & Stern subsequently recorded "The Serenade" for Columbia Records with the Symphony of the Air on April 19, 1956. The American clarinetist David Jerome Oppenheim (1922-2007) was also a classical music and television producer, directing the Masterworks division of Columbia Records from 1950 to 1959.
Emmerich Gara (b.1901, d.1963). Born in Vienna, Austria in 1901, Gara established lifelong careers as a portrait photographer and professional cellist. Before the outbreak of the Second World War he and his wife emigrated to the United States, where he was hired as cellist for the NBC Orchestra led by Arturo Toscanini. He performed with the orchestra (later called The Symphony of the Air) until his death.
From his seat in the front row of the orchestra Gara was in the unique position to photograph all the great conductors and soloists who appeared with the orchestra during this extraordinary period of musical activity. His subjects were captured in performance, rehearsal, and in candid moments during recordings and while socializing.
Gara's action portraits were used for record covers, for the Book of the Month Club and in articles in Time, Life and other major magazines around the world. Fine .
Keywords: MUSIC; ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPH; SIGNED BY THE PHOTOGRAPHER; AUTOGRAPH; EMMERICH GARA; LEONARD BERNSTEIN; AMERICAN; COMPOSER; CONDUCTOR; MUSICAL THEATRE; BROADWAY; WEST SIDE STORY; TEACHER; CLASSICAL MUSICIAN; PORTRAIT; PHOTOGRAPHY; SOULFUL; GELATIN SILVER PRI
- Book number: 97100
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