When a pre-fame James Dean was at a party being thrown for a Broadway cast in New York, he heard a young, up-and-coming composer, by the name of Leonard Rosenman, at the piano supplying background music. Dean would approach Rosenman (a student of Arnold Schoenberg and Roger Sessions) to give him piano lessons—which Rosenman—did, and eventually introduce him to Elia Kazan, who was about to direct Dean in his debut film. East of Eden, and the rest as they say, is history. Rosenman would create the score to the the legendary Steinbeck film adaptation, (as well as the music for Dean's next film Rebel without a Cause), launching an illustrious career as a composer for film, television and the concert hall, whose credits would also include Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Battle for the Planet of the Apes, Barry Lyndon, Race with the Devil, and the animated The Lord of the Rings, among many others. On this week's Sunday on Blue Lake, Foley Schuler, in the 11 o'clock hour will celebrate the composer's September 7 birthday, with the score that started it all, as John Adams (a longtime admirer of Rosenman's music) conducts the London Sinfonietta in musical highlights from his gripping score to East of Eden. Earlier on the program, we'll also wrap up our birthday week celebration of composer Anton Bruckner with his epic Symphony No. 5.
You can hear Sunday on Blue Lake with Foley Schuler every Sunday morning from 9 until noon on Blue Lake Public Radio.
