Album of the Day — June 6
Henry Lewis — Beethoven Pastoral: Symphony №6 in F
Henry Lewis — Beethoven Pastoral: Symphony №6 in F
June.6.2020
Henry Lewis conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Beethoven Symphony №6 in F
1969
While this particular recording is from 1969, it’s in 1968 that Henry Lewis became the first black conductor and music director of a major American orchestra when he was appointed to the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.
Henry Lewis would also go on to be the first African-American to conduct at the Metropolitan Opera.
A California native with a natural gift for music whose backstory is the same as so many others. A gift that was encouraged by one parent, discouraged by the other. In this case, his mother encouraged it while his father discouraged it.
The discouragement was pure pragmatism as his father felt that there just weren’t any professional opportunities for African-Americans in classical music in the ’40s … it wasn’t that he didn’t recognize his son’s instinctive talent.
Where his father was pragmatic, Henry Lewis was very pragmatic. He had learned that double-bass players were rare. So in junior high school, he began taking double-bass lessons believing if he mastered the instrument it would improve his chances at a professional career.
He was right. It led to a scholarship at the University of South Carolina.
In what would begin a career of firsts, in 1951, Lewis was the first African-American instrumentalist invited to join a major symphony orchestra when the Los Angeles Philharmonic asked him to join.
After being drafted into the United States Army in 1954, he continued his performances on the double-bass in addition to conducting the Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra. Under his direction, the orchestra toured Europe as part of America’s cultural diplomacy initiatives after WWII.
In 1961 Lewis gained national recognition when he was appointed assistant conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta, a post he held until 1965.
And then in ’68 came the job as conductor and music director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.
As Henry Lewis continued to break down racial barriers in classical music, he would often criticize music critics who he felt judged his work differently than they judged his white contemporaries.
Even if his reviews were exceptional:
The LA Times noted his “natural flair for commanding his orchestra”
The New York Times noted in his debut with the Metropolitan Orchestra that he “possessed a complete understanding of Puccini’s broad musical lyricism”
The New York Times said that he and then-wife Marilyn Horne’s “insightful interpretation of Rossini’s Siege of Corinth at Carnegie Hall moved the audience to pandemonium”
Critics were probably more critical of Lewis … we know this because this is still something many black artists say to this day. But it wasn’t just critics, some African-Americans have said that symphonies were not the kind of music that black communities needed … or wanted.
More militant blacks were harsher, charging that Lewis was trying to purvey “white” music to black people.
I have no way to critique classical music.
I simply have no reference point to determine what is good and what is bad. Am I enjoying Beethoven Symphony №6 as I write this? I am. But I have no way to determine what made Henry Lewis a good conductor.
As a point of reference, every time I read “double-bass” I have an image of Harry Shearer as bass player Derek Smalls in This is Spinal Tap … and I am 100% certain that is NOT the instrument that Henry Lewis played.
As I was researching trying to find a classical artist to close out the week, I was alarmed to find out that it took until 1968 to appoint an African-American to the position of conductor.
But then I shouldn’t have been that alarmed. With everything that is going on and still going on.
I learned that just the other day in my neighborhood, four African-American friends were refused entrance into a local grocery store, while several white patrons were let in around them. There was no disruption, there is video, the cops were called (naturally). It’s important to note in this case that the grocery store is located in a building owned by Yale University. Yes. That matters.
All of the artists that I zeroed in on this week released important work that in 1968, Etta James, Sly & the Family Stone, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and Diana Ross & the Supremes. The podcast 1619: Episode 3 “The Birth of American Music” — highlights how slavery shaped what we listen to today.
And then in 1968, Henry Lewis put the feather in the cap by breaking through the wall of what is most certainly the most European (white) genres (classical) and the whites of roles (conductor).