For the Madison Trio

Bernstein, Leonard, American composer and conductor (1918-1990). Trio op. 2, Violin. Autograph musical manuscript signed ("Leonard Bernstein").

€ 22,000.00

The violin voice of one of Bernstein's very earliest works, his "Trio" for piano, violin, and cello. Written for his friends Mildred Spiegel, Dorothy Rosenberg, and Sarah Kruskall (known as the "Madison Trio" for their initials), the piece was first performed by them at Harvard University in 1937, where Bernstein was then a student of music under Walter Piston. The date of completion is usually given as April 1937, a full half-year after the present manuscript was dated. Largely unknown during Bernstein's lifetime and not published until 1979, "Trio op. 2" is an ambitious, even prophetic work from the pen of the young composer, pre-dating by some eight years his first major success with the musical "On the Town" (1944), which recycles the opening of the second movement of the Trio.

Light browning to margins of first page. A few edge flaws, including an inch-long tear through the title, and traces of a vertical creasemark, but altogether well preserved. Provenance: sold at Sotheby's 30 Nov. 2011 sale of Music and Continental Books and Manuscripts (lot 100); subsequently in the collections of the Musée des Lettres et Manuscrits, Paris; acquired from their sale.