The Anti-Inaugural Concert: Leonard Bernstein, Richard Nixon and the "Plea for Peace" music of 1973 Inauguration

The Kitchen Sisters Present

The Kitchen Sisters & Radiotopia

Society & Culture

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 20 January 2025

⏱️ 34 minutes

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Summary

Lady Gaga, Marion Anderson, Beyoncé, Frank Sinatra, Pete Seeger, Maya Angelou — musicians and poets have been powerful headliners at inauguration ceremonies across the years signaling change, new beginnings and reflecting the mood of the country and a new administration.

In January 1973, following the Christmas bombing of Vietnam, conductor Leonard Bernstein gathered an impromptu orchestra to perform an "anti-inaugural concert" protesting Richard Nixon's official inaugural concert and his escalation of the war in Vietnam. One of the main performances of the official inaugural was the 1812 Overture with its booming drums replicating the sound of war cannons.

In 1973, the United States was reaching the concluding stages of our involvement in Vietnam. And while the war would soon come to an end, the weeks leading up to the second inauguration of Richard Nixon were met with some of the most intense and deadly bombing campaigns of the war.

The anti-war movement was unhinged. They had marched, they protested — to seemingly no avail when it came to changing Nixon’s foreign policies. So what to do next...

Leonard Bernstein performed an “anti-inaugural concert” — a concert for peace — following his belief that by creating beauty, and by sharing it with as many people as possible, artists have the power to tip the earthly balance in favor of brotherhood and peace.

This story was produced by Brandi Howell with special thanks to Michael Chikinda, Alicia Kopfstein, Matt Holsen, and Bernie Swain.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Radiotopia. Welcome to the Kitchen Sisters present.
0:04.0	From PRX. We're the Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson, and Nikki Silva.
0:09.0	History isn't dead, or even in the past. It's something we live with and learn from every day.
0:15.0	On Spirits, Amanda and Julia, two tipsy history geeks and childhood best friends,
0:20.0	take a journey around the world to learn
0:22.5	what different mythologies, urban legends, and folklore can teach us about today. From a queer
0:28.2	and feminist perspective, Amanda and Julia examines stories like how the indigenous Australian rainbow
0:33.9	serpent relates to climate change, what the Sami sun goddess teaches us about mental health,
0:39.9	and how urban legends from our own hometowns symbolize otherness.
0:44.7	Grab a drink with spirits every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts.
0:51.6	Ladies and gentlemen, here for the singing of our national anthem, accompanied by the President's own United States Marine Band,
0:58.0	please welcome Lady Gaga.
1:00.0	Music and poetry were powerful headliners at the inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, signaling change and new beginnings.
1:10.0	This is not the first time the arts have captured the mood of a new administration.
1:14.6	As we were rising out of the depths of the Depression,
1:16.6	Mickey Rooney played piano at Franklin Delano Roosevelt's
1:20.6	1941 inauguration and Charlie Chaplin spoke.
1:23.6	Marion Anderson, distinguished American contralto sings the national anthem.
1:28.3	Oh, say, can you see by the taunted delight.
1:36.3	In 1957, President Eisenhower invited world-renowned African-American opera singer Marian Anderson
1:42.3	to sing the national anthem, sending a message
1:46.0	to segregationists and the daughters of the American Revolution, who 18 years earlier had
	...

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