Each movement celebrates the birthday of a different individual, such as Serge Koussevitzky, Paul Bowles, William Schuman, Stephen Sondheim, and Aaron Copland.

The Four Anniversaries are dedicated to Felicia Montealegre, Johnny Mehegan, David Diamond, and Helen Coates.

Critic Herbert Livingston described Four Anniversaries: The first written with restraint and cultivated lyricism, is serene and song-like.

Donald Truesdell quotes James Tocco, pianist, who gets to the heart of the piece: Lenny may disagree with me but one finds much more about him in the Anniversaries than the people to whom they are dedicated.

[5] Leonard Bernstein composed Four Anniversaries for the Piano to commemorate the birthdays of four important people in his life and the result is four individual movements that form one coherent piece.