December 21, 2015

  • A Refreshing Look at Bernstein's "Kaddish" Symphony

     

    Bernstein: Symphony No. 3
    Claire Bloom, narrator. Paulo Mestre, countertenor.
    Members of the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra and Chorus;
    Kelley Nassief, soprano. Maryland State Boychoir, Washington Chorus,
    Baltimore Symphony Orchestra/Marin Alsop
    Naxos 8.559742
    Total Time:  69:40
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    The present release is taken from recordings made back in 2012 and which are just seeing the light of day.  Those from Sao Paulo are for the pieces that bookend the symphony, the 1988 Missa Brevis and The Lark which first appeared in 1955 and then went through several revisions.  The symphony is taken from a live performance in September, 2012.  The release overall presents three concert works featuring vocal writing by Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990).

    The Missa Brevis is one of the reworked versions of Bernstein’s The Lark adapting the choral pieces into a reconceived piece.  It was composed for the retirement of Robert Shaw from the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in 1988.  The music is a “complete” mass setting in a much more truncated form featuring mostly acapella choral work that blends a somewhat declamatory medieval modernism and a chant like solo countertenor.  Bells are added to bring the “Benedictus” to a rather exciting conclusion.  Lyrical lines are fairly brief but do finally appear in an interesting setting of the “Agnus Dei.”  The performances here are quite good and the piece feels more like it belongs to the 1960s non-dodecaphonic choral style.  It is a good reworking of material to create this rather unique whole.  Musically though it already begins to seem a bit overlong at ten minutes.  It is helped a bit by exciting rhythmic ideas added to the “Dona Nobis Pacem”.  There is more Britten perhaps to this work than anything.

    The centerpiece of the release is a recording of Bernstein’s third symphony, subtitled Kaddish.  For her performance, Alsop chose to return to the original version of the work from 1963 which featured a narrator.  The work was originally commissioned for the 75th anniversary of the Boston Symphony made jointly with the Koussevitzky Foundation.  The period of 1953-57 though had Bernstein at the height of a number of career developments from film scoring, three musicals, incidental music and even a violin concerto.  It was at this time that he became director of the New York Philharmonic as well.  As he finished the orchestration, news of the Kennedy assassination reached him, and he then chose to dedicate the work to the president.  The premiere was held in Tel Aviv instead, made possible by permission with the BSO which gave the US premiere in 1964 under Charles Munch.

    The three-movement work is perhaps the least performed or well-known of Bernstein’s works.  Though a “symphony” in one sense, the music is more perhaps appropriately a hybrid of oratorio and theatrical work.  The latter can be discerned in this versions use of narrator.  It is thought that Honegger’s Joan of Arc at the Stake from 1958 may have been one source of inspiration for the piece.  The symphony is a rather intense work with often angular and rises around important motifs all which appear to some extent in the opening “Invocation”.  Three different kaddish settings serve as signposts for the musical explorations that move from wild rhythms in the first “movement” to subtle lullaby to an almost Romantic feel after the third movement’s opening scherzo (with music closer to the composer’s theater and film style).  The variety of tempi causes a fascinating array of sound and rhythmic complexity.  Here it becomes unsettled with the narrator seeming to reflect on the somewhat dissolution of musical ideas that appears.  Sometimes the effect can be quite chilling as in “Din Torah”.  The piece is thus one of the more intense and dramatic pieces, setting the stage perhaps for the more ambitious Mass that was to come.  The final “fugue” is fascinating as well…it still feels like Bernstein is trying very hard to be taken seriously as an art composer here.

    The performance here is equally intense and quite convincing.  Claire Bloom’s narration helps set the perfect tone here.  The dramatic interpretation works quite well against Bernstein’s musical essay.  Kelly Nassief’s solo is equally beautiful.  Though things may sometimes feel disjointed in their anguished pleas, the work still manages to hold together even when it feels like it is about to explode and fall apart.  The rewrites of the work dealt with adjusting narration to be less specific for female voice.  Some text settings were also placed over music to reduce performance length.  The original score is being used for this performance.  Only the most dedicated Bernstein fans will appreciate what this does to the music.  Taken here on its own it makes for an almost filmic intense work of great power.  (Sometimes reminiscent of the work of film composer Leonard Rosenman!)

    Closing off the disc is Bernstein’s incidental music for The Lark, based on Lillian Hellman’s adaptation of Jean Anouilh’s play.  For this adaptation, made by Alsop, the choruses are put in dramatic order, differing from the published version where the Latin texts make up the final five sections.   A narrator has also been included to help provide greater context.  For this 1955 work, we really get more a sense of how this music fits in this period of Bernstein’s theater music becoming more critically noted.  The choruses of course find their way to the Missa Brevis which opens the disc and we are thus brought full circle.

    The performances here are quite good.  The imaging works very well for the narration and choral and solo groups fit well against this sound picture.  It would seem the hold up for the release may have been more tied to getting permission for printed text than any specific performance or sound quality issues.  Here’s to hopefully more exploration of Bernstein’s concert work!