Israel at 60: Rebirth for Bernstein's 'Kaddish'
April 17, 2008 - Cantor David F. Tilman, Jewish Exponent Feature |
| Dr. Samuel Pisar |
It's been nearly 25 years since Leonard Bernstein's Symphony No. 3, "Kaddish," was premiered by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in Tel Aviv, with the composer conducting.
According to Bernstein's oldest daughter, Jamie Bernstein, the "Kaddish Symphony" -- together with his "Jeremiah Symphony" and the "Chichester Psalms" -- are collective statements of the composer's intense Jewish commitment and identity, significant Jewish textual and musical scholarship, and his theological wrestling with God.
Dedicated to the memory of the recently assassinated President John F. Kennedy, "Kaddish Symphony" was personal for the composer. Bernstein wrote an intense narration capturing his own struggles with the Almighty.
He was apparently never fully satisfied with his own text, and so revised it, conducting the premiere of the "final revised version" on Aug. 25, 1977, in Mainz, Germany. His daughter Jamie edited it again, and has narrated her version throughout the world.
The fourth and latest edition of the "Kaddish Symphony" will be presented by the Philadelphia Orchestra as the centerpiece of the local Jewish community's Israel 60 celebration on Thursday, April 17, along with compositions by Israeli composers Shimon Cohen and Paul Ben Haim. I spoke with Dr. Samuel Pisar, prominent international lawyer and Holocaust survivor, who has written an entirely new narration for the symphony, and Maestro John Axelrod, 42-year-old American-born and European-based Jewish conductor, in order to learn what is new about the presentation here at the Kimmel Center.
"I had a long personal relationship with Leonard Bernstein. He was an intimate friend of my wife Judith and myself," said Pisar.
In 1989, one year before he died, Bernstein asked Pisar to write a text for a program to be presented at the Warsaw Grand Opera, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II. As their musical relationship grew, the composer first asked Pisar to write a text for a Holocaust-based opera, then asked him to write a new narration for the "Kaddish Symphony" because of his dissatisfaction with his own efforts.
"Bernstein told me that my voice would be more authentic because I had suffered," said Pisar. "He expected of me, I believe, an intensely personal narrative drawn from my raw experience of the worst catastrophe ever perpetrated by humans against humans in the face of an indifferent God."
Initially, Pisar was unable to address his relationship with God. More than 10 years later, Pisar revisited Bernstein's now-posthumous request, and in the wake of the Sept. 11 tragedy, he sat down to write his own God-dialogue. Aided by Maestro Christoph Eschenbach, Pisar premiered his version at the Ravinia Festival with the Chicago Symphony.
Further revisions based on Pisar's continuing efforts to "convey my most intimate recollections of past events" have finally yielded the narrative to be performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra. First premiered last May in Berlin, the piece left the audience "devastated."
"I begin with a vehement disputation with God, leading to a slow reconciliation, staying in the tradition of Moses and Job. I am sure that the rabbis of Israel and Brooklyn will forgive me," said Pisar with a smile.
Recently, he began a musical collaboration with John Axelrod, an American-born Jewish conductor residing in Europe. Since 1996, Axelrod has found his unique voice as an advocate of music promoting "remembrance and reconciliation," including Holocaust- era composers Kurt Weill and Franz Schreker.
He has conducted orchestral concerts at Auschwitz and has recorded a series of discs of this music, including the Bernstein "Kaddish Symphony," with Pisar's reading of his own narration.
Maestro Axelrod believes that "music should not be judged by its ability to make people feel comfortable, but rather by its ability to resonate in one's soul."
As a teenager, he was privileged to have studied with Bernstein daily for more than three months, and he credits the conductor/composer with steering him to become an orchestral conductor with a purpose. Axelrod considers Pisar as a surrogate father, and is thrilled to bring his "Kaddish" version to Verizon Hall. Contrary to the instructions in Bernstein's score, the Philadelphia Singers will sing the kaddish prayer in a Polish/Ashkenazic accent, rather than the printed modern Sephardic pronunciation, to give authenticity to Pisar's horrendous recollections.
