Symphony No. 3 (Bernstein)

Symphony no. 3 by Leonard Bernstein

Symphony No. 3 "Kaddish" is a programmatic choral symphony by Leonard Bernstein, published in 1963. It is a dramatic work written for a large orchestra, a full choir, a boys' choir, a soprano soloist and a narrator. "Kaddish" refers to the Jewish prayer that is chanted at every synagogue service for the dead but never mentions "death." The symphony is dedicated to the memory of John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated on November 22, 1963, just weeks before the first performance of the symphony. Leonard Bernstein wrote the text of the narration himself, but struggled with his own motivation for the aggressiveness of the text. In 2003, after talks with Bernstein shortly before his death, Holocaust survivor Samuel Pisar added a new narration about his personal experiences and how his family suffered and were murdered in the Holocaust, and his subsequent struggle with his belief. The Bernstein estate allowed this version to be used only with Samuel Pisar as recitator before his 2015 death.

The symphony was first performed in Tel Aviv, Israel, on December 10, 1963, with Bernstein conducting the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Jennie Tourel (mezzo soprano), Hanna Rovina (narrator) and the choruses under Abraham Kaplan. In this original version of the Kaddish Symphony, Bernstein specified that the narrator be female. The work was generally received with great enthusiasm in Israel. The American premiere of the work took place soon afterwards on the afternoon of January 31, 1964, in Boston with Charles Münch conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the New England Conservatory Chorus and the Columbus Boychoir, again with Tourel (mezzo), but now with Bernstein's wife, Felicia Montealegre as narrator. The American reactions to the work were decidedly mixed, ranging from highly favorable to vitriolic. In 1977 Bernstein revised the symphony, saying: "I was not satisfied with the original (version). There was too much talk. The piece is (now) tighter and shorter." With the revision, Bernstein no longer specified the gender of the narrator, and recordings featuring both male and female narrators have been made. In the first recording below (which is of the original version for female narrator), the narrator was Bernstein's wife, Felicia Montealegre, whereas in the second and third recordings below (which were of the revised work), the narrators were men, Michael Wager and Willard White. The Kaddish Symphony was often narrated by Samuel Pisar until his death in 2015; he wrote a new text for it describing his experience with the Holocaust, when all of his family suffered, and most perished.