ESO to perform Bernstein's first symphony 'Jeremiah,' which helped heal rift between father and son

The Elgin Symphony Orchestra's final performances of the season, set for 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 30, and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, May 1, at the Hemmens Cultural Center in Elgin. are more than just entertainment - they offer an insight into a relationship between a father and son.

In the spring of 1939 Leonard Bernstein received his diploma cum laude from Harvard, and, like many another college graduates, wondered what to do next.

His father, Sam Bernstein, tried to woo him into his prosperous beauty supply business, an offer which he firmly refused. (It must be admitted that the notion of Leonard Bernstein selling hair products is a delightfully surrealistic image.) He went instead to New York for the summer, where he rented a roach-infested apartment with his friend Adolph Green, the future lyricist and writer of Broadway and Hollywood fame.

In addition to pondering his future, cavorting with bohemian friends, and lounging around Greenwich Village nightspots, he began work on "Lamentation," a piece for soprano and orchestra set, in Hebrew, to a text from the "Lamentations of Jeremiah."

It is possible that Bernstein intended from the beginning that "Lamentation" would be part of a larger work. In any case, the sketch made that summer was put aside as he enrolled at the Curtis Institute for two years to study primarily conducting and piano. The impetus to complete the work came in 1942 in the form of a competition sponsored by the New England Conservatory of Music. The young composer was particularly eager to make an impression because the chairman of the jury was Serge Koussevitsky, conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the man who had already become his mentor and surrogate father figure.

Bernstein had decided to add two orchestral movements and use the "Lamentation" as the finale of his first symphony. The deadline for entry into the competition was the last day of 1942, which Bernstein met only after many sleepless nights and the assistance of his sister Shirley and what she called "a small army of friends" to do the copying. Bernstein and a friend hopped a train from New York and the friend delivered the manuscript, anonymously as the rules required, to Koussevitzky's Boston apartment at about 10 p.m. on New Year's Eve.

Although Koussevitzky was not impressed with the symphony and Bernstein did not win the competition, the new work soon attracted attention. Harms Publishing was eager to publish it, and, best of all, Bernstein received a call from his former conducting teacher at Curtis, the redoubtable Fritz Reiner.

Reiner, who would cap his career with a memorable stint as conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, was then conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and he offered Bernstein the opportunity to conduct the premiere of his new symphony in Pittsburgh. Generous as the offer was, there seems also to have been some measure of ulterior motive. Reiner, a notoriously testy and thin-skinned fellow, was apparently jealous that Koussevitsky, a major conducting rival, was receiving most of the public recognition as Bernstein's mentor.

Reiner's ploy proved successful - the Pittsburgh premiere in January of 1944 was a sensational triumph for Bernstein both as composer and conductor and Reiner could bask in the reflected glory of his protégé.

Koussevitzky himself had apparently overcome his misgivings about the symphony and gave Bernstein the opportunity to conduct it with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in February. Following that, Bernstein, who had already been appointed assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic, conducted it four times in New York. In May, the New York Critics Circle voted the symphony the best new work of the season.

The "Jeremiah" Symphony may have structural flaws, as critics have been quick to point out, but it is a stunning achievement for a 24-year-old composer, and has proved to be a remarkably durable addition to the small number of symphonies by American composers that have managed to hold a place in the symphonic repertoire.

Although Bernstein took pains to say that the instrumental portions of the work were not to be taken as literal storytelling, the extra-musical associations clearly dominate the entire work and had deep personal significance for the composer.

To begin with, the symphony is dedicated to Bernstein's father, with whom he had a loving, but somewhat problematic relationship. Among the issues between them was Sam Bernstein's opposition to his son's plans for a musical career.

The elder Bernstein, himself the immigrant son of a rabbi, didn't want his son to be a klezmer, a wandering musician who never knew whence his next meal would come.

If not the hair business, then why not become a rabbi? It was not until his son's spectacular debut as conductor of the New York Philharmonic in November 1943 that Sam Bernstein became reconciled to his son's career choice, and it was then that the young composer decided to dedicate his first symphony to his father.

The entire family drama was deftly summarized by Papa Bernstein's often quoted line, "How could I know that my son would grow up to be Leonard Bernstein?"

Elgin Symphony Orchestra Music Director Andrew Grams conducts the ESO, named 2016 Illinois Orchestra of the Year by the Illinois Council of Orchestras, in its season finale concerts April 30 and May 1.

The program holds Bernstein's Symphony No. 1, "Jeremiah" and Mahler's Symphony No. 4, both featuring soprano Laura Wilde, a member of the Chicago Lyric Opera's Ryan Opera Center.

The concerts will be at the Hemmens Cultural Center, 45 Symphony Way in Elgin. For tickets, which start at $30, see ElginSymphony.org or call (847) 888-4000. Saturday night concertgoers are invited after the performance to attend "Mingle with the Musicians" at the Elgin Public House.