The New York Times-20080124-First Symphonies- One Agitated- One Light

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First Symphonies: One Agitated, One Light

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Ninety is a nice round number, and also a good excuse to celebrate the memory of Leonard Bernstein, born in 1918. The Philadelphia Orchestra, led by Christoph Eschenbach, brought Bernstein's Jeremiah Symphony to Carnegie Hall on Tuesday night, surrounding it with music by Tchaikovsky.

Bernstein was 24, and World War II well under way, when he composed the Jeremiah. With its biblical texts set for a mezzo-soprano, it belongs to a genre of war music next to Stravinsky's Symphony in Three Movements and the Leningrad Symphony of Shostakovich, a major propaganda coup for an embattled Soviet Union.

The nervous energy that Bernstein would later apply to happier events serves agitation and gloom. The fracturing of meter into uneven bits is already present. So are the high emotion and pursuit of extremes: highs against lows and tough, crowded string writing, everything set off by shrill winds. Bernstein softens the blows with responses of great sweetness. I hear dead spots, especially in the vocal finale, but a lot of the Bernstein personality is here too.

This was an evening of first symphonies. Tchaikovsky also wrote his four-movement Winter Daydreams in his 20s but tinkered with it for years to come. Its air is delightfully fresh. A young composer greets a world he finds filled with grace and light, with each movement more welcoming than the last. Even in a Scherzo Tchaikovsky cannot resist a waltz.

The Winter Daydreams (Tchaikovsky named it himself) is a world away from the depressive spirit of the Jeremiah, and from his own later Fantasy-Overture Romeo and Juliet, which began the evening. It may be a dangerous thing to say, but the Philadelphia is better suited to Tchaikovsky than any other orchestra I know, including the Russian ones that make a specialty of such things.

With its paradox of dark Russian soul against its taste for western European luxury, Romeo and Juliet plays to this orchestra's extraordinary depth of string sound and its virtuoso capacity for detail. One listens to the playing of this wonderful piece and thinks what a magnificent beast the Philadelphia is.

For better or worse, it was a conductor's performance. One felt Mr. Eschenbach's hand on every separation of phrase, every choice of tempo (either very fast or very slow), every rise and fall. The rapid tuttis were very exciting and the wind solos beautifully done. Some might have preferred a final product in which the manufacturing process was not made so noticeable.

Rinat Shaham sang in the Bernstein. She has an excellent voice and was a handsome stage presence. She also took her subject matter with great seriousness. I hope that she will one day decide that the concert stage is not the right place for all those operatic gestures. Better to stand straight, keep still and let the music do the talking.

[Illustration]PHOTO: Rinat Shaham and Christoph Eschenbach at Carnegie Hall. (PHOTOGRAPH BY JENNIFER TAYLOR FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES)