LENOX, Mass. — Who better as America’s emblematic composer than Philip Glass?
In anticipation of the nation’s semiquincentennial festivities, Glass was commissioned for a symphony honoring the indisputably emblematic Abraham Lincoln, with the premiere by the National Symphony Orchestra scheduled for Washington’s Kennedy Center as part of the 2026 independence celebrations.
Glass declined the Kennedy Center premiere, but he finished the commission, his Symphony No. 15 (Lincoln).
The work made its debut at Tanglewood July 5 as performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra with conductor Karen Kamensek. The all-Lincoln program also included John Williams’ orchestral suite from the film Lincoln and Aaron Copland’s stirring Lincoln Portrait, with actor Alec Baldwin as narrator.
In his new symphony, Glass set Lincoln’s own words for baritone and orchestra, with longtime Glass interpreters Kamensek and Zachary James (the singing and narrative voice of Lincoln) joining the BSO. Glass previously incorporated an animatronic Lincoln into his opera The Perfect American, in which James sang the role in the 2013 premiere in Madrid.
The 15th Symphony enters the substantial Glass catalogue of some two dozen operas, among the most renowned of this generation, dozens of chamber works, including vast piano literature, and film scores (Koyaanisqatsi, Dracula, The Thin Blue Line, Kundun) marked by depth and poignancy. Glass — once the downtown rebel and then an eminent musical voice — was in the audience at Tanglewood, where he received a tremendous ovation afterward.
Glass’ symphony comprises eight movements, with little break, setting the 16th president’s own words but in Glass’s own chronology. Overall, the mood is declamatory, not dramatic: Lincoln’s words, taken from various texts, speak about how he feels and wonder how he might be judged by history, but they are not at all forceful. Some of the movements close inconspicuously, off-handedly, as if the speaker still had some unsounded thoughts. Lincoln did not lead by bluster.
Glass establishes a familiar minimal mood in the orchestra: a repeated triplet motive, ascending and descending, largely in the strings, shifting slightly over time. Accents of all kinds and strikingly melodic interludes recur throughout, but the original repeated structure never disappears.
This symphony isn’t long-form Glass, elaborately experimenting with extensive repetition and gradual metamorphosis; it lasts about a half-hour. The repeated instrumental pattern served splendidly as a backdrop for James’ vocal line, which stayed closer to Sprechstimme — some direct narration, some gentle simple melodies. Only a final pronouncement, a basso profundo “I bid you an affectionate farewell,” followed by an equally deep conclusion in low brass, added drama to the presentation.
Instrumental accents — harp, horns, bassoon, wood-block patterns eluding the downbeat — supply quirkiness. A chorale-sounding interlude during the second movement — left partially achieved — sounds anomalous, like a reference to a different era. This Lincoln, taciturn and melancholy by reputation, shows some humor: Of his early military service, he remembers “many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes.”
Glass’ Abraham Lincoln is hardly a populist rouser; the president in Copland’s Lincoln Portrait is just that. Copland wrote the work in 1942, based on Carl Sandburg’s character-defining Lincoln biography, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1940, when its sixth volume was published. Musically, it’s proper Copland, mining the composer’s own affection for folk songs, exploring the idiom that has become an American staple. Baldwin joins a list of distinguished narrators, including Sandburg himself and former presidents and contenders like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
Williams contributed the score to Steven Spielberg’s film Lincoln in 2012 and created a concert suite from the soundtrack soon thereafter. The suite has stayed in the regular Boston Pops rotation since then. Much as Copland’s Lincoln Portrait is pure Copland, Williams’ Lincoln sounds like pure Copland as well. The quotes and references are intentional, with unmistakable snippets from Appalachian Spring, Billy the Kid, and Lincoln Portrait itself. Characterful smaller moments — flute and cello solos (Elizabeth Klein and principal Blaise Déjardin), some country fiddling from concertmaster Alexander Velinzon, bold statements by principal trumpet Thomas Rolfs — colored in Williams’ musical portrait.
The three works create a substantial remembrance of a substantial president. Glass’ symphony does not repeat at Tanglewood, but his Lincoln has multiple performances scheduled throughout this year and next. The New York premiere, with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall, will mark the composer’s 90th birthday in January 2027.
