Album

Anyone thinking that the eight Abraham Lincoln pieces offered here exhausted the store of musical representations of the 16th U.S. president will be quickly disabused; they represent a selection from about 90 pieces that were considered. For some composers, the Nashville Symphony and conductor Leonard Slatkin would have had a choice of multiple Lincoln pieces. Nevertheless, the program as it stands now is an attractive one, with two well-known pieces as bookends to a host of unknowns, and several works that are effectively played off against each other. In addition to Copland's familiar Lincoln Portrait, for example, there's Vincent Persichetti's A Lincoln Address, setting the Second Inaugural Address. The work was written for Nixon's corresponding inaugural, but Nixon's agents demanded the excision of certain passages of the text that might have been construed as antiwar (which tells you something!). The work was eventually withdrawn, and other orchestras rushed to perform it in its original version. Nashville actor Barri Scott is an effectively somber narrator here and in the Copland. Other highlights include Harris' chamber setting of the Vachel Lindsay poem "Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight," and Ernst Bacon's "Ford's Theatre: A Few Glimpses of Easter Week, 1865." This work was originally written as music to accompany a play, but some of the very specific scenes involved come through in independent performance. There are more resonant performances of the Copland around, but this disc will have relevance for any number of collections. Texts, in English only, are included.

© James Manheim, All Music Guide

CD 1 of 2
Charles Edward Ives Composer Lincoln, the Great Commoner, for chorus and orchestra, S.184 Work Recorded 2008 Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Nashville Symphony Chorus Chorus/Choir, Leonard Slatkin Conductor
1	Lincoln, the Great Commoner, for chorus and orchestra, S.184	3:39			$0.99
Vincent Persichetti Composer A Lincoln Address, for orchestra, Op.124 Work Recorded 2008 Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin Conductor, Barri Scott Narrator
2	A Lincoln Address, for orchestra, Op.124	13:22			$2.49
Roy Harris Composer Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight, for mezzo-soprano & orchestra Work Recorded 2008 Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Sharon Mabry Mezzo-Soprano, Roger Wiesmeyer Piano, Mary Kathryn Vanosdale Violin, Leonard Slatkin Conductor, Anthony Lamarchina Cello
3	Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight, for mezzo-soprano & orchestra	14:10			$2.49
Ernst Bacon Composer A Few Glimpses of Easter Week, 1865 Work Recorded 2008 29:42 Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin Conductor
4	1.Preamble	1:43			$0.99
5	2.Walt Whitman and the Dying Soldier	2:42			$0.99
6	3.Passing Troops	2:42			$0.99
7	4.The Telegraph Fugue (an Etude for Strings - with timpani)	5:07			$0.99
8	5.Moonlight on the Savannah	2:03			$0.99
9	6.The Theatre	1:26			$0.99
10	7.The River Queen	2:26			$0.99
11	8.Premonitions (a duett with a hall clock)	1:51			$0.99
12	9.Pennsylvania Avenue, April 9, 1865	3:35			$0.99
13	10.Good Friday, 1865	3:15			$0.99
14	11.The Long Rain	1:17			$0.99
15	12.Conclusion	1:35			$0.99
CD 2 of 2
Morton Gould Composer A Lincoln Legend Work Recorded 2007 Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin Conductor
1	A Lincoln Legend	16:36			$2.99
George Frederick McKay Composer To a Liberator (A Lincoln Tribute), for orchestra Work Recorded 2008 11:18 Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Nashville Symphony Chorus Chorus/Choir, Leonard Slatkin Conductor
2	Evocation	3:10			$0.99
3	Choral Scene	2:49			$0.99
4	March	2:06			$0.99
5	Declaration	0:43			$0.99
6	Epilogue	2:30			$0.99
Paul Turok Composer Variations on an American Song: Aspects of Lincoln and Liberty, Op.20 Work Recorded 2007 Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin Conductor
7	Variations on an American Song: Aspects of Lincoln and Liberty, Op.20	9:18			$1.49
Aaron Copland Composer Lincoln Portrait, for speaker and orchestra Work Recorded 2007 Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin Conductor, Barri Scott Narrator
8	Lincoln Portrait, for speaker and orchestra	14:31			$2.49