Philip Glass.
In Tuesday’s (3/3) Boston Globe, A.Z. Madonna writes, “The Boston Symphony Orchestra will perform Philip Glass’s new Abraham Lincoln-inspired symphony, which Glass recently withdrew from its originally slated June 2026 world premiere performance at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. The BSO announced today that it will perform Glass’s Symphony No. 15, ‘Lincoln,’ at Tanglewood on … Sunday, July 5, on a program that also includes Aaron Copland’s 1942 ‘Lincoln Portrait’ and selections from John Williams’s score to Steven Spielberg’s 2012 biographical film ‘Lincoln.’ In a statement provided by the orchestra, Glass said … ‘The performance of this new symphony falls into the current discussion about our national identity and values.’… Glass … announced in late January that he was withdrawing the symphony from its scheduled world premiere performance by the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center. ‘Symphony No. 15 is a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, and the values of the Kennedy Center today are in direct conflict with the message of the symphony,’ Glass wrote [at the time] on his Instagram…. The symphony was commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra and the Kennedy Center.”
After Glass withdrew the work from the Kennedy Center, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra was slated to give its world premiere during the 2026-27 season. In Wednesday’s (3/4) Musical America, Taylor Grant writes, “The BSO performance will be the first, but hardly the last of the much-ballyhooed symphony. The Orchestra of St. Luke’s is scheduled for its New York premiere next season in Carnegie Hall, while the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will follow suit in June of 2027…. At Tanglewood, the symphony will be conducted by Karen Kamensek and feature baritone soloist Zachary James, both of whom were scheduled to take part in the scrapped Kennedy Center performances.”
