Lincoln comes to life in Michael Daugherty’s perfectly pitched new work

‘Letters from Lincoln’
Daugherty Letters from Lincoln Webern (arr Schwarz) Langsamer Satz. Im Sommerwind

Thomas Hampson/ Spokane Symphony / Eckart Preu
E1 F E1E-CD-7725 (51’ • DDD)

The principal reason why most Fourth of July concerts appear irretrievably centered on Sousa marches and that timeless classic of Americana, the 1812 Overture, is because the majority of nationally flavoured compositions are not very good. The music too often hovers between uneasy gravity and majestic grandiosity and, even when the patriotism is skillfully tempered, as in Copland’s Lincoln Portrait, the results are dramatically stiff and uncompelling.

All the more reason then to celebrate Michael Daugherty’s Letters from Lincoln. The song cycle was premiered by Thomas Hampson and the Spokane Symphony in February, 2009, and is here revealed not only as one of Daugherty’s best works but as one of the finest historically inspired works to come from any American composer in years.

Letters from Lincoln avoids the stodgy and didactic – largely because the 16th president was such a wonderful communicator, and with Daugherty’s texts taken entirely from Lincoln’s own words and writings, the Great Emancipator’s humour, eloquence, historical insight and fatalism come through magnificently.

Daugherty’s cycle manages to pack quite a bit of music and a lot of Lincoln into less than 30 minutes. It begins with a brief orchestral prelude, depicting the president’s Funeral Train, starting with a dirge-like chord and an elegiac trumpet. Lincoln’s brief self-description in “Autobiography” segues into the witty, self-effacing “Abraham Lincoln Is My Name” with its jaunty fiddle tune, the text sung with apt self-mocking swagger by Hampson. After “Mystic Chords of Memory”, which starkly reflects Lincoln’s hatred of war, come the two sections that are the heart of the cycle.  

In the “Letter to Mrs Bixby”, Lincoln’s honest heartfelt words of condolence and empathy for a mother whose five sons were killed in the war, makes an intensely moving song of empathy and condolence, nicely set off by an obbligato viola. Following a brief note of foreshadowing about son Tad’s pistol, comes the final section, the “Gettysburg Address”, which has to be one of the most graceful and natural musical settings of any famous political document, with its contrasting malign middle section, and artful interpolation of “Dixie”.

Letters from Lincoln is among Daugherty’s finest works, majestic yet skirting preachiness and deftly communicating the slain president’s humour, sadness and eloquence. Thomas Hampson is without peer in this American-flavoured repertoire and strikes an easy balance of vocal strength, expressive phrasing and rustic charm while avoiding pomposity. The Spokane Symphony plays very well indeed for music director Eckart Preu.

Early orchestral music of Anton Webern seems an odd coupling but actually works quite well with the gentle lyricism of Langsamer Satz and the darker, more brooding chromaticism of Im Sommerwind complementing the Daugherty work and here given evocative, atmospheric performances by Preu and the orchestra.

Short measure at 51 minutes, but Daugherty’s moving, masterful cycle deserves the widest circulation and offers a fine vehicle for baritones as well. Don’t be surprised if Letters from Lincoln quickly works its way into standard repertoire on Fourth of July concert programmes.