Philip Glass

Symphony No. 15 (Glass)

Symphony No. 15 (Lincoln) is the fifteenth symphony by American composer Philip Glass. The piece was jointly commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra and the Kennedy Center, and portrays the

History#

In 2022, Glass was commissioned to compose the symphony to honor the life of President Abraham Lincoln and to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Kennedy Center of Performing Arts. Prior to this piece, Glass had included Lincoln as a character in several of his works, but unlike in those older compositions, Lincoln would be the main focus. During the composing of the piece, while Glass primarily drew from the “Lyceum Address,” he also took inspiration from Lincoln’s later speeches and writings, such as Lincoln’s Farewell Address (1861), the Emancipation Proclamation (1863), and Lincoln’s final address, which had been spoken on April 11th, 1865.

Cancellations#

On January 27, 2026, the 188th anniversary of when Lincoln had spoken the “Lyceum Address”, Glass publicly announced the cancellation of the symphony’s premiere at the Kennedy Center due to his belief that the center’s values didn’t align with Lincoln’s and were therefore in conflict with the piece’s message and central meaning. The decision was made a month after the center’s board voted to add Donald Trump to the facility’s name. It would have made its premiere on June 12 and 13, 2026. Prior to this, the piece’s debut had already been delayed and postponed several times from when it was originally scheduled in March, 2022, due to Glass failing to complete the work by the deadline. began reciting excerpts from Lincoln’s “Lyceum Address” on the stage of Carnegie Hall. New sources interpreted his iteration as a renewal of Lincoln’s message of civility and as a warning against democracy’s dangers.

Premiere year#

The piece was premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, at Tanglewood, on July 5, 2026, at 2:30 PM, and was conducted by Karen Kamensek; the performance commemorated the United States’ 250th Anniversary and also included Copland’s Lincoln Portrait (1942) narrated by Alec Baldwin, and a suite from John Williams’s score for the film Lincoln. The work will be premiered in New York by conductor Dennis Russell Davies, solo baritone Zachary James, and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, at Carnegie Hall, on Glass’s 90th birthday, January 31st, 2027. A subsequent performance by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra was also scheduled and will take place at Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall on June 4 and 6, 2027, and will be conducted by Jonathan Leshnoff.

Instrumentation and form#

The piece is approximately 35 minutes long and consists of 8 movements; it is arranged for solo baritone and orchestra.

Reception#

According to Jonathan Blumhofer of the Boston Classical Review, the symphony was not groundbreaking in terms of musicality and instead consisted of “arpeggiated gestures and layering of subtle metric dissonances.” He stated that while this style- which had been Glass’s “hallmark” for the prior 50 years- was effective, it failed to greatly emphasize the changes in tone during the piece’s dramatic moments. Later in the review, he added that unstated moments in the piece were “enhanced by the essentially unflashy nature of Glass’s setting” before complimenting the composition’s instrumentation, lyricism, and playfulness. On the piece’s premiere, Clarence Fanto of The Berkshire Eagle stated that while premieres by the Boston Symphony weren’t rare, “Sunday’s first performance of Symphony No. 15, ‘Lincoln,’ by Philip Glass was especially weighty and, dare we say, historic.” Premiere conductor Karen Kamensek stated that when hearing the piece, she “heard it as four columns of sound.” Following this, she stated that those were the “columns that our society is built on,” interpreting them as human morals and values that people can view differently from one another.

Composer: Philip Glass