New World Symphony Opens Its 2025–26 Season with a Declaration of Principles

The opening concert of the New World Symphony’s 2025–26 season was as unusual as it was unique. It was not merely splendid but a remarkable declaration of artistic and human principles, one that grew in intensity as the evening unfolded. It became a memorable night of meaning and projection that transcended the strictly musical realm—a renewed confirmation of music as a noble messenger of the human spirit. A moment of affirmation, of trust in the power of daily improvement, and of reflection on how to achieve it while remaining upstanding in a chaotic world.

Stéphane Denève opened the evening with Aaron Copland’s «Fanfare for the Common Man«, always a welcome prelude, both solemn and accessible to all audiences. Performed outdoors in SoundScape Park, enhanced by a superb new sound system, it surprised and warmly greeted the audience gathered for the first Wallcast of the season.

Once inside the Michael Tilson Thomas Performance Hall, the evening featured the official debut of conducting fellow Zewei Ma, who led James Lee III’s «Chuphshah! Harriet’s Drive to Canaan». This musical portrait of the abolitionist—and former slave—Harriet Tubman, depicted as a modern-day Moses, uses the Hebrew word chuphshah to symbolize the journey toward freedom. The composer skillfully weaves together phrases from hymns, spirituals, and popular songs, and through vivid contrapuntal textures paints a striking image of Tubman and her time. Ma navigated these challenges with confidence, leading the New World Symphony’s 37 new orchestral academy fellows, whose exceptional performance level stood out in this first outing.

Beethoven brought sacred fire to the second half of the program with his Symphony No. 3, “Eroica”, that sweeping work of early nineteenth-century revolution that changed the course of music. Confronting his own demons and abyss , Beethoven forged here a sonic colossus in a gesture of almost superhuman defiance. In the sublime Funeral March “for the death of a hero,” Beethoven, as scholar Lewis Lockwood reminds us, introduces death and commemoration into the symphonic form for the first time. By furiously erasing the original dedication to Napoleon and replacing it with “To the memory of a great man,” he turned the work into a universal mirror—each listener is the hero called to shape their own destiny.

In keeping with the philosophical tone of the evening, Denève offered a reading of feverish intention and controlled intensity, marked by historically informed clarity and unusual sharpness of texture. The Funeral March arrived as a balm—a solemn yet gentle invitation to eternal rest—while the celebrated coda rekindled the Promethean spark that gave birth to the entire symphony.

Before the Eroica, the orchestra presented Copland’s “Lincoln Portrait,” a cornerstone of American musical identity. The decision to include it was both timely and symbolic. As historian Kaylyn Sawyer notes, “It has been performed to celebrate victories of democracy, to console in times of conflict, to inspire Americans toward greatness, and to exhort them to action when cherished principles have been threatened. Far from being a hollow patriotic gesture, Lincoln Portrait is a powerful musical monument, received by audiences who see in Lincoln’s greatness the story of an America striving to live up to its ideals of freedom and equality.”

Commissioned by André Kostelanetz after the attack on Pearl Harbor—Copland had first considered Walt Whitman as a candidate—the work unfolds in three sections portraying Lincoln’s character, his time, and the fate that awaited him. Copland enriches his own themes with period hymns and ballads, creating a fascinating and meaningful “melting pot” of sound, emphasizing Lincoln as the “common man,” in spiritual kinship with the fanfare that opened the evening.

Premiered in 1942 by Kostelanetz and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the work has enjoyed a triumphant trajectory ever since. Though less frequently performed in the 1950s, when Copland faced political scrutiny, it later reaffirmed its place as one of the most powerful statements in American music. The list of distinguished narrators is breathtaking, to name a few, Marian Anderson, Henry Fonda, Paul Newman, Katharine Hepburn, Maya Angelou, James Earl Jones, Coretta Scott King, Copland himself, and even several U.S. presidents—Carter, Ford, Bush, Clinton, and Obama.

For this performance, the New World Symphony was joined by actor Joshua Malina (The West Wing), who delivered the narration with impeccable restraint—clear, sincere, and moving, avoiding theatrical excess to reveal the enduring strength of Lincoln’s words.

Conducting before a projected image of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., Denève shaped this “musical monument” with passionate yet measured fervor, wisely pacing the score’s intensity and resisting the temptation of grandeur for its own sake. The music became a vessel for the moral force of the text.

Lincoln’s own words, projected on screen, resonated with chilling relevance:

“Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We, of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We hold the power and bear the responsibility… As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.”

A universal message that transcends borders and time, urging us to rediscover the greatness of the American president and his ideals. Thus, the New World Symphony inaugurated its new season with a concert of deep resonance—one worthy of the standing ovation that followed, and of the renewed desire to remember, and live by, the words of “Honest Abe.”

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photos Alex Markow – courtesy of NWS