November 13, 2012

  • Review: Lincoln (Williams)

    An all-star cast heads Steven Speilberg’s big biopic, Lincoln, just in time for the Oscar season kick-off.  Daniel Day-Lewis portrays our 16th president’s final few months in office rife with the hope that a resolution to the ongoing War Between the States is yet to come.  The film also marks the 40th year of one of Hollywood’s best director-composer pairings.  John Williams has been down this Americana path with Spielberg several times and each new endeavor usually results in some of the best film music of the year.  Lincoln is no exception, even if it often revisits many familiar musical tropes and gestures.

    “The People’s House” begins this latest Americana score with Copland-esque majesty.  It certainly falls into line with the  many Williams’ works cast in our own history.  The music features a mix of turns like that heard in The Patriot, sweeping emotional moments that are a cross between Amistad and Rosewood and some gorgeous solo trumpet writing.  The introspective music has its roots in Williams’ work in Nixon, Born on the Fourth of July and even Saving Private Ryan.  And yet, everything still feels fascinatingly fresh with rich orchestration and command of the orchestra.  The countermelodies and instrumental colors create further variety.  The work feels like an extension of one career-length exploration of American history.  The folksy fun of “Getting Out the Vote” is reminiscent of The Reivers but here has such fascinating solo ideas that one is drug along for a rather classy hoedown.  Here the detail of the recording further makes the cue all the more interesting.  The music is constantly evolving in this score where the orchestral sections each are used to their fullest and the intricacies of the orchestration provide much to explore.  In “The Southern Delegation, and the Dream” Williams even throws in some fascinating clusters of sound followed by an anguished string section that is among some of his most interesting work.

    The touching “With Malice Toward None” appears as a final piano solo version to wrap up the album.  It’s earlier presentation for piano with orchestra is another of those concert-ready musical takeaways that Williams is so good at creating in his album presentations.  It is worth noting that the musical presentation of this score is simply superb providing a quite satisfying listening experience.  Perhaps it is old fashioned in a world of instant downloads to think that the placement of score cues does matter, but here is yet another brilliant example of just that.  While the somberness of the score certainly casts a shadow over the music, there are enough glimmers of hope through included folk music or intimations of such that help make for a moving listening experience.

    At 80 years old, John Williams’ needs little affirmation from the critical community perhaps about his contribution to Lincoln.  Throughout this score one feels as if there is a bit of nostalgic glancing back at some of these other musical Americana moments in the composer’s distinguished career, though they may be just another part of his personal patriotism combined with such masterful skill.  The Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus prove to be the perfect match for this music lending a great depth and class that the Boston Symphony brought to Schindler’s List.  The music may not have the same catchy concert music that seems to appear in most every Williams’ score, though “Freedom’s Call” may very well be that moment.  Instead it feels as if this would not more of a concert “portrait” that revisits the film music in a unique way.  Truly one of the finer scores of the year.