Abraham Lincoln: A Likeness in Symphony Form / etc

"The performances by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra under American conductor William T. Stromberg are fine for a first take on these pieces, if somewhat restrained...recording sound is generally clean...and textures transparent. Overall, this Naxos entry in its American Classics series provides a long overdue tribute to an American composer whose many and wonderfully varied accomplishments cry out for further exploration and rediscovery."
- American Music (Noah Andre Trudeau) Fall, 2000

Robert Russell Bennett orchestrated over 300 of the great Broadway musicals, including Show Boat, Oklahoma, Annie Get Your Gun, South Pacific, The King and I, My Fair Lady, and The Sound of Music. He had a career in Hollywood films and as a conductor, yet found time to write a large list of 'classical' works, including operas, symphonic, chamber and instrumental music. Writing well into the 1960's, he never changed his style from one of rich melody, influenced by the many Europeans who came to Hollywood. Of his symphonic output, the Abraham Lincoln Symphony is a major score, capturing the great American politician in four colourful pictures.