Whitman Songs (1999)

The atmosphere was distinctly more reflective after intermission as the orchestra and Abrams returned to the stage, this time with bass-baritone Dashon Burton, for Michael Tilson Thomas’s “Whitman Songs.” Thomas, a conductor and composer whose early career had deep connections to the BSO and Tanglewood, revealed in 2022 that he had been diagnosed the previous year with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer, and dialed back his engagements. More recently, he informed the public that the tumor has returned, and announced that he would “wind down his public appearances” after his 80th birthday celebration with the San Francisco Symphony in April.

Speaking from the podium before the “Whitman Songs,” Abrams did not reference Thomas’s health, but the elephant stood in the corner. “I’m standing on this stage because of MTT,” said Abrams, a Bay Area native, who shared memories of writing a letter to Thomas asking for conducting lessons and then receiving a reply full of helpful advice. “He gave me permission and an invitation to do the thing that I love to do.”

The taut and sprightly orchestral textures of the “Whitman Songs” recalled Copland’s “Old American Songs.” Abrams might have made more room in the first, “Who Goes There,” for Burton’s mellow and regal instrument, but the remaining two songs were stunning: the misty, slow-flowing “At Ship’s Helm,” with the sea’s vastness and loneliness represented in the orchestra while Burton’s voice glowed like a sunset over water, and then the joyous strides of “We Two Boys Together Clinging.”