Wish fulfillment: Lincoln for a day

LOS ANGELES County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky will get a holiday music gift early this year. His dream of narrating Copland’s “Lincoln Portrait,” which combines music with excerpts from the 16th president’s speeches, will be fulfilled in a performance Friday at Cal State Northridge’s Performing Arts Center.

“It started out as a result of a piece in the Calendar section,” Yaroslavsky said. “I was in the Fourth of July Parade at Pacific Palisades, and professor Lawrence Stoffel came running out of the crowd. He said he read about me and my ‘Lincoln Portrait’ fantasy. ‘We’re doing “Lincoln Portrait” this December,’ he said. ‘How’d you like to do it?’ I said, ‘Yeah. Here’s my card and e-mail me.’ ”

Yaroslavsky has been rehearsing with the orchestra, the CSUN Wind Ensemble, studying the score and listening to a recording of the work with Adlai Stevenson as the narrator.

“It’s all I’m listening to,” he said. “Lincoln’s words were powerful in the context of the 1860s, and can be powerful in today’s America as well.

“One thing I’ve found true of all the other narrators, including James Earl Jones and Henry Fonda, there’s no bombast in the narrative. The words speak for themselves. You don’t have to accentuate them. You’re tempted to. It’s hard for me, as a politician, not to. Most politicians tend to be excitable and rhetorical.

“This is a dream of a lifetime,” he added. “I consider it a stepping stone. I’ve already discussed it with [Los Angeles Philharmonic President] Deborah Borda. ‘Look,’ I told her, ‘if I acquit myself well, I have one remaining fantasy: I want to narrate “Lincoln Portrait” at the Bowl, whoever performs it.’ So the pressure’s on.”

--Chris Pasles