The Hague Philharmonic / Carolyn Kuan PHILIP GLASS Life

 A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME

Anton Batagov PHILIP GLASS The Hours / Distant Figure

THE HOURS / DISTANT FIGURE

Tara Hugo sings PHILIP GLASS

TARA HUGO SINGS PHILIP GLASS

Philip Glass Ensemble PHILIP GLASS Music in Eight Parts

MUSIC IN EIGHT PARTS

Dennis Russell Davies / Bruckner Orchester Linz PHILIP GLASS Symphony No. 11

                                                               SYMPHONY NO. 11

Paul Barnes / Brooklyn Rider PHILIP GLASS Annunciation

                                                                    ANNUNCIATION

Simone Dinnerstein / A Far Cry CIRCLES

At first glance, Philip Glass and J.S. Bach might seem like strange bedfellows. But their keyboard concertos, separated by some 285 years, end up complementing, rather than contradicting each other on Circles, a new album from pianist Simone Dinnerstein and the Boston-based string orchestra A Far Cry.

Glass, like Bach before him, keeps churning out new and distinctive music. The Piano Concerto No. 3, written for Dinnerstein and premiered by her in September 2017, is another example of late period Glass (he turned 81 in January) that leans toward romantic harmonies while maintaining its minimalist pulse. Dinnerstein's creamy tone and elastic phrasing gives the music an air of Schubertian warmth and wistfulness, reminiscent of Glass' searching, melody-driven Etude No. 20, especially in the concerto's second movement cadenza.

The third movement, dedicated to the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, is appropriately meditative as it works through a beautifully brooding theme, set off with tolling bells in the piano's lowest register. The keyboard and strings converse in a simpatico, rather than adversarial, relationship not unlike the congenial tone Bach conjures in the slow movement of his concerto.

Bach's Keyboard Concerto in G minor (BWV 1058), one of the first of its kind, was derived from an earlier work and most likely revamped for one of the composer's coffee house concerts in Leipzig in the early 1730s. In the first movement, melodies in the strings and piano interlock, unfold and repeat in a kind of pre-minimalist way. Dinnerstein, a singularly elegant Bach pianist, makes the second movement sing sweetly while the final movement dances with carefree steps, trills and virtuosic runs across the keyboard.

These two concertos, with their multiple, alternating voices and entwined repetitions, may reside on opposite ends of music history, but they share a common language that needs no translation – especially in such sympathetic performances. (Tom Huizenga)

Landestheater Linz / Bruckner Orchester Linz / Dennis Russell Davies PHILIP GLASS Kepler

This recording of Philip Glass' opera Kepler comes from the world-premiere production at the Landestheater Linz in 2009. Veteran Glass associate Dennis Russell Davies leads soloists and the chorus of the theater and the Bruckner Orchester Linz in the performance. Kepler, a treatment of the life and thought of the 17th century German astronomer, returns to the epic themes of the trio of great biographical operas that initiated Glass' career as an opera composer, Einstein on the Beach, Satyagraha, and Akhnaten, and the libretto in German and Latin by Martina Winkel has some echoes of the non-linear aspect of those works. The music reflects more recent developments in the composer's style, particularly a use of denser, thicker orchestral textures, more like those of The Voyage, which Davies recorded with the Linz forces after its 2002 European premiere. The music doesn't break any new ground (except for perhaps the increased prominence Glass gives to the large percussion section) and lacks the variety that made works like Einstein and Satyagraha so striking. Particularly in the first of the two acts, the music has a relentlessly anguished, roiling quality. The second act is more musically successful, with greater textural and tonal variety. For the most part, the higher voices, among both the soloists and the chorus, sound taxed and strained by Glass' demands for so much singing in the upper register. In the title role, baritone Martin Achrainer sings with warmth and security, and gives focus to a production that is not otherwise especially vocally gratifying. Kepler may not rank among Glass' most memorable operas, which include his first three and later works like La Belle et la Bête and Orphée, but it should be of interest to the composer's fans, and it's always valuable to have a recording of a major composer's large-scale works. (Stephen Eddins)

Kristjan Järvi / MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra / Absolute Ensemble PHILIP GLASS Aguas da Amazonia

Kristjan Järvi wanted to do something extra special to celebrate the 80th birthday of Philip Glass, the renowned American composer of minimalist music (or ‘music with repetitive structures’ to use Glass’s preferred terminology). Kristjan had fallen in love with Glass’s Aguas da Amazonia when he first heard it performed by the experimental Brazilian group UAKTI. Originally conceived in the 1990s as a dance score for a ballet company in Belo Horizonte, the music is inspired by the great Amazon river and its tributaries, and is influenced by folklore, jazz and New Age elements. When Kristjan was planning the Baltic Sea Philharmonic’s repertoire for 2017 and developing his idea of fusing music with lighting and projection art, he knew that Aguas da Amazonia would be perfect for the ‘Waterworks’ tour. He says: ‘I called Philip up and said, “This is an amazing piece. Can I please get it orchestrated?” And he said, “Yes, let’s do it!” So I asked Charles Coleman to arrange it, and he’s done a brilliant job.’

A recording of the new orchestration, with Kristjan conducting the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra and members of his New York-based Absolute Ensemble, was released earlier this year by Philip Glass’s label Orange Mountain Music. 

PHILIP GLASS Book of Longing

Leonard and I first began talking about a poetry and music collaboration more than six years ago. We met at that time in Los Angeles, and he had with him a manuscript that became the basis of the collection of poetry now published as the Book of Longing. In the course of an afternoon that stretched into the evening, he read virtually the whole book to me. I found the work intensely beautiful, personal, and inspiring. On the spot, I proposed an evening-length work of poetry, music, and image based on this work. Leonard liked my idea, and we agreed to begin. Now, six years later, our stars are in alignment, the book is published, and I have composed the music.

For me, this work is both a departure from past work and a fulfillment of an artistic dream. (Philip Glass)

PHILIP GLASS and SUSAN MARSHALL Les Enfants Terribles

This low-budget Philip Glass opera, Les enfants Terribles, is based on a novel and play by Jean Cocteau, forming the third ring in Glass' trilogy of works devoted to the elaborate personal mythology of the great French visionary. Foregoing the controversial and dualistic 1949 film of Les enfants Terribles made by Jean-Pierre Melville, Glass decided to realize the visual element through a collaboration with choreographer Susan Marshall, re-creating Cocteau's story as a "dance opera." Les enfants Terribles is the most compelling Glass score beheld in many years. 

Released by Glass' own Orange Mountain Music, the recording sounds like a rehearsal, with the voices of the principals -- soprano Christine Arand, mezzo-soprano Valerie Komer, bass-baritone Phillip Cutlip, and tenor Hal Cazalet -- drifting about in space as if though going through the motions of a play blocked out in a large dance studio. Glass eschews his patented orchestral scoring for a Les noces-esque rendering of the music for three pianos, played by Nelson Padgett, Eleanor Sandresky, and Glass himself. Glass' harmonies and patterns gain added strength and freshness played on multiple pianos with their combined sense of attack and percussive intensity, and avails himself of more pointed harmonic language here than is his usual wont. While Glass doesn't make a big noise about his time of study with Darius Milhaud (no one who did so does), his approach to the vocal writing in Les enfants Terribles is not dissimilar to Milhaud, side-stepping conventional melodic turns and tone painting to imbue Cocteau's French with a sort of harmonized speech. The total package grabs one's attention right away, and holds it throughout both of the discs in the set -- one is eager to move from the first to the second. 

 This highly personal and well-realized work was recorded at about the time Elektra Nonesuch was putting out practically every note of music that Glass wrote. Perhaps the group decided to pass on this project; now the recording is nearly a decade old, and Glass has decidedly moved on to other things. Nonetheless, Nonesuch's loss is Orange Mountain Music's gain, and ours as well, as Les enfants Terribles is well worth going out of one's way to get. To those who think Glass lost his edge many years ago, take note. (Uncle Dave Lewis)

Tim Fain plays PHILIP GLASS Partita for Solo Violin

World première recording. In 2007, Philip Glass began a collaboration with violinist Tim Fain when Fain played on Glass' piece 'Book of Longing', a song-cycle set to poems by Leonard Cohen. 'Book of Longing' features instrumental solos by each member of the mixed ensemble. Since that time Glass became interested in Fain's interpretations and Fain was one of the soloists who performed with the Glass Chamber Players. Fain has been an advocate of Glass' music as a soloist for both Glass violin concertos, performed and recorded Glass' Double Concerto for Violin & Cello, and for the past couple of years has toured extensively with Glass in chamber music performances. All this activity culminated with Glass composing 'Partita for Solo Violin' specifically for Fain which is featured here in its world-premiere recording. This piece is the central work around which their duo performances are based, and Fain has incorporated the Partita into his multimedia project 'Portals'. This recital also features solo violin music from 'Einstein on the Beach', the interludes from the Second Violin Concerto, and the solo violin music from 'Book of Longing', the piece in which the Glass/Fain collaboration began.  (Amazon)

Matt Haimovitz / Dennis Russell Davies PHILIP GLASS Cello Concerto No. 2 "Naqoyqatsi"

As the subtitle indicates, the music in the Cello Concerto No. 2 ("Naqoyqatsi") of Philip Glass is not new but is drawn from the score to the film of that title composed by Glass in 2002. Though the term is drawn from Hopi cosmology, the film used a good deal of computer-assisted imagery to address the theme of the relationship between technology and the natural world. Glass' music, as usual, is entirely performed on conventional orchestral instruments. The original score had a prominent cello part, performed on the soundtrack recording by Yo-Yo Ma, and Glass has here boiled the original score, with perhaps a dozen cuts, down to seven movements that seem to make a vaguely linear sequence. The music is a good example of Glass' mature film scores, which may endure as his most lasting works; it combines the composer's characteristic minimal textures with more elaborate cello lines, some involving lightly extended techniques, that seem to evoke the metaphysical concept under examination ("Massman," "Intensive Time," "Point Blank," etc.). Although there's nothing new here, the version makes an attractively sized package of Glass, and listeners without access to the film may well prefer it as more coherent in this form. The realization is very strong. Cellist Matt Haimovitz, who has specialized in experimental mixtures of concert and vernacular traditions, acquits himself in such a way that no one will be thinking about Yo-Yo Ma; Glass' solo parts, although not virtuosic in a fancy way, aren't easy, for they require the composer's ensemble concepts to be sustained over long periods. Haimovitz soars. Another attraction is the superlative live recording in Cincinnati's venerable Music Hall; it would be hard to think of a venue that would be better in providing the resonant yet clean acoustic Glass' music demands. The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra under Dennis Russell Davies, who has conducted a lot of Glass in his time, catches the grander moments of the score without giving them the pounding quality they take in inferior Glass performances. (James Manheim)

Michael Riesman PHILIP GLASS Dracula

In 2004 Orange Mountain Music released an album of solo piano transcriptions of Philip Glass’ Oscar and Golden Globe nominated score to The Hours.  These transcriptions were done by Glass’ longtime Music Director and pianist Michael Riesman.

Mr Riesman’s solo piano transcription of The Hours score proved so successful that Orange  Mountain Music was inspired to approach Riesman again to make an arrangement of Glass’ haunting score to Todd Browning’s 1931 classic Dracula which starred Bela Lugosi.

Glass’ original score was written for string quartet and was recorded and toured by the Kronos Quartet. This new arrangement of the score is treated to a truly virtuosic performance by Michael Riesman and includes a previously unrecorded track which was composed by Glass but was left out of the soundtrack recording.

Riesman’s extraordinary playing brings life and phenomenal craftsmanship to a seemingly timeless musical score.