Philip Glass Lavinia

You can see what Philip Glass liked about the harp in his music. On one hand, it’s a close substitute for a piano, which is involved in the originals of all three of these transcriptions. The excerpts from The Hours (tracks 7-12) were transcribed from a piano version of the original Nicole Kidman film soundtrack score, and unsurprisingly Meijer said that of the three works, that one gave her the most trouble.

Since their first encounter in May 2011, Lavinia Meijer has worked with some frequency with Philip Glass, even though he has never written solo works specifically for the harp. However, many of his piano works and piano transcriptions, after minor adjustments, prove to be well suited to the modern pedal harp. Initially, Lavinia Meijer added Glass's five movement Metamorphosis to her repertoire, on the instigation of the undersigned, the Amsterdam gallery owner Robert Malasch and the American composer himself.

An album the majority of whose contents consists of harp arrangements of music by Philip Glass might seem a bit arcane for a major label, but it seems that Sony knows what it is doing here. The Glass Effect double album is one of those releases that succeed on two different levels, an explicit one and one that, although not mentioned, is perhaps even more important. The former level here is the one denoted by the title, as Meijer picks up the rather neglected theme of Philip Glass' influence by offering, on disc two, a group of works by younger composers who follow Glass in varying degrees but who, it's safe to say, wouldn't have the styles they do without Glass having gone before. Much of the album consists of arrangements by Meijer herself, and these include, at the end, a remix of music from Koyaanisqatsi that's delightful and would be spoiled by description. But there's also solo harp music: sample the Suite for Harp by progressive rock musician Bryce Dessner, who certainly seems to have absorbed Glass' style far enough to make it his own.

Der Name „Kuschel Klassik“ ist etwas irreführend, da viele der Stücke auf der Doppel-CD zu schwer klingen für romantische Momente. Dazu kommen noch Kompositionen aus der geistlichen Musik, die ebenfalls nicht zum Kuscheln einladen. „Entspannungs-Klassik“ träfe die Sache schon eher. Denn die Doppel-CD ist eine Einladung zu einem akustischen Kurzurlaub, der den Alltagsstress mit beruhigenden Klängen vergessen macht.