Philip Glass

Orange Mountain Music presents the new album MUSICAL OFFERING by pianist Feico Deutekom. This new album presents new piano arrangements of classic works by Philip Glass as well as pieces originally composed for piano by Glass himself. Performed by Feico Deutekom who has a long working relationship with Philip Glass and is one of the preeminent specialists of late-Minimalist music, this new album presents new and old music in ways its never been heard before.

This Orange Mountain Music CD presents a new recording by the Basel Sinfonieorchester of Philip Glass Symphony No.1 Low based on the music of David Bowie & Brian Eno. Composed in 1992, Glass took his departure from Bowie & Eno s beautiful melodies in crafting a three-movement 46-minute symphony. This new recording conducted by Glass champion Dennis Russell Davies is a shimmering rendition of the work. Only the second recording of the Symphony, it s been 20 years since the last one, the previous recording was recorded in the studio sectionally whereas this new OMM recording was made live in Basel Switzerland and captures the vitality and evidence of the work as never heard before.

Icebreaker’s newest release, Philip Glass’ Music with Changing Parts is representative of an exciting new generation’s interest in one of the most important composers of our time.
Icebreaker is considered by many to be the United Kingdom’s leading new music ensemble. The 13-piece group, which tours extensively, has been an active champion of many of today’s most important composers.
Philip Glass’ 1970 score Music with Changing Parts has been part of the group’s touring repertoire for years. This recording brings a vivid re-imagining and fresh interpretation to one of Glass’ greatest scores.

The origins of Philip Glass' Voices, for didgeridoo and organ was specific: a commission from the city of Melbourne, Australia, in 2001. Yet the instrumental combination works so well that it seems almost foreordained, and Glass went on to write further music for the soloist here, Mark Atkins. In this performance, the didgeridoo and organ tracks were recorded separately, in Australia and upstate New York, respectively, and in Glass' metronomic world this works well enough. Yet one hopes that this release on Glass' Orange Mountain Music label is enough to spur future live performances with both players in the same room. The addition of the didgeridoo to the relatively homogeneous texture of Glass' organ writing is dramatic, but it doesn't disturb the basic shifting fields of the composer's music. It just deepens their color and variety in an immensely attractive way.

Orange Mountain Music presents this album of choral music by Philip Glass. The first work on the record is a re-issue of the Los Angeles Master Chorale's performance of Glass' large-scale orchestra and choral oratorio Itaipu. The piece was inspired by the giant hydro-electric dam in Brazil. It was part of a series of pieces Glass has done involving depictions of nature, man's relationship to nature, and also more generally fell into a recurrent theme in Glass' catalog involving the country of Brazil. Itaipu is conducted by Los Angeles Master Chorale Music Director Grant Gershon. The second work on the album is Philip Glass' only work for chorus a cappella. Three Songs are set to poems by three prominent writers, Leonard Cohen, Octavio Paz, and Raymond Levesque. Three Songs is performed by the Crouch End Festival Chorus conducted by David Temple and is a re-issue of the Silva Screen recording of the work from 2000.

Leave it to Christoph Eschenbach and the Houston Symphony to deliver one of the more impressive classical discs of 1999: a pairing of the violin concertos of John Adams and Philip Glass. Hearing the works of these two American music mavericks side-by-side is a study in contrasts: Adams's postmodernist composition from 1993 is filled with spooky overtones, as the violin threads its way through the piece, always at the forefront. It doubles as a ballet (the NYC Ballet cocommissioned the piece), yet never forgets the traditional violin-concerto form. Glass's composition from the late '80s is less complex. It, too, is based around a traditional structure of three movements, but these are passages we've heard from the composer for the last decade, though never quite so well assembled.