Philip Glass

Philip Glass's early works have purely functional titles, and this one is no exception. His masterpiece in this repetitious and rigorously structural composition style– Music in Twelve Parts–may be just too much for some people to take. If so, then this disc may be just the ticket. Of course, Glass's many fans will snap it up as a matter of course, but as the title implies, there's somewhat more happening here than in his very first minimalist works–just enough so that newcomers to the style ought to find something to enjoy. An important disc, then, both as a milestone in the history of a major musical movement and a reminder of style that the composer has long since abandoned.

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.

Two world premiere recordings of pieces for cello by Philip Glass are paired on this debut solo recording by the American Wendy Sutter. The first, Songs and Poems for solo cello, composed for her last year, emphasises the singing quality of the instrument (here she plays on the renowned “ex Vatican Stradivarius”) while Tissues, written originally for Godfrey Reggio’s celebrated film Naqoyqatsi but not used in the final cut, also features percussionist David Cossin and Glass himself on piano.

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.

Philip Glass' string quartets may contain his most intimate music. They are works through which a very public composer, perhaps the most important opera reformer of our age and a longstanding collaborator in large-scale music theater, holds up a mirror to himself and his way of composing.
Even Glass' most loyal listeners may be surprised to learn that he has written eight quartets to date. His first three compositions, he says, were string quartets — student works, now discarded. His first numbered quartet was written in 1966, in Paris, shortly after Glass had finished his studies there with Nadia Boulanger and had been introduced to the music of India by Ravi Shankar. It is the culmination of Glass' earliest attempts at a highly reductive style, containing a series of short sections comprised of tiny repeated motives, and it proved the precursor of the classic minimalist technique he was soon to develop.

Philip Glass - Glass Organ Works - Donald Joyce (1993) {Catalyst 09026 61825 2}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 348 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 186 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 202 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1993 Catalyst / BMG Music | 09026 61825 2
Classical / Contemporary Classical / Organ

In his liner notes, Tim Page writes that he asked Donald Joyce to see if he thought there were "Wagnerian dimmensions in these scores." With this CD, Page concludes that Glass is reconciled "not only with Wagner but with an entire genre of compositions for the organ." Well…