(The only review I wrote that Philip Glass was ever complimentary about. 
)
The reference to Einstein on the Beach made me think of something, a cluster of ideas I want to propose possibly to be refuted.
One thing that is striking about Glass’s music from that time is that it is totally superficial - what I mean is that it’s all about surface sound, where you have many instruments playing they all play at the same volume, and in a way which means they never collide, they always produce simple harmonies. There’s no sense of mystery, of poetry concealed in deep levels of the music - it’s all in ya face.
Now Batagov’s Bach is like this, that’s what happens when you slow it down and when you align the voices like he does. The most you can say for it is that Batagov’s Bach was a composer who liked playing two tunes at the same time and he knew how to do that and make it sound slick.
He’s taken the counterpoint out of the greatest contrupuntalust ever.
It is true that you could imagine a vocalise and melody instrument performance like Batagov’s toccata from Partita 6, the vocalise being made of solfège. 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3.
