Philip Glass

Started by Henk, June 01, 2008, 12:25:41 PM

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Symphonic Addict

Concerto Fantasy for two timpanists and orchestra is one of his most exciting pieces IMO (anyone should play this work at high volume if possible!), working like a very good introduction to his music:



Part of the tragedy of the Palestinians is that they have essentially no international support for a good reason: they've no wealth, they've no power, so they've no rights.

Noam Chomsky

aukhawk

Akhnaten.
The Piano Etudes. (try Batagov, on YouTube)

Total Rafa

Quote from: vers la flamme on March 29, 2020, 12:37:14 PM
I would like to get into the music of Philip Glass, or at least to check it out and see if it's for me. Are there some "essential" works for a newcomer to hear? He's written so much music...

I've heard and enjoyed the Violin Concerto somewhat recently. Perhaps more in that vein...?

Anyone else listening to Glass lately...?

For his piano music, this album would be a great start:


vers la flamme

Quote from: Total Rafa on March 30, 2020, 08:28:59 AM
For his piano music, this album would be a great start:



That sounds like a good idea. I've listened to Mr. Ólafsson's Bach and found it terrible, I thought he made Bach sound like Philip Glass... which can only bode well for this release ;D

bhodges

After seeing Akhnaten and Satyagraha back-to-back this past weekend (via the Met Opera's nightly Live in HD reprises), I liked them much more than expected. Perhaps the timing was better, for their messages of peace. (I saw Satyagraha when it appeared in 2008, but not since.) Both productions were spectacular -- even if I chuckled a little at all the juggling in Akhnaten -- but it sort of works, somehow.

Each one had some magnificent singing: countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo in Akhnaten, and tenor Richard Croft in Satyagraha, with outstanding work from the Met Opera chorus -- especially in the latter opera, singing in Sanskrit, which chorus master Donald Palumbo noted was difficult to learn because the vowels are so similar.

And to hear each score done by the great Met Orchestra on added to the pleasure. Highly recommended, both.

--Bruce

Hans Holbein

Music with Changing Parts at Carnegie Hall in 2018.

https://www.youtube.com/v/lsKPL35s89I

aligreto

Cross posts from the Listening Thread with comments on the two works on this CD after my first listen:





Concerto for Cello and Orchestra [Lloyd Webber/Schwarz]

This is my first listen to this work. The opening I found to be disconcerting from a listening point of view. The cello playing against a double bass accompaniment is not successful, sonically or texturally, for me. He is focusing too heavily on the lower register strings of the cello for far too long. Once we get past this opening section the music and sonorities open up and expand nicely. The slow movement is an easy flowing, low key work. It is lyrical and it has a sense of poignancy to it but it is too long, to be honest. I really like the final movement. It is a terrifically powerful piece of music with great forward momentum. I like the tempo changes which augment the sense of tension and excitement.


Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra [Glennie/Haas/Schwarz]

I find this to be a wonderfully exciting and captivating work from the opening bars. The music in the opening movement is joyous and buoyant and is played assertively and with great verve. There is a wonderfully atmospheric mood of mystery in the second movement; a mood of expectancy or anticipation. The sound world of the third movement, I find, is very exciting and innovative. The third movement runs very well into the final movement in terms of the flow of both the expansion of the music and the rhythm. This final movement is, in some ways, a typical piece of Glass music but there is a difference here and the music has a definite edge. It is terrific stuff!


aukhawk

#267
Just revisiting the 'Complete Piano Etudes' topic to mention two relatively recent additions.

Leslie Dala (2021) - each time I try to listen to some of this, it just makes me want to listen to one of my favourites instead (my favs currently being Whitwell and Gorisek).  Dala seems a rather 'middling' set in almost every way - somewhere on the spectrum between Namekawa and Whitwell, perhaps closer to the latter, decent enough sound but not outstanding, may be worth a listen if you want a slowish straight-ahead version but don't like Whitwell for some reason (too extreme, maybe).

Nicholas Teague (2020) - the set subtitled The Perceptions of the Blind - this is very problematic and I can only suggest you sample this recording on Spotify or on YouTube before buying - even the 30-second samples on Amazon will be sufficient to illustrate the problem.  His track timing in the tricksy 6th Etude is 10:39 - compare with Olafsson's exemplary recording coming in at 4:26.  Some of that difference is down to Teague frequently hitting wrong notes then correcting himself.  He is presumably making some sort of point with this very strange recording - but it escapes me entirely.

I count 10 complete sets of the Etudes 1-20 - the list in order of my own current preference is:
Batagov (great sound, lyrical playing)
Whitwell (slow and severe, exposes the bones of the music)
Gorisek (NB not recommendable as an only choice - awful sound - but a great alternative interpretation)
Namekawa (authoritative, virtuoso, straight-ahead)
van Veen (bargain price, similar to Whitwell but not preferable)
  then there are the also-rans, again in order:
Salvatori
Dala
Lin
Horvath
Teague

The part-sets by Olafsson and Levingston are also right up there with the very best, and that by Glass himself is obligatory in its way of course.
My main post upthread (two posts) with more detail about these various recordings starts here:
https://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,7831.msg1128223.html#msg1128223

TheGSMoeller

Quote from: aukhawk on August 25, 2021, 03:20:40 AM
Just revisiting the 'Complete Piano Etudes' topic to mention two relatively recent additions.

Leslie Dala (2021) - each time I try to listen to some of this, it just makes me want to listen to one of my favourites instead (my favs currently being Whitwell and Gorisek).  Dala seems a rather 'middling' set in almost every way - somewhere on the spectrum between Namekawa and Whitwell, perhaps closer to the latter, decent enough sound but not outstanding, may be worth a listen if you want a slowish straight-ahead version but don't like Whitwell for some reason (too extreme, maybe).

Nicholas Teague (2020) - the set subtitled The Perceptions of the Blind - this is very problematic and I can only suggest you sample this recording on Spotify or on YouTube before buying - even the 30-second samples on Amazon will be sufficient to illustrate the problem.  His track timing in the tricksy 6th Etude is 10:39 - compare with Olafsson's exemplary recording coming in at 4:26.  Some of that difference is down to Teague frequently hitting wrong notes then correcting himself.  He is presumably making some sort of point with this very strange recording - but it escapes me entirely.

I count 10 complete sets of the Etudes 1-20 - the list in order of my own current preference is:
Batagov (great sound, lyrical playing)
Whitwell (slow and severe, exposes the bones of the music)
Gorisek (NB not recommendable as an only choice - awful sound - but a great alternative interpretation)
Namekawa (authoritative, virtuoso, straight-ahead)
van Veen (bargain price, similar to Whitwell but not preferable)
  then there are the also-rans, again in order:
Salvatori
Dala
Lin
Horvath
Teague

The part-sets by Olafsson and Levingston are also right up there with the very best, and that by Glass himself is obligatory in its way of course.
My main post upthread (two posts) with more detail about these various recordings starts here:
https://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,7831.msg1128223.html#msg1128223

Nice post, aukhawk.
For the complete set I prefer the Batagov recording as well, who has recorded a few other albums of Glass' music that are great.

Mirror Image

I figured this would be a good time to drop by this thread and repost these purchases:

Quote from: Mirror Image on October 06, 2021, 07:02:26 PM
Just bought:



And this box set -



It seems that the Concerto Project, Vol. I has already received some favorable reviews here recently with Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra being a clear favorite amongst several members. I've been going through this symphonies and as of right now, I favor the 2nd and 3rd over the 1st and 4th (although these are two nice works). Looking forward to the 5th symphony, which appears to be a large-scale choral symphony. I'm also rather interested in getting into his chamber and solo piano works.

Brahmsian

What a haul that is, John!  :D

I'm really only familiar with a few works of Glass:

Dracula - Score for string quartet

The Hours soundtrack

Concerto Grosso
- Heard it at this year's Winnipeg New Music Festival in January 2021 (via livestream.)

All highly enjoyable.  :)

Mirror Image

Quote from: OrchestralNut on October 07, 2021, 08:19:40 AM
What a haul that is, John!  :D

I'm really only familiar with a few works of Glass:

Dracula - Score for string quartet

The Hours soundtrack

Concerto Grosso
- Heard it at this year's Winnipeg New Music Festival in January 2021 (via livestream.)

All highly enjoyable.  :)

Very nice. Looking forward to digging into a lot of his music.

Pohjolas Daughter

#272
I recently watched a fairly short clip from an old CBS Sunday Morning show about the Czech pianist Rudolf Firkusny.  I was a bit surprised (no idea why!) that he had commissioned a piece by Philip Glass.  It was a cadenza for Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 24.  There's *film of the two of them talking and Glass playing a bit of the piece for him.  It starts at 6:34.  Does anyone here know if he ever performed it and/or recorded it?  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaQDpmmXzc0

He (Firkusny) also tried playing an arrangement from his opera Satyagraha, but apparently said that he found it too difficult(!).  Has anyone heard this?  It's a solo piano arrangement of part of the opera Satyagraha — Gandhi's final, Act 3 aria.

*Like how Mr. Glass's cat is happily curled up on top of his piano.  ;D

PD

Pohjolas Daughter

TheGSMoeller

I'm sure I've shared this somewhere on this thread, but this is what turned me onto Glass initially. This is from the 1993 release of Einstein on the Beach on Elektra Nonesuch (see pic below). It's titled Knee Play 5, for solo violin, soprano and alto chorus, electric organ and speaker, and closes the opera.


https://www.youtube.com/v/lTaX7FQF0hY



Sergeant Rock

Quote from: TheGSMoeller on October 08, 2021, 06:21:31 AM
I'm sure I've shared this somewhere on this thread, but this is what turned me onto Glass initially. This is from the 1993 release of Einstein on the Beach on Elektra Nonesuch (see pic below). It's titled Knee Play 5, for solo violin, soprano and alto chorus, electric organ and speaker, and closes the opera.

That is a gorgeous piece; thanks for posting it.

Sarge
the phone rings and somebody says,
"hey, they made a movie about
Mahler, you ought to go see it.
he was as f*cked-up as you are."
                               --Charles Bukowski, "Mahler"

Mirror Image

#275
Quote from: TheGSMoeller on October 08, 2021, 06:21:31 AM
I'm sure I've shared this somewhere on this thread, but this is what turned me onto Glass initially. This is from the 1993 release of Einstein on the Beach on Elektra Nonesuch (see pic below). It's titled Knee Play 5, for solo violin, soprano and alto chorus, electric organ and speaker, and closes the opera.


https://www.youtube.com/v/lTaX7FQF0hY




That was beautiful, but I could do without the narration. I never have liked narration in music.

Speaking of Einstein on the Beach, here's a Charlie Rose interview about this work:

https://www.youtube.com/v/EMcNPzPZ49M

Pohjolas Daughter

Quote from: TheGSMoeller on October 08, 2021, 06:21:31 AM
I'm sure I've shared this somewhere on this thread, but this is what turned me onto Glass initially. This is from the 1993 release of Einstein on the Beach on Elektra Nonesuch (see pic below). It's titled Knee Play 5, for solo violin, soprano and alto chorus, electric organ and speaker, and closes the opera.


https://www.youtube.com/v/lTaX7FQF0hY



I suspect that I'd do better listening to the whole opera.  Can't hear the spoken words, so rather frustrating, but the rest of it is intriguing.  The only music of his that I recall that I own is a single disc called the Essential Philip Glass.  This one:  https://www.amazon.com.au/Glass-Essential-Philip-Various/dp/B0000AL313/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=essential+philip+glass&qid=1633706258&s=music&sr=1-3

PD
Pohjolas Daughter

Brahmsian

Taking a short breather from Penderecki to enjoy this absolutely marvelous work!  :)


Pohjolas Daughter

Quote from: OrchestralNut on October 08, 2021, 10:42:26 AM
Taking a short breather from Penderecki to enjoy this absolutely marvelous work!  :)


On, neat!  I just found a sample of it on youtube showing a bit of the movie too.  I read in the comments something that I didn't know before; apparently, when the original Dracula film was released, it was released in two versions:  a silent one and a talkie.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXoKbnfvftw

Have you seen the DVD of it ON?  If so, what did you think of it?

PD
Pohjolas Daughter

Brahmsian

Quote from: Pohjolas Daughter on October 09, 2021, 04:15:35 AM
On, neat!  I just found a sample of it on youtube showing a bit of the movie too.  I read in the comments something that I didn't know before; apparently, when the original Dracula film was released, it was released in two versions:  a silent one and a talkie.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXoKbnfvftw

Have you seen the DVD of it ON?  If so, what did you think of it?

PD

Hi, no I haven't. I don't think I have seen the original Bela Lugosi Dracula on film in its entirety, only snippets. Greg (GSMoeller) indicated the experience of watching the film with the Glass music as a "soundtrack" is quite an experience.