Glass: Violin concerto
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CD Details
Composer: Philip GlassConductor: Takuo Yuasa
Orchestra: Ulster Orchestra
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2000-05-16
Music Label: Naxos American
Soundtracks:
- Company: I - Ulster Orch/Takuo Yuasa
- Company: II - Ulster Orch/Takuo Yuasa
- Company: III - Ulster Orch/Takuo Yuasa
- Company: IV - Ulster Orch/Takuo Yuasa
- Vn Con: I - Adele Anthony
- Vn Con: II - Adele Anthony
- Vn Con: III - Adele Anthony
- Akhnaten: Prld - Ulster Orch/Takuo Yuasa
- Akhnaten: Act II, Scene III: Dance - Ulster Orch/Takuo Yuasa
Music reviews of Glass: Violin concerto
Music Review: full orchestral treatment of major works
Rating: 3 Stars
This is one of those items that I feel hasn't gotten a really on-target review. I'm not sure a CD by one composer is the place to discuss the merits of his whole genre of music. Admittedly I write from a perspective of a fan of minimalism and of Philip Glass. And for someone knowledgable of the field and of Glass's output, this CD has strong appeal.
First, the Naxos price is a bargain. They're really serving a role in making challenging, sometimes rarely heard music available to a classical audience that doesn't have to be also an elite or wealthy one. Each of their composer-centered CDs seems carefully considered in order to provide both strong performances and well-chosen material as an introduction to the entire oeuvre of that master.
In particular, this CD shows a few sides of Glass, in the lush and comfortable setting of full orchestral performances (quite different from his chamber, solo piano, self-played or even soundtrack work). The two pieces from his opera Akhnaten that close out the disc offer wonderfully evocative melodies. Once meant to be sung or performed with bright visuals and actors, these arrangements focus only on the strength of his melodies and harmonies, with a full pallette of color and emotions in what must be read as his homage to an ancient and tragically odd, lost kingdom. There's a stately spirituality in this music that well evokes pyramids, desert sand and the rays of the sun god.
"Company" consists of busy short pieces typical of Glass's 80s work, and the Violin Concerto is his first major concert-hall work, not commissioned in support of any other project or medium. It provides a memorable showcase for violinist Adele Anthony.
However, I do have some quibbles, as one often does with Naxos cds. The recording levels are low, and there's not a lot of distinction between instruments in the mix. I'm all for a more aggressive, rock-style approach to both the playing and recording of classical music, and the Naxos label is frequently too timid on this front.
Description of Glass: Violin concerto
All products are BRAND NEW and factory sealed. Fast shipping and 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed.Philip Glass's signature doom-and-gloom minor sonorities and shifting rhythms scintillate and eddy under the touch of Adele Anthony and the Ulster Symphony. The solo line in the Violin Concerto is at odds with a unified orchestra throughout, and Anthony's romantic tone draws the listener in for an exploration of the texture, grain, and fiber of Glass's structural minimalism. The Ulster Symphony's rendering of Company and Akhnaten, under the leadership of Takuo Yuasa, forms brilliant darts of tonal color. As a musical adaptation of Samuel Beckett's prose of the same name, Company's dark ruminations are appropriate for the text's depiction of a solitary figure lying on his back in the dark. The orchestra seems aware of their repetitious mechanical task in performing these works, yet this human awareness is what makes Glass's orchestral work so compelling. --Alexis Odell
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