Glass: Symphony No. 11
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CD Details
- Released: November 9, 2018
- Originally Released: 2018
- Label: Orange Mountain
Tracks:
- 1.Bruckner Orchester Linz & Dennis Russell DaviesSymphony No. 11: Movement I
- 2.Bruckner Orchester Linz & Dennis Russell DaviesSymphony No. 11: Movement II
- 3.Bruckner Orchester Linz & Dennis Russell DaviesSymphony No. 11: Movement III
Product Description:
Before the second half world premiere, the orchestra played the local premieres of Days and Nights in Rocinha and Ifé: Three Yoruba Songs, with Kidjo.
Even with ten previous symphonies, the experience of Glass played by a fulland in this case largeorchestra is still a novelty. In an odd turn against the usual course of things, it is easier (at least in New York), to witness performances of his earlier, avant-garde masterpieces like Music in Similar Motion, and even Einstein on the Beach, than his orchestral music. That latter constitutes a substantial body of work, and is firmly inside the classical tradition.
The recordings of his orchestral works dont convey the warmth and pleasing thickness of his orchestration and the texture of the sound he produces. Tuesdays concert had one thinking that the composer is the Phil Spector of classical music.
The lovely opening music, Rocinha, connected in style, superficially, to the Bolero via a Latin flavor. But the deeper and more satisfying connection was to the concept that seemingly light music could be used as a seduction to deliver considerable expressive depth and musical sophistication, a la Ravel.
While the two works shared the same tools of a constant rhythm and a repeated, limpid melody, Glass had an undulating shape, and the music traded off one melody for another.
The composers style is so prominent that he does not get enough credit for his melodic craft. A Glass line, like those in Rocinha, has a graceful shape and a feeling of weight and fullness that comes from his superb integration, via rhythm, of melodic and harmonic shape and motion. This also gives him the tools to successfully set even the gnarliest prose, like Allen Ginsbergs Wichita Vortex Sutra and the dialogue to Jean Cocteaus film of Beauty and the Beast.
Working with Kidjo, he made Ifé, a setting of three poems that narrate the Yoruban creation myth. The sharp rhythms of the music worked hand in glove with the consonances in the words, and the exactitude and clarity of Kidjos delivery were propulsive. There was little sustained vocalism, and one did miss the opportunity of hearing Kidjo open up her wonderful voice, but this is storytelling music. The singer, her blue and gold gown and head wrap set spectacularly against the black and white concert dress of the orchestra, presided dramatically over the music.
