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Philip GLASS (b.
1937) The Light (1987) [23:43]
Symphony No. 4 Heroes Symphony (1996) [46:26]
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra/Marin
Alsop (conductor)
rec. The Concert Hall, Lighthouse, Poole, Dorset, 16-17 May 2006. NAXOS AMERICAN CLASSICS 8.559325 [70:09]
Marin
Alsop is all over the Naxos catalogue, with around 50 CD
releases to her name. It might seem mildly perverse for her
to be recording Philip Glass’s orchestral and symphonic repertoire
with Brits when she is currently also principal conductor
with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, but one of the things
which struck me about this particular recording is the convincingly
American sound she gets from the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
It might just be my imagination, and a good orchestra should
be able to react like a chameleon to different repertoire
anyway, but the light, bouncy touch in The Light has
all of the optimistic drive one could hope for in Glass.
The
Light derives its title and inspiration from the Michelson-Morley experiment
which confirmed the uniform speed of light. It would also
explain the choice of cover image, which, by Juan Hitters,
looks to me like a very beautiful exploding toenail. The
Light draws maximum material from a limited number
of chords and tonal relationships, and includes a few of
the percussion and harmonic fingerprints which reminded
me a little of ‘Songs for Liquid Days’. The alternation
of basic harmonies overstay their welcome for me at a number
of points in this work, and the tambourine becomes more
than a little irritating by the end, but in all it’s a
nice enough romp – a kind of ‘Slightly-too-long ride on
a not-too-fast machine.’
I
agree with Rob Barnett in his review that
the music on this disc is attractive enough, but a great
deal of this can be accounted for by the sympathetic performing
of the orchestra, and the pleasant resonance of the acoustic.
The typical shifting harmonies of Philip Glass mesh nicely
in this setting, and often renders the sometimes mundane
into something more eloquent. You have to believe in this
music to make it work, and Alsop has clearly convinced her
musicians.
Ah,
1977. While the Heroes Symphony has its origins with
David Bowie, fans of the latter may find it hard to find
many direct traces of the original. Glass’ score arguably
is not a symphony at all, but a series of dance pieces for
choreographer Twyla Tharp. Bowie himself has said of the
work that it “has characteristics that I immediately recognize,
but it has its own life. It has nothing to do with me.” This
is not in a negative sense, but taps into the extraction
of the essence of the music as Glass heard it at the time: “It
was though Philip had fed into my voice... but somehow had
arrived, I feel, a lot nearer to the gut feeling of what
I was trying to do.” The melancholy of the music and its
themes of love separated by the Berlin Wall is certainly
preserved, and in some ways enhanced by Glass. I sometimes
wonder if everyone would make such a fuss if this kind of
work didn’t have the Glass logo stamped on it, but if you
can’t beat ’em, you might as well join ’em at bargain price!
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