Of
contemporary American composers, Philip Glass may well
be the best represented on disc. Naxos has begun building
a library of his orchestral music. Then there is Orange
Mountain Music, purveyors of the recording under review,
who have as their mission “to serve the fans, aficionados
and academics studying the music of Philip Glass”. Their
catalog shows close to three dozen releases. Glass has
written a
lot of music. And, while being a controversial
and polarizing figure, he has a uniquely loyal following,
so there’s certainly justification for the availability
of his works, and in multiple interpretations.
“The
Concerto Project, Vol. II” consists of world premiere
recordings of two keyboard concertos.
The
Piano
Concerto No. 2 has the subtitle “
After Lewis
and Clark.” Like some other minimalist pieces (
Nixon
in China) the attempt at topicality can result
in a bit of a stretch. Pianist Paul Barnes commissioned
the work after having cut his teeth on transcriptions
of Glass’s operas. Barnes “was particularly interested
in the challenging task of presenting both the white
and the Native American perspectives” on the Lewis
and Clark expedition.
The
first movement, “
The Vision”, consists of high-energy,
forward-propulsing writing typical of Glass, “signifying
the tremendous resolve and energy required of Lewis and
Clark for their extraordinary expedition.” The second
movement, “
Sacagewea”, features a thoughtful,
ambivalent dialogue between the piano and the Native
American wooden flute played by R. Carlos Nakai. The
composer says of the third movement, “
The Land”, “I
wanted this final movement to reflect the expanse of
time — what the land was before the expedition and what
it became after.” It consists of a theme and six variations
which the piano and orchestra alternate in canon-style.
The movement concludes with a cadenza composed by the
soloist.
The
Harpsichord
Concerto has returned as a vital contemporary form:
I think particularly of Górecki’s work in this genre.
Harpsichordist Jillon Stoppels Dupree remarks on how
baroque Glass’s work sounds. It does indeed form a
surprisingly seamless hybrid of the baroque concerto
and contemporary minimalism — though more of the former
than might be expected. In contrast to other of the
composer’s works which I might describe as “neon bright,” this
work is lightly textured and graceful in development.
Dupree describes her rehearsal sessions with Glass,
noting his humility in being willing to reduce orchestration
to one-to-a-part to allow the harpsichord to be properly
heard. The results evince the effectiveness of the
collaborative effort.
The
stereotypical image of a work by Glass is of ostinato
repetition of short musical phrases, which transform
very, very gradually over tens of minutes. The works
on this recording show more variety and traditional musical
development than that picture would predict. That said,
this recording will be welcomed with great enthusiasm
by Glass’s fans, while those who aren’t attracted to
his unique style won’t find much here to change their
minds. The booklet notes are written by the respective
soloists, which is a nice touch.
Brian
Burtt
see also review by David Barker (June
2008 Recording of the Month)
Paul Barnes
(piano) 
