Philip
Glass is a composer whose body of work readily lends itself
to re-orchestration. In fact, many of his early works were
written with intentionally vague orchestrations to allow for
greater ease in performance. That said, it's doubtful that
Glass himself would have thought that works written for full
orchestra, and supplemented with synthesizers, would be as
easily suited to an ensemble consisting of eight cellos, occasionally
supplemented with vocalists. However, as the liner-notes indicate,
Glass was so impressed with Cello Octet Conjunto Iberico's
rendition of his Symphony III, movement 3, that he gave them
his blessing to dive into his catalog and pluck anything from
his works for their performance. The results are presented
here.
The
first work, titled here Symphony for Eight, is the
original work that impressed Glass so much. It is easy to
discern why Glass would have been so interested in having
the octet re-imagine his other works. This version carries
both the weight and intimacy of the original, and is performed
flawlessly.
The
next track, String Quartet No. 2 from Company, the
play by Samuel Beckett, is somber and serious. The music was
composed to reflect Beckett's words of an old man looking
back on his life and finding loneliness. The forlorn sound
of the cello could not be better suited to this mood. The
results are immensely moving.
The
next several works are from Glass's compositions as a composer
of film scores. This has been a fertile ground for the composer
throughout his career, and many of these works are among his
most recognizable. Thus it makes sense that this would be
a good source for many of the musical selections here.
String
Quartet No. 3, Mishima, is culled from the Paul Schrader
film about the controversial Japanese writer Yukio Mishima.
Glass then collapsed portions of the score into a string quartet
that could be performed as a stand-alone work. Here Conjunto
Iberico performs the 3rd and 4th movements of that work, with
many of the harmonizations reminiscent of the film score owing
to the greater number of players at their disposal. The result
is at least on par with the original if not superior.
Facades is originally from Koyaanisqati, and originally scored for
an orchestral string section and two saxophones. The rendition
here is well done, though the lack of timbre differentiation
between the winds and strings is missed. This is such a slowly
developing work that here it feels as if it lacks something
without timbre shifts. That said, it's still impressively
performed. It simply is not as strong an arrangement as it
would be with something else to bring out the melodic lines.
There
are then five selections from the 1995 film The Secret
Agent performed by eight cellos and a synthesizer. Unlike
the previous tracks this music was not first redacted into
a single work that would then be performed as a cohesive unit.
Instead these are short works that all are capable of standing
on their own, but were originally composed to accompany the
action in the film. There are moments where this works incredibly
well, such as the short work The Blood on the Stairs
or Winnie Goes to Sea. The strings carry most of the
music, and the synthesized portions are perfectly placed to
highlight the mood of the work and offer contrast. In other
places however, such as the movement "Emigration",
the synthesizer seems more intrusive when it enters. It does
lend more of a feeling of a full orchestra or a film, but
as a stand-alone work it is less successful here.
The
final two pieces are taken from Glass's opera Akhnaten,
and they are masterfully arranged and performed. Singers are
introduced to lend more of a flavor of the original operatic
work. Really the only thing "missing" is the emphasis
and energy that the low brass lends at times. The cello simply
doesn't convey the energy of the bass trombone. This is a
minor issue. A listener who was not already intimately familiar
with the works would probably never miss the brass, especially
with the singers providing such an energetic and solid performance.
Additionally the percussion remains intact in these recordings,
though there are no percussionists credited in the liner-notes.
Musically this is certainly a boon. Attack and Fall
without the driving percussion would certainly lack the energy
of the original instrumentation. All told those who know Akhnaten
well will probably find other recordings more to their liking,
but these are certainly well performed and a credit to the
cello octet.
Overall
this is a very good, though non-essential, collection of Philip
Glass's works performed by one of the most talented collectives
of cellists on the planet. It is certainly a well performed
and enjoyable listening experience. The arrangements have
managed to hold onto the most attractive parts of Glass's
originals. There are even points where these arrangements
may be superior to the originals, such as in Company
and Mishima. In other places the experiment is less
successful, though not in any way sub-par. If nothing else,
it highlights both the compositional prowess of Glass and
the virtuosity of the players of the Cello Octet Conjunto
Iberico. Really, what more could one ask for in a recording?
Patrick
Gary
