Few composers have galvanized the music world like Philip Glass. He’s been adulated and reviled, much imitated, but rarely equaled. He’s simply one of the master composers of the twentieth century. Glass has always steered his own course and that course led to studies in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, a rejection of the avant-garde rigidity of Pierre Boulez, and a discovery of the cyclical rhythms of Indian music and work with sitar master Ravi Shankar. His arrival in New York in 1967 led to the formation of the ground-breaking Philip Glass Ensemble and the birth of a musical style that has been dubbed “minimalism.” It’s a phrase Glass rejects, referring to himself as a composer of “music with repetitive structures.”
Much of Glass’s most popular music is large-scale. There’s the monumental operas, Einstein on the Beach, Satayagraha, Akhnaten, eight symphonies (a ninth will be premiered in 2011), concertos and some of the most important film scores in recent memory. But there’s another side to Philip Glass’s art, his chamber music for solo instruments and small ensembles.
Our featured album showcases Brooklyn Rider, a genre-busting string quartet, who are winning accolades from classical, world and rock critics. They have the final word on the composer, “His consummate ability to be both a composer of our time and curiously ‘unstuck’ from time fosters a shared appreciation of his music amongst fans of classical, rock, electronic, experimental, jazz, world music, and beyond. These quartets, each its own unique soundscape, represent some of his most dynamic and personal work.”
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by Craig Zeichner
