It would certainly make for a good macabre evening playing Glasss Dracula and Candyman scores.

There was a large cut made to Movement 1 of Heroes Symphony on the original Point Music recording. It was somewhat restored in the Alsop recording of the symphony and fully restored in the recent Davies recording.

632 Broadway in manhattan.

OMM always has everything in mind. If the Met or Paris were able to be released commercially they would be. On the other hand I dont think Akhnaten is being filmed. But for those who like the production itll be in Los Angeles next fall.

whoa…Mahler 5! THats quite a difference.

Oh you should get the McDuffie. Its the cleanest and best performed. Its really wonderful.

God willing

I know Riesman recorded a lot more film music transcriptions while recording his last couple albums. I think theres enough for another album at some point.

Alon, I dont think it has ever been a case of too many commissions too little time. Granted Glass is always under pressure to deliver. Deadlines are a healthy thing most times. But in regards to his commissions, I dont think that time has ever been a deciding factor in his choosing to re-use music. I believe him when he says its because he has music that he likes that is buried in other music which very few people will hear. In the case of Toltec, certainly the subject of southern hemisphere cultures informs both Powaqqatsi and Toltec. So its not a total decontextualization. And film scores generally have nothing to do with the concert hall.

Hi Tom, Yes it was clearly done intentionally. Such allusions are all over classical music. what is funny about it is trying to speculate on a connection of the two musics…what do they have in common? Why quote Sibelius? More than anything, its a statement that Glass is acknowledging an influence.

Waiting for the Barbarians was done in a semi-staged performance at the Barbican in maybe 2007. They took the costumes and set elements from the Erfurt production and used them, when they were done they were thrown out/destroyed. Too bad, I loved that production but it went from Erfurt, to Amsterdam, to Austin Texas, to London. To me, Waiting for the Barbarians is one of Glasss best operas. Its a straight narrative like his Kafka operas, and thats a very rare thing in his catalogue of theater works. As such, youd think it would be done more often, especially since the music is so wonderful.

Indeed Marco! In fact thats clearly what Glass was thinking when he composed Heroes as a dance symphony. Not only is writing a straight symphony somewhat limiting, but by intentionally involving extra musical elements you start to participate in a much bigger world. That was always Glasss intention from the beginning by being a theater composer - the theater audience is broad based and includes everything from music lovers to dance people, architects, drama lovers…thats what I meant by limiting up above. The symphony crowd, of which I am a part, is an insular and exclusionary world.

I would say when Glass talked about getting little commitment from orchestras, he hadnt yet had a relationship like he has with the Burckner Orchester Linz which has been consistent now for 13 years. Add to that the LA Phiharmonic which has done: Symphony No.3, Symphony No9, Violin Concerto No.1, scenes from Akhnaten, the Civil Wars Act V, interludes from Orphée, and the new Double Piano Concerto. Perhaps Glass hadnt yet had that kind of relationship when he said that statement. And I disagree that it needs to be a Glass champion to perform the work. Last winter I heard the Brown University Orchestra perform Symphony No.2 and it was excellent. I heard Symphony No.7 with the American Symphony Orchestra under James Bagwell and it was equally well performed. I think the world has caught up on a number of fronts. What will happen several decades from now, when Glass is not around to promote his music? Serge Koussevitsky said something interesting once. He said that in order to have a future you have to have a present. Glass is the preeminent composer of his generation. Arguably orchestras much prefer the work of John Adams. He gets many more performances of his orchestral works than Philip Glass. I think there are a lot of reasons for that. But if I were buying long-term stock here Id puy Glass. Hes a guy who fundamentally changed the way people hear music. He then spent 50 years cultivating a body of work. But you are right, over the long term when novelty wears off and Glasss music is standing alone in the same room as the big masters, will it be able to compete? I think that no one can really say. There are so many composers who had remarkable careers when alive, everyone from Meyerbeer to Menotti, only to be quickly pushed to the margins once they die. Anyone who says they can anticipate the tastes of the future is lying. When i say that he cultivated a body of work, I think its exactly that…if there are string quartets and pianists who are interested in his work, they will play it. Theres something to that kind of reenforcement in the publics mind. Add to that his whole catalogue being available through recordings and all we are doing is speaking passionately about the music and positioning it for success. Its all you can do. As for Glass worrying about his legacy? I think enterprises like owning his own publishing and recordcompany tell you all you need to know about how much he cares about his own work. It would have been quicker and more lucrative for him to stay with a big record company over these past 14 years. But if he were lucky, he would have gotten perhaps 20 recordings made during that time, like most other composers. The idea that OMM has done over 100 releases, which in turn inspired another 100 more of re-recordings bodes very well for the health of the catalogue.

Thats wild because I think of Harmonielehre as super Romantic. Its one of the great pieces of our time.

I remember those times as well. If you go to archivmusic.com and sort by composer, you can see the total number of recordings by composer (Beethoven 5,777; Bach 7,281, Mozart 7,168). Shostakovich is around 1,500. Glass weighs in around 242, somewhere in the neighborhood of Giovanni Gabrieli or Arvo Part (276). Steve Reich is at 103 and John Adams at 116. If you were to take OMM out of the picture with its 100 releases, Glass would be similar to Adams and Reich at around 140 recordings. I usually dont put too much stock into numbers. But in terms of total recordings, it does to some extent represent the overall interest in the music on both the performers side and the audiences side. I too would welcome a new recording of Satyagraha.

I love Makis playing. To me she is the perfect balance of technical skill and passion/enthusiasm. She totally rips into all those Etudes. I know they are faster tempos than Glass himself would play - and in general he plays with so much more rubato. But particularly in the fast sections which modulate, the seamless transitions in Namekawas playing are really attractive to me. Clean, confident, exciting.

Brinkley, Its a balance, for sure. OMM has some successes and ultimately those successes support the other projects which arent necessarily very commercial. Im also with you on some things - there has been so many versions of Metamorphosis Nos.1-5 and Mad Rush that you wondering what else can be said. But artists clearly want to do their own versions. With the second book of Etudes now available, I look forward to many new interpretations. I cant wait to hear new versions of No.20, for example. Richard

Mario, I somewhat agree. There is always the question of what exactly is a symphony. It seems to be a personal definition. If Mahlers 8th symphony is a symphony then why isnt Das Lied von der Erde? I was thinking of this yesterday when listening to William Bolcoms 8th symphony. He wrote after his 8th, a Symphony for Band, before writing his 9th. Is Shostkovichs Babi Yar a symphony? Definitely…what about Sibelius Seventh? That seems more a one-movement tone poem like Glass The Light. To me, Days & Nights in Rocinha is more a bolero. Glass submitted the piece a dance for Dennis Russell Davies and orchestra. In the end, whats in a name?

There is no rhyme or reason to OMMs numbering. The company started with Candyman at OMM0003. OMM0055 is actually published by Analekta music as Portrait - Angele Dubeau et la Pieta, OMM0065 is iTunes - Live from SoHo, OMM0085 is the digital only soundtrack album O Apostolo OMM0088 is the forthcoming sixth volume from The Kitchen

The recording was made in 1959…56 years ago.

Jackie, Youre totally right. Minneapolis it is!

Yes it will! Just cut the deal with the film company!

judging from what Im reading in the advanced copy its 400 pages and it only goes up to about the late-1990s.

A physical sheet music folio can be found here: http://www.musicroom.com/se/id_no/01110707/details.html Best,Richard

Totally new commission.