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The Essential Philip Glass

from: Classical

October 07, 2002
If you have never listened to minimalist music this should be your point of departure. I have played this CD to the unsuspecting, as background music, and in the process won over the even the most ardent sceptics.

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Glass: Violin Concerto

from: Naxos

April 03, 2000
Glass's violin concerto is pleasant and immediately accessible. But, Glass's music is all very similar; its as if there is a number of ideas which get continously re-cycled. To my mind, Adams' concerto is stronger

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Glass Box:A Nonesuch Retrospective (10 CD)

by: Philip Glass

September 22, 2008
Glass's violin concerto is pleasant and immediately accessible. But, Glass's music is all very similar; its as if there is a number of ideas which get continously re-cycled. To my mind, Adams' concerto is stronger

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Koyaanisqatsi

by: Philip Glass

March 28, 1990
Fascinating, it would be unthinkable to live without it! If you like this, try the sublime Ontayso/Tim Koch release 'Where have you been'?. Both great!

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Solo Piano

by: Philip Glass

March 10, 2003
Metamorphosis is a masterpiece. All five songs leave you breathless. Would not suit people with prejudices on what classical music has to be. This is purely expressive, sad, and devastating but quiet melodies, where simplicity and minimalism were meant to be.

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Book of Longing

by: Philip Glass, Leonard Cohen

November 26, 2007
I wholeheartedly disagree with some of the reviewers who claim that Glass has provided the perfect setting for Cohen's later poetry. For one, Cohen on paper is not as great a poet as he is in song. In fact, his later poetry harks back a good deal to the poetry of the beats (Kerouac, Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti, etc) and is comparable to a great degree to the late, great Charles Bukowski, but not as good, in my opinion. The difference being that Bukowski had no choice but to immerse himself in a squalid existence, and write, as it were, inside the belly of the whale. Cohen, on the other hand, has always exuded real class, and he has a much higher-minded side to his character, so that i.e. in 'The Energy Of Slaves' when he writes of Valentina, that "I loved to creep ... Read More:

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The Hours

from: Nonesuch

February 10, 2003
Philip Glass has written some wonderful film scores (Koyaanisqatsi, Mishima, Kundun) but I was absolutely blown away by his score for 'The Hours'. Every single cue is a gem culminating in the final one (track 14) where the music arcs from a slow beginning to a glorious climax where piano chords play against a wash of strings. The music is at once uplifting and melancholic. A masterpiece.

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Glassworks

by: Philip Glass

March 10, 2003
When Mr Sax invented what Homer Simpson memorably refers to as "The Saxamaphone" he had in mind a number of uses for it. Something like a clarinet but louder, to make the grade in a marching military band. And in a symphonic setting, something that would allow the wind section to compliment the strings more fully. Well he got his wish with the military bands, but once adopted by jazzers and honking rock and rollers the saxaphone seems to have been diverted from the classical home Adolph intended for it. That is until Philip Glass wrote this sumptious setting for the instrument.You will have heard a few of these pieces in the better class of TV advert. They are all pattering pianos, swelling strings and those saxaphones are there, doing what they were born for. You ... Read More:

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Music in Twelve Parts

by: Philip Glass

August 25, 2008
Music in Twelve Parts was Glass's summation of, and farewell to, the 'minimalism' that saw the first flowerings of his genius. It is both minimalism in extremis and a decisive move away from it's limitations. It is very long, very rhythmic and very beautiful.
This latest recording comes from a live performance in Italy in 2006. It runs to 204 minutes. The sound quality is a wonder, just a hint of reverb and a beautiful clarity.
The performance is a revelation, fitting as four of the seven performers have been playing this sequence for thirty years now. They've got good at it, very good, with none of the staleness that can mar the performance of over familiar works. Twin threads of energy and calm weave into each other, neither canceling the other out. If ... Read More:

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The Essential Yo-Yo Ma

from: Sony Classical

August 09, 2004
Music in Twelve Parts was Glass's summation of, and farewell to, the 'minimalism' that saw the first flowerings of his genius. It is both minimalism in extremis and a decisive move away from it's limitations. It is very long, very rhythmic and very beautiful.
This latest recording comes from a live performance in Italy in 2006. It runs to 204 minutes. The sound quality is a wonder, just a hint of reverb and a beautiful clarity.
The performance is a revelation, fitting as four of the seven performers have been playing this sequence for thirty years now. They've got good at it, very good, with none of the staleness that can mar the performance of over familiar works. Twin threads of energy and calm weave into each other, neither canceling the other out. If ... Read More: