Philip Glass Drops in on MusicNOW
Part Two. A Visit by Philip Glass.
MusicNOW, the contemporary music festival now in its seventh year in Cincinnati, coincided with composer Philip Glass' second residency with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra this season. Glass is one of three creative directors appointed to oversee programming for the CSO during the 2010-11 season, its first without a music director since the departure of former music director Paavo Järvi in May, 2011.
Glass' Second Cello Concerto was premiered by cellist Matt Haimovitz and the CSO led by Dennis Russell Davies March 30 and 31 at Music Hall. How natural, then, that Glass should drop in on MusicNOW next door at Memorial Hall March 29, especially with the contemporary sextet eighth blackbird on the guest list.
Glass, who turned 75 this year, was honoree for the performance, which featured eighth blackbird in music by Glass and several others, including Nico Muhly, whose "Doublespeak" received its world premiere. The concert took place before a large and enthusiastic crowd.
Glass, who founded and crafted much of his music with his own Philip Glass Ensemble, must have felt right at home on keyboard for eighth blackbird's opening number, Glass' "Music in Similar Motion," a composition from 1969 in his early minimalist style. Dressed in black, Glass sat at the rear of the stage, joining flutist Tim Munro, clarinetist Michael Maccaferri, violinist Yvonne Lam, cellist Nicholas Photinos, pianist Lisa Kaplan and percussionist Matthew Duvall. The 17-minute work (adaptable to any instrumental combination) posits a wall of motion, turning on itself and adding voices and colors as it goes along, denying stasis as such and creating a dramatic effect. The crowd loved it, as they did Glass, who stole from the stage to take a seat in the audience.
The ensemble performed two other Glass pieces, "Knee Play 2" from his ground-breaking opera "Einstein on the Beach" (1976) and "Mad Rush" for solo piano (1979). Alternating with them were "Crashing Through Fences" (2009) by Timothy Andres in which piccolo and glockenspiel faced off, occasionally startling the audience by activating kick drums; also "Erase" by Yale composer Andy Akiho, winner of eighth blackbird's first-ever composition contest in 2011. The latter, described by the composer as "a bunch of machines taking over a nostalgic melody," included such renegade sounds as a credit card swiping the piano strings and a vibraphone variously scraped and struck.
Muhly's "Doublespeak" was commissioned by Music Now in memory of Esme Kenney, a 13-year-old Cincinnati girl brutally murdered in 2009. Composed for the sextet and complex rhythmically and coloristically, it had a dramatic cast that briefly slipped into a sweeter, more melodic vein. Eighth blackbird played it with astonishing virtuosity, to the last abrupt drum beat.
Glass' "Mad Rush" is a sweeping and engrossing piece, written in honor of the Dalai Lama's first visit to the U.S. in 1979. Pianist Kaplan gave it a performance to match (and was lauded by Glass himself, who gave her a standing ovation).
Toronto-based Sandro Perri and his band (guitars, keyboard, drums and percussion) opened the concert with a set of eight pieces that showed lots of technique and had many fine moments. Unfortunately, it went on too long (the entire first half), especially with the crowd primed for eighth blackbird and Glass.
(to be continued)