PHILIP GLASS

PHILIP GLASS
VIOLIN CONCERTO
256KBPS

This is a very useful CD. A super-budget coupling of Glass' popular Violin Concerto with two works of the earlier part of the 1980s admirably fills a gap in the catalogue. Indeed, despite being placed second in the running order, the Concerto gets star billing on the CD cover. It was premiered on April 5th, 1987 in New York, the soloist on that occasion being Paul Zukofsky. The young Australian violinist on the present recording, Adele Anthony, comes up against both Gidon Kremer and Robert McDuffie on rival labels (DG and Telarc respectively), and emerges none the worse for it. Her tone is sweet and she has a winning way with the many lyrical passages. Only occasionally in the typically minimalist arpeggiations does her tuning suffer, but her sense of rhythm is robust and the whole is characterised by a most captivating sense of determination. Aided and abetted superbly by the Ulster Orchestra under the Japanese conductor Takuo Yuasa, the sense of controlled inevitability in the powerful momentum of the first movement is gripping. Listen to (and enjoy) the intimate delicacy of the second movement, in which Anthony's phrasing is most touching. Throughout Glass explores the possibilities of what and orchestra can do for his strain of minimalism.
The programming of this CD is commendable. Whilst McDuffie offers the John Adams Violin Concerto and Kremer gives Schnittke's Fifth Concerto Grosso, Naxos stays with Glass. 'Company' is a set of movements from Glass' score to Fred Neumann's adaptation of Beckett's prose text mounted in New York in 1983, which makes it contemporary with 'Akhnaten'. In this string orchestra version (played by solo instruments it becomes the Second String Quartet), it sounds slightly cumbersome. The final items on the disc, the two excerpts from 'Akhnaten', are made of sterner stuff. At over twelve minutes long the Prelude has the space to exert its darkly hypnotic power, and the Dance from Act 2 Scene 3 is positively sensuous. I hope these two snippets are sufficient to send people scurrying for a complete set of the opera.
Tim Handley's engineering is exemplary throughout.

1. Company: I - Ulster Orch/Takuo Yuasa
2. Company: II - Ulster Orch/Takuo Yuasa
3. Company: III - Ulster Orch/Takuo Yuasa
4. Company: IV - Ulster Orch/Takuo Yuasa
5. Vn Con: I - Adele Anthony
6. Vn Con: II - Adele Anthony
7. Vn Con: III - Adele Anthony
8. Akhnaten: Prld - Ulster Orch/Takuo Yuasa
9. Akhnaten: Act II, Scene III: Dance - Ulster Orch/Takuo Yuasa

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