Current Reviews

        by Jon Yungkans

Sergei Prokofiev
Piano Concerto No. 1-3

Martha Argerich, piano
Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor



Samuel Barber
Orchestral Works and Concertos
Leonard Slatkin, Charles Munch



Rimsky-Korsakov
Evgeny Svetlanov


Beethoven
Symphony No.9
Piano Transcription by Franz Liszt
Konstantin Scherbakov, Piano



Kronos Caravan

Marin Alsop has enjoyed a long association with Philip Glass, playing violin for some of his productions in the late 1970s and coming full-circle with this excellent release.  Even with such a fervent advocate as Dennis Russell Davies for the composer, it never hurts to have another conductor take up the cause.  With performances this fresh and vital – and at Naxos’ price – it is a welcome addition indeed.

The Third Symphony’s opening measures serve notice that it is both complex and turgid – an emotional chameleon constantly changing its colors.  The musical material is deceptively simple at first, with a cinematic intercutting of sections, but it later interweaves into longer paragraphs of subtlety and penetrating subtext.  The second movement literally jumps out of the speakers with spark and energy to burn, while the third balances major and minor, optimism with tragedy, on a Schubertian knife-edge of coexistence, occupying two planes but unfolding simultaneously.  The singing violin solo of the second half is one of the most achingly beautiful things Glass has written to date, repetitious in its general melodic shape, but ever-shifting emotionally.  Yearning, pleading, consoling, and longing, it is deeply human.  The final movement‘s opening urgent and heroic tone evolves into a thoroughly rousing conclusion. 
The Second Symphony starts on an even more somber and haunting note than the Third, building on a note of impending and inevitable doom while growing in color, ethereal beauty and dynamism.  If Glass were to write an opera based on Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre, this music would definitely fit.  Built on a far grander scale than the Third, the Second shows a masterly control of large-scale form and contrast many people would not associate with him.

Remarkable in both works is Glass’s constant wealth of musical invention and manipulation of tension.  Idea after idea pours into the mix of musical and thematic elements, constantly keeping the listener engaged.  The complexity with which he combines them – bracingly in the Second Symphony and sophistically in the Third – shows an incredible amount of growth, finesse and keenness of dramatic structure.  Especially in the Second, Glass shows himself an adept and imaginative orchestrator, his timbral combinations both enticing and novel to the ear.

For those who treat minimalism in general (and Glass’s works in particular) as a life-threatening disease, this disc will be a palatable and welcome cure.

 
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