Contemporary Classics January 2, 2018 Reflections on Glass

Tonight’s show is entitled Reflections on Glass.  This is inspired by a recent recording by Brooklyn Rider –Glass Quartets 6 & 7.  Thisalso included a version of the Saxophone Quartet arranged by Brooklyn Rider forString Quartet.  So why not compare this version with the original.  So we are featuring varied versions of two major works by Philip Glass – his Saxophone Quartet and his String Quartet #3 Mishima – along with a couple piano etudes if we have time.

PhilipGlass’ saxophone quarter was first performed by the Rashcer Quartet on July 27,1995 at the Schleswig Hoolstein Gestival in Haselburg Germany – there is aversion with full orchestra as a concerto for saxophone quartet.  It is in 4 movements  We will be playing both the version forsaxophone from the album of the Sonic Art Saxophone Quartet from the album Glass& Nyman: Works for Saxophone Quartet and the Brooklyn Rider version for string quartet – movement by movement           

The musicfor Mishima String Quartet (String Quartet No.3) originally appeared as partsof the film score for Mishima by film maker Paul Schrader. Having workedextensively in experimental theater, Philip Glass tends to utilize subtle butcompelling musical effects to articulate distinct frames of narrative within adrama. In his music for Paul Schrader’s film Mishima, Glass sets off threedistinct elements of the life of this famous contemporary Japanese author,playwright and self styled, latter-day Samurai, Yukio Mishima into 3 parts -his childhood, his mature years and the last day of his life. These subjectswere intercut to produce a shifting kaleidoscopic vision of Mishima’s life.  In the film, the scenes of Mishima’schildhood were filmed in black and white and scored by Glass for StringQuartet. At the time of writing the film music, Glass anticipated the StringQuartet section would be extracted from the film score and made into a concertpiece in its own right.  And thisis what we have in his String Quartet #3 Mishima. While this piece, like itspredecessor has extramusical connections, Glass was aware from the outset thatthe string quartet sections might work well when freed from the score and givena life of their own, as a single, complete utterance, in the concert hall.

Tonight we havethe String Quartet #3 Mishima in 3 forms: First performed by the string quartet Kronos who premiered the quartetin 1985 in their album Kronos Quartet Performs Philip Glass.  Then we will hear a version by theDublin Guitar Quartet from their album The Dublin Guitar Quartet performsPhilip Glass.  And finally in aversion by the Sonic Art Saxophone Quartet from their album Glass & Nyman:Works for Saxophone Quartet.