The Strad December 2004
Philip Glass Cello Concerto
The Concerto Project vol.1
Philip Glass Cello Concerto, Concerto Fantasy
Julian Lloyd Webber (cello), Jonathan Haas (timpani), Evelyn Glennie (timpani),
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Gerard Schwarz (conductor)
ORANGE MOUNTAIN 0014
It’s tempting to say Philip Glass is no Schumann, Elgar or Shostakovich. His ideas seem limited, unexploring. even paltry. The repetitive mantras can prove wearisome. It seems short on content, untaxing. A case of the emperor’s new clothes?
Yet why can Glass’s music — witness his operas Satyagraha and The Fall of the House of Usher — seem so haunting? The first movement of this new cello concerto certainly goes on a journey, if only because of the tiny patterning adjustments, which at their best (not always) create a real sense of build-up from what looks like unpromising material.
Julian Lloyd Webber advocates the piece marvelously. He’s ideally placed on this recording, so the cello line comes through prominently without overbalancing the orchestral forces. There’s a lot of amiable chugging involved, more arpeggios than I’d care to calculate, a lovely Tannhauser-like brass opening to the slow movement and some effective orchestral detail. A fellow string soloist might have helped the cello part, though: it’s a bit like Don Quixote shorn of Sancho Panza — and of the comedy, too.
The accompanying double-timpani concerto feels a far better piece. Glass’s idiom seems to suit the instruments better and there’s a lot more creative invention, inspired by these two fine, animated performers. I enjoyed some joyous Copland and Bernstein-like rhythms. a sense of Scandinavian wasteland in the second movement, and an almost Mahlerian militaristic march section. The Orange Mountain recording is splendidly mastered.
RODERIC DUNNETT
