Penguin CD Guide 2009
Philip Glass Cello Concerto
GLASS, Philip (bon 1937) (I) Cello Concerto; (ii) Concerto Fantasy for 2 Timpanists and Orchestra
Dunvagen Music (ASCAP) 0014. (i)Julian Lloyd Webber; (ii) Glennie, Hass; RLPO, Schwarz
Glass’s Cello Concerto opens darkly and atmospherically; but the work’s warmly lyrical strain is immediately apparent, and Glass’s writing is genuinely melodic, hauntingly so, especially In the central movement, which brings what the soloist describes as ‘an almost trance-like serenity’. A remarkable work, marvellously played.
The Concerto Fantasy is in four movements, all dominated by thundering timpani, with the third a cadenza duet for the two soloists. It is very noisy and invigorating. You will find it either thrilling or sonically overwhelming. Both performances here are surely definitive.
The Scotsman 11th April 2006
Philip Glass Cello Concerto
EDINBURGH YOUTH ORCHESTRA
USHER HALL, EDINBURGH
THE Edinburgh Youth Orchestra’s ambitious programme for their Scottish spring tour was delivered with such panache that mainsiream ensembles should watch their backs. These talented players are also fortunate to have two of the most inspiring musicians in the UK — conductor Garry Walker and cellist Julian Lloyd Webber – guiding them though this demanding repertoire.
Philip Glass’s Concerto for Cello and Orchestra is deceptive in that it is more difficult than it appears. In this vibrant work — which received its Scottish premiere on Saturday night — rhythm is key. Once the classic Glass arpeggios get started, there are few opportunities to stop for breath. Much of the load rests on the soloist who has a long virtuosic cadenza at the start and plays throughout the piece. Technically, Lloyd Webber made it look easy, performing with compelling urgency and dynamism. The first and last movements were the most successful, but the exquisite lyrical slow movement almost ground to a halt due to a sluggish pace, a string section that didn’t quite deliver on the rich textures needed to support the soloist, and perhaps some indecision by Glass himself, who seemed unsure of where to at take his main theme.
Malcolm Arnold’s quirky Overture: Tam O’Shanter and Brahms’ Symphony No 4 were also given committed performances by tile EYO, with the wind and brass sections in particular showing off their strength.
SUSAN NICKALLS
Mail On Sunday June 5th 2005
Philip Glass Cello Concerto
UK Premiere, Julian Lloyd Webber, The Dome, Brighton
When you think how many uningratiating new works are given high-profile premieres in London, it is both a surprise and a sadness that Philip Glass’s Cello Concerto had to wait several years for its first UK outing, at the Brighton Festival last week.
Julian Lloyd Webber introduced the attractive piece in Peking in October 2001 and, apart from a performance in New Zealand, this is the first opportunity he has had to repeat it live. Maybe it’s because Glass is an unashamed melodist, or that he is regarded by some these days as just a film composer.
Whatever, such an accomplished work should not have to struggle for a hearing, especially since, although accessible, it is never facile. Indeed, it is very difficult to perform, making extreme demands on the soloist who plays almost throughout its 30-minute duration.
The first movement begins with a tricky extended cadenza, lasting about three minutes, which sets the mood for the earnest ruminations to come.
The 14-minute slow movement is the core of the work, with some attractive, long-breathed melodies that continually draw the listener into the heart of the argument. The finale is more obviously extrovert, with notable writing for the brass. Lloyd Webber’s technique was fully equal to the work’s many challenges, but what emerged best from a well applauded performance at The Dome, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under David Charles Abell, was the quality of his musicianship. He played throughout with a chamber-music-like intensity, ensuring the cello was always part of the orchestral tapestry without losing any of the detail of Glass’s complex solo writing. Julian has recorded this concerto with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic on an Orange Mountain CD, a label owned by the composer, and it’s well worth getting.
David Mellor
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
Ever since the 1970s Philip Glass has consistently proved himself to be one of the great composers of our time. Along with the other American minimalists, he led the way back to tonal, accessible music in the symphonic setting. Without him, Steve Reich, and Terry Riley, one wonders exactly what modern symphonic music would be. Their exploration into the music of the Indian subcontinent resulted in the definitive symphonic compositions of the past thirty years. Glass himself has written several operas and film scores in addition to his concertos for various instruments.
However, even given the importance of his writing, his music cannot be considered to be flawless. By his own admission, much of his early music was repetitive to an extreme. While this was intentional, it was far too easy for it to be burdensome to the listener. As Glass has continued to write he learned to make his works more melodic and emotive. The works here, both written since 2001, are illustrative of the music he has created since he consciously reapplied himself to melodic invention to truly flesh out his minimalist style, making it accessible to almost everyone.
The first work is for his Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, originally debuted at the Beijing Music Festival in 2001. The soloist here is Julian Lloyd-Webber, the same man who first played the work when it debuted in Beijing. The work is performed wonderfully, and displays the fully mature Glass as a master composer capable of melding the radical minimalism of his youth with the impassioned music of the neo-Romantics. The work has all the earmarks of a true masterpiece. It feels innovative and free while finding a place rooted among the great works of the past.
The opening theme sounds much like the movement of a murky river. It is dark, churning, powerful and irresistible. This alternates with a much more hopeful and energetic, yet mechanistic, theme that seems to allude to an optimistic view of technology in civilization. The second movement opens with a statement of majesty and statesmanship, with less underlying tension and a more distinguished tempo. It also could be interpreted as a love theme of sorts, with the cello emoting hope, dignity and pensiveness in turns. The third movement recalls the influence of his film scores written by Glass and his contemporaries, perhaps with an ear towards Danny Elfman while voicing the orchestra. While Glass has always definitively used ostinato as a construct, many of the lines he uses hark back to the Elfman film scores. There is a sense of dark humor in this movement, and a feeling of joy being taken from the dark modes and minor tonalities. At several points one hears echoes of Glass as a young man. Yet he never loses sight of his melodic and thematic composition.
The second work, Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra, leans more towards Steve Reich as it is for two timpanists and orchestra. It was commissioned nearly ten years before its debut Written for virtuoso timpanist Jonathan Haas, who has nearly single-handedly raised the status of the timpani to that of a solo instrument, the piece features both he and Evelyn Glennie playing a total of 14 timpani through three movements and a cadenza. The initial movement is heroic and energetic and would easily feel at home in any adventure movie of the past fifty years. The repetition of the orchestra drives the work along in a nearly mechanical groove. However the 14 timpani are given the lead and melody, giving a melodic center matching the astounding pace of chordal planing and tireless tonal shifting. The second movement bows to Holst’s The Planets with its heroic scope and foreboding feel. Eventually though, the standard Philip Glass harmonies and melodic lines allow us to recognize the composer. At the end, Glass’s distinctive and nearly primal use of chimes in conjunction with the timpani drive the work forward. This leads into the cadenza for the two timpanists and interspersed percussion. Much of the material quotes from the earlier movements, but is wholly distinctive by standing alone from the symphonic instruments. Finally the finale is a mixed meter work that alternates between 4/4 and 7/8. ‘World music’ has influenced much of Glass’s mature work and is a presence here, though through a distinctly dramatic synthesis. This is the music of a fantastic world that straddles mythic shaman and adventure hero.
In general the Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra is a terrifically fun piece. It brings together all that Glass has learned in symphonic, operatic, and cinematic work. Truly this must be considered a masterpiece in Glass’s repertoire. It simultaneously seems both wholly new in instrumentation and wholly familiar.
Both works are performed impeccably. One could hardly wish for a better rendering of the music. Glass should be infinitely pleased with these recordings.
The liner notes are historically informative, explaining how the works themselves were conceived and commissioned. Julian Lloyd-Webber contributes a few paragraphs detailing the nature of their collaboration when Glass was writing the Concerto for Cello and Orchestra. Jonathan Haas’s contribution is a bit longer and more technical, as he discusses the metrical construction of the Timpani Fantasy in addition to the history of his commissioning of the work. As the composition was created over the course of a decade, and was preceded by another work entitled Prelude to Endgame for timpani and double bass, the story is quite interesting. Additionally Evelyn Glennie contributes her notes on the Concerto Fantasy in addition to the standard fare that one expects detailing the composer, conductor, and orchestra. The soloists’ additions make the music more intelligible and add enjoyment to their performances.
There is little fault that one could find in these recordings. The soloists are among the greatest players of their generation. Additionally they have the advantage of performing works written expressly for them. As for myself, I have listened to this album at least a dozen times since it was given to me for this review. Each time I am struck by how powerful Glass’s music has become and how innovative he truly is. The current plan is for Glass and Orange Mountain Music to deliver four volumes of concertos. They have set the standard very high for the four albums to come. Anyone who enjoys the work of Gustav Holst, Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, John Williams, or especially Philip Glass will enjoy this album.
Patrick Gary
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
Los Angeles TImes December 2004
Philip Glass Cello Concerto
Philip Glass: The Concerto Project, Vol.1
Julian Lloyd Webber (cello), Evelyn Glennie, Jonathan Haas (timpani);
Royal Liverpool P0/Gerard Schwarz
Orange Mountain Music 0MM 0014
(distr. New Note) 55:14 mins
“The Cello Concerto, written for and sumptuously played by Lloyd Webber, and the Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists are first rate works given first-rate readings.”
BBC Music Magazine December 2004
Philip Glass Cello Concerto
Philip Glass: The Concerto Project, Vol.1
Jjulian Lloyd Webber (cello), Evelyn Glennie, Jonathan Haas (timpani);
Royal Liverpool P0/Gerard Schwarz
Orange Mountain Music 0MM 0014
(distr. New Note) 55:14 mins
Here’s a welcome antidote to the blandness that seems to be clogging up so much American music at present. Both of these exciting pieces are sure-fire crowd-pleasers, yet both are also uncompromisingly rigorous in compositional terms. It’s always pleasing to see Julian Lloyd Webber doing what he does best, which is playing demanding music very well indeed. ‘His’ concerto (it was a 50th birthday present) is also a near-perfect mixture of what Glass does best when writing for such forces, being thoroughly mindful of orchestral texture, the sheer power of harmony and metrical vigour and indeed the expressive abilities of a good soloist. Lloyd Webber rakes all of this on board, gliding seamlessly from yearning lyricism to a jackhammer-like assertiveness with apparent ease but with no trace of complacency. This is most apparent in the opening of the third movement, which I won’t spoil for you by describing any further.
The thunderous second piece, requiring two soloists playing a total of 14 timpani, is cheerfully bombastic but expertly controlled by Jonathan Haas and Evelyn Glennie. Sonically the disc is less than ideal, often sounding congested and rather gritty, but the music transcends this so effortlessly that I’m delighted to recommend it anyway. Roger Thomas
PERFORMANCE * * * * *
SOUND **
The New York Times 5th December 2004
Philip Glass Cello Concerto
Philip Glass: The Concerto Project, Vol.1
By Allan Kozinn
Julian Lloyd Webber, cellist; Evelyn Glennie and Jonathan Haas, timpanists; Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Gerard Schwarz.
Orange Mountain MUSiC 0014; CD
IN theory, the concerto should be an entirely unsuitable form for Philip Glass. By its nature, it requires a showy virtuosity; Mr. Glass’s music, even in his postMinimalist, neo-Romantic phase, has been about the power of the ensemble rather than the glorification of the soloist.
But because they are so alien to his style, concertos challenge Mr. Glass to look beyond his customary gestures, and in recent years he has poured some of his best music into them. This pairing of concertos for cello and for timpani is the first in a projected four-disc series.
The opening bars of the Cello Concerto throw the soloist fully into the spotlight with a twisted Bachian theme, and even as it cycles into repeating melodic cells, its chromaticism is so dense that the music is hardly recognizable as Mr. Glass’s. That novel tee soon vanishes: when the orchestra kicks in, it is with a patch of Mr. Glass’s chugging boilerplate, mid indeed, in both works, whenever the soloists take a break, Mr. Glass reprises old hits: pensive minor-key music from the Satyagraha”-”Akhnaten” era in the slow movement of the Cello Concerto, brassy “Koyaanisqatsi”-style passages in the second movement of the work for timpani.
Still, the solo lines push into new ground. Julian Lloyd Webber, who commissioned the Cello Concerto, plays its quasi-Bachian passages with suitable vigor, but he is really in his element when Mr. Glass gives him a haunting, lyrical line. These are plentiful, and Mr. Lloyd Webber makes them sing.
In the Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists, Jonathan Haas and Evelyn Glennie create an intricate but hard-driven percussion layer around and within the orchestral fabric. But where they really shine is in a lengthy cadenza that lets them play with their instruments’ tuning, creating outlandish timbres (including one that sounds like whale song played at half speed).
Mail on Sunday 3rd October 2004
Philip Glass Cello Concerto
Philip Glass
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic
with Julian Lloyd Webber
(Orange Mountain)
Another who straddles the divide between popular and serious music is the American minimalist Philip Glass, whose score or the movie The Hours earned him an Oscar nomination.
He has formed his own label to record some of his concertos. The first offering, recorded earlier this year in Liverpool, couples the lightweight Concerto For Two Percussionists and Orchestra with the altogether more substantive Cello Concerto, commissioned by Julian Lloyd Webber and beautifully played by him.
Lasting more than half an hour, this makes great demands on the soloist, not least in the absorbing three-minute partially accompanied cadenza that begins the work. It is blessed with a rich tapestry of engaging musical ideas that belies the reputation of minimalism as just an excuse to endlessly repeat the same melodic cell.
The first movement has some delightful interplay between soloist and woodwind, while in the slow movement the strings introduce some of the melodic ideas, with the cello ruminating h and around the. theme to often magical effect. This concerto was premiered by Lloyd Webber n Beijing in 2001 and has yet to receive its British premiere. Until then this excellent CD will certainly suffice.
Gramophone September 2004
Philip Glass Cello Concerto
Glass
Julian Lloyd Webber, cellist; Evelyn Glennie and Jonathan Haas, timpanists; Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Gerard Schwarz.
Orange Mountain MUSiC 0014; CD
The Concerto Project Volume 1
Cello Concerto. Concerto Fantasy for two Timpanists and Orchestras
Julian Lloyd Webber (vc), Evelyn Glennie, Jonathan Haas perc,
Royal Liverpool Philhamonic Orchestra/ Gerard Schwarz.
Orange Mountain Music OMMOO14 (45 minutes DDD)
Music both engaging and exciting as Glass puts his top soloists through their paces
The Cello Concerto was conceived when Julian Lloyd Webber asked Glass to compose a work for the cellist’s 50th birthday. Lloyd Webber says the piece, premiered in October 2001, contains technical hurdles he had not seen before in particularly in the opening cadenza, but for the listener it’s not a difficult work. That cadenza, underpinned by muffled, percussive figures from the orchestra, is dramatic, with an undercurrent of ambiguos emotion. but it is also lithe aid attractive, evocative of the classics of cello literature— tore, nor least Bach and Elgar. After about. 320” the orchestra introduces brighter textures and typical Glass motifs.
There are passages where the debate between orchestra and soloist seems to contrast those often—copied, easily parodied Glass mannerisms with his more melodically arid harmonically expansive work of recent years. The result is one of the most engaging, impressive and beautiful things Glass has done. The slow movement, lyrical and graceful, sets us up perfectly for the shock of the opening of the finale, which bursts in with one of those ‘accelerating train’ episodes Glass does so effectively.
The gestation of the timpani concerto was more problematic. I can sympathise with Glass’s hesitations. Despite its tuneful capabilities, I associate timpani primarily with melodrama and bombast and, while Class has never been averse to those characteristics, timpani still isn’t an ideal choice for a concerto solo instrument. There are 14 of them here, presumably due to the need to negotiate fairly rapid movement through different keys.
It all works remarkably well in the event. The fast first movement has exciting, ritualistic solo par, perhaps influenced by South-East Asian and Japanese traditions The slow movement manages to make the drums sound lyrical embedded in settings of regal brass and pastoral woodwind. the cadenza preceding the third movement, highly athletic as it is, proves to be a warm-up for Evelyn Glen me and Jonathan Haas before the technical tour dc-force of the finale.
Barry Witherden