Philip Glass - Solo Piano (programme)
Glass´ Piano Solo in the Archa Theatre (Denní telegraf)

Photos from the performance
Poster of Performance




Philip Glass - Solo Piano

Special guest: Allen Ginsberg

Archa Theatre, March 25 and 26, 1996

This evening´s program consists of music originally composed for the solo piano, as well as a number of arrangements for the organ or other instrumental combinations. All the music comes from the period dating from 1976 to the present.


Mad Rush, 1981
This piece was written for the Dali Lama's first public speech in New York in autumn 1981. The piece had an original open structure and open ending. Philip Glass played this for the first time on the organ during Dali Lama's entrance into the St. John's Cathedral. Later, Lucinda Childs used this composition for a dance choreography under same title.

Metamorphoses II., IV., V., 1989
These five pieces for the piano came from the film A Thin Blue Line (dir. Errola Morris), and from the theatre performance of Kafka´s Changing (created by Gerald Thomas). It was performed in Sao Paulo, Brazil, for the first time. The Musical connection of both work is a proper synthesis - not just for the fact that both projects were realised at the same time.

Allen Ginsberg:
On Cremation of Chögyam Trungpa, 1987
Song, 1954

Intermission

The Fourth Knee Play, 1976
The Knee Plays, from Einstein on the Beach, was composed in collaboration with theater director, designer and author Robert Wilson, formed a series of short interludes which appeared throughout this six hour, four act work. The original version, from which this arrangement is taken from, was scored for a male chorus and a solo violinist who played the role of Einstein.

Six etudes, 1994-1995
These six etudes are part of an evening length "work in progress" that will be completed by 1997. The completed piece will be composed of 16 etudes, of which the first eight already exist. Each etude approaches the piano in a somewhat different way, producing a highly diverse set of pieces. Etude No. 6 was commissioned by the Sydney Festival for their performances.

Satyagraha (1980)
Satyagraha is the second in a trilogy of operas which began with Einstein on the Beach and concluded with Akhnaten in 1984. The theme of the opera explored the social changes throughout the non-violence which occurred in the politics and life of Mahatma Ghandi. The trilogy as a whole was performed in Stuttgart, Germany in 1989. The music heard in this piano arrangement appears at the conclusion of Act III and serves as an epilogue to the opera.


Philip Glass
Born in Baltimore, Philip Glass discovered music in his father's radio repair shop. In addition to servicing radios, Ben Glass carried a line of records and, when certain ones sold poorly, he would take them home and play them for his three children, trying to discover why they didn't appeal to customers. These happened to be recordings of the great chamber works, and the future composer rapidly became familiar with Beethoven quartets, Schubert sonatas, Shostakovich symphonies and other music then considered "offbeat". It was not until he was in his upper teens did Glass begin to encounter more "standard" classics.
          Glass began the violin at six and became serous about music when he took up the flute at eight. But by the time he was 15, he had become frustrated with the limited flute repertory as well as with musical life in post-war Baltimore. During his second year in high school, he applied for admission to the University of Chicago, passed and, with his parents' encouragement, moved to Chicago, where he supported himself with part-time jobs waiting tables and loading airplanes at airports. He majored in mathematics and philosophy, an in off hours practiced piano and concentrated on such composers as Ives and Webern.
          At 19, Glass graduated from the University of Chicago and, determined to become a composer, moved to New York and the Juilliard School. By then he had abandoned the 12-tone techniques he had been using in Chicago and preferred American composers like Aaron Copeland and William Schuman.
          By the time he was 23, Glass had studied with Vincent Persichetti, Darius Mihaud and William Bergsma. He had rejected serialism and preferred such maverick composers as Harry Partch, Ives, Moondog, Henry Cowell, and Virgil Thomsom, but he still had not found his own voice. Still searching, he moved to Paris and had two years of intensive study under Nadia Boulanger.
          In Paris, he was hired by a film-maker to transcribe the Indian music of Ravi Shankar into notation readable by French musicians and, in the process, discovered the techniques of Indian music. Glass promptly renounced his previous music and, after researching music in North Africa, India and the Himalayas, returned to New York and began applying Eastern techniques to his own work.
          By 1974, he had composed a large collection of new music, much of it for use by the theater company Mabou Mines (Glass was one of the co-founders of that company), and most of it composed for his own performing group, the Philip Glass Ensemble. This period culminated in Music in 12 Parts, a 4-hour summation of Glass' new music, and reached their apogee in 1976 with Philip Glass/Robert Wilson opera Einstein on the Beach, the 4 1/2-hour epic now seen as a landmark in 20th century music-theater.
          Glass' output since Einstein has ranged from opera - Saryagraha, Akhnaten, The Making of the Representative for Planet 8, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Juniper Tree, Hydrogen Jukebox; ro film scores - Koyaanisqatsi, Mishima, The Thin Blue Line, Powaqqatsi, A Brief History of Time; to symphonic works - The Light, Itaipu, The Violin Concerto Low, to string quartets - No. 2 -5 recorded by the Kronos Quartet. He has created music for dance - A Descent into the Maelstrom for Molissa Fenley, In the Upper Room for Twyla Tharp; and such unclassifiable theater pieces as The Photographer, 1 000 Airplanes on the Roof and The Mysteries And What's So Funny?
          Among his recently completed works are The Voyage, commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera; Orphée, a chamber opera based on the film by Jean Cocteau, and La Belle et la Bete also based on a Jean Cocteau film of the same title; the 2nd Symphony, commissioned by the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra; and the 3rd Symphony, premiered by the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra. Current projects include: a new composition for the Rascher Saxophone Quartet; two collaborations with Robert Wilson, Monsters of Grace and White Raven; The Witches of Venice, a new ballet created by Beni Montressor and commissioned by Teatro alla Scala; and the third and final piece in his Cocteau trilogy, a dance/theater work, with choreographer Susan Marshall, based on the film Les Enfants Terribles.
          Philip Glass was made a Chevalier de l´Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 1995 and has been awarded honorary degrees from Brandeis University, The University of the Arts in Philadelphia and The State University of New York in Buffalo.


Allen Ginsberg
As one of the famous living American poets, he is not in Prague happily for the first time. Ginsberg's history is generally known from the Spring of 1965 when he travelled the world, including Prague. Here, he shocked the unpleasant interest of the StB with his free behaviour, and, due to the order of President Novotný, was forced to leave the country in an airplane headed for London. It is also a known fact that for a short time before his expulsion from the country, Allen Ginsberg was appointed Král Majales( King of May). The poem of the same name was written just before landing in London, and since then is often recited.
          Allen Ginsberg was born in Paterson, New Jersey in 1926, and studied at the Columbia University. In the second half of the 1940's, he met Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs - this meeting influenced all three creators for their entire lives, and apart from that, they later became known in the literary movement as the "beat generation".
          Ginsberg became famous relatively early - his long poem Howl, found in the collection of poems of the same name, was pronounced "obscene" and how Ginsberg, as well as its publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti, were brought before the court. However, the jury agreed with the known literary critics, and dispelled the accusations. Howl has since become the second best-seller in collections of poetry in the USA!
          Public poetry readings were, not only for the Beatniks, characteristic at that time - Ginsberg's voice was like a creator for the recital of poetry. Later, Ginsberg began to perform with his missionary harmonium. He collaborated with rock and jazz musicians, also with classical musicians, and produced several albums. His collaboration with Philip Glass came more or less coincidentally.
          "We met in bookstore St. Mark´s Place, and it occurred to us that we should do something together. Allen took one of his book of verses from the shelf, and right there, we chose about twenty of them." Among those chosen was an excerpt from the Wichita Vortex Sutra. From this came the project, Hydrogen Jukebox, an evening opera performance for six singers and a small orchestra. This was a collaboration with artist Jerome Serline and director Ann Carlson.


Discography of Philip Glass

Akhnaten Sony Masterworks M2K 42457
Anima Mundi Nonesuch 79239-2
La Belle et la Bête Nonesuch 79347
Dance Nos. 1-3 Tomato Records TOM-8029
Dance Nos. 1-5 Sony Masterworks M2K 44765
Dance Pieces Sony Masterworks MK 39539
Einstein on the Beach Sony Masterworks M4K 38875
Einstein on the Beach Nonesuch 79323-2
The Essential Glass Sony Masterworks SK 64133
Glassworks Sony Masterworks MK 37265
Glass Organ Works Catalyst 09026618252
Hydrogen Jukebox Nonesuch 79286-2
In Good Company Point Music 434873-2
Itaipu Sony Masterworks SK 46352
Koyaanisquatsi Antilles/Island 422-814042-2
Kronos Quartet Nonesuch 79111-1
Kronos Quartet Performs Philip Glass Nonesuch 79356
Low Symphony Point Music 438 150-2
Mishima Nonesuch 79113-2
Music in Similar Motion Music in Fifths Chatham Square 1003
Music in Twelve Parts Virgin/Venture 802768995
Music in Twelve Parts Virgin 91311-2
Music with Changing Parts Nonesuch 79325-2
North Star Virgin V2085
1000 Airplanes on the Roof Virgin 91065-2
Passages Private Music 2074-2-P
The Photographer Sony Masterworks MK 37849
Piano Two Private Music 2027-1-P
Platinum Virgin V2141
Powaqqatsi Nonesuch 79113-2
Satyagraha Sony Masterworks 13M 39672a
Satyagraha Sony Masterworks M3K 39672
The Screens Point Music 4329662
Solo Piano Shandar 83515
Solo Piano Sony Masterworks MK 45576
Songs From Liquid Days Sony Masterworks MK 39564
Songs From the Trilogy Sony Masterworks MK 45580
Strung Out for Amplified Violin Music Observations CP2
The Official Music of the XXIIIrd Olympiad CBS Records 7464-39322-1
The Thin Blue Line Nonesuch 79209-2
Two Pages... Nonesuch 79326-2
Violin Concerto Deutsche Grammophon 437 1912


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Glass´ Piano Solo in the Archa Theatre

American Philip Glass performed his first of two solo recitals in Prague's Archa Theatre on Monday evening. During the performance, he also presented his fellow countryman and beatnik poet Allen Ginsberg. During the afternoon before the concert, both protagonists were participants in the press conference where one could hear that "music and poetry are always a positive strength thanks to their longing to communicate and create a new language."

Minimalistic music became a successful attempt about the reformation of contemporary music. In a struggle with rectilinear expression, it was led primarily by many of the composers from the circle of repetitive music, and even included the roles of the producing artists.
          Shortly after 8:00 p.m., Philip Glass came out onto the stage of the full hall. Dressed in his black shirt and gray pants, he did not evoke in the slightest the image of a stiff artist, maybe even thanks to this informality, he completely concentrated on his music. The connection of the minimalist music and the solo piano didn't seem boring nor monotonous. The dramaturgy of the concert even contributed to it. It also changed partly because of the guest, Allen Ginsberg.
          The composition Mad Rush belonged to the introduction of the performance. The piece which the artist composed for the Dali Lama's public appearance in New York City in autumn of 1981. The "thickening" sound architecture of the piano's transcription did not renounce its original partiture which was written for the organ. The majority of the three parts taken from the cycle "Five Metamorphoses" presented a fragile, chamber contrast. Before the intermission, Philip Glass introduced his guest Allen Ginsberg to perform two poems which were set to music last year: On the Cremation of Chögyam Trungpa (dedicated in 1987 to memory of Allen´s guru) and the yet older Song, which was written in 1954 and it was contained in the famous collection of poems Howl.
          A min-lecture about the history and synopses of each of the poems created beautiful moments, which Ondøej Hrab, director of the Archa Theatre, simultaneously translated Allen Ginsberg, who today has the image of a distinctive university professor. The second part of the evening was a solo performance of Philip Glass. The composer introduced two excerpts from the opera Einstein On The Beach and Satyagraha, separated by six of his newest etudes, in which he performed perfectly in the quality of his own technique - even in the sound possibilities of the musical instrument.
          The enthusiastic audience of the theatre gave the legends such a great applause that they came back on stage for two encores. The most anticipated of the two was the war poem Wichita Vortex Sutra set to music. This piece with Ginsberg, Glass later included in the framework of the chamber opera of Hydrogen Jukebox. Over the course of his profession, Philip Glass has demonstrated that the proclamation of "reformed" contemporary music are not merely empty conceptions.

Pavel Víšek, Denní Telegraf, 27. 3. 1996