Glass, Philip - How Now: Works for Keyboards
SKU
05-MDG 6131600
Two classics by Glass, Music in Fifths and Music in Similar Motion, as well as another early work that is very rarely heard, How Now, all performed by Steffen Schleiermacher and ensemble.
"Always the same melody, forever the same rhythm...Philip Glass immediately sends his audiences into a trance, and Steffen Schleiermacher is the perfect interpreter of this composer's captivating will. The music of Philip Glass appears to be completely predictable. Already after a few minutes it becomes clear that the note flow will continue undisturbed, that no additional element will produce modifications. The clever alternation between duple and triple time simultaneously creates the impression of variability in the metrical pulse of the music without adherence to an identifiable plan. Glass seems to compose out of a box of building blocks, with prefabricated parts -- but always makes for surprises. Philip Glass composed these work for his own ensemble. He wanted to perform them with various keyboards, saxophones, clarinets, and flutes and without having to rely on the services of specific musicians. He did not supply any further instructions, and Steffen Schleiermacher fully avails himself of this freedom. For this recording he played How Now on the piano. He presents the two other pieces -- Music In Fifths and Music In Similar Motion -- in a version for several electric keyboards recorded in succession and then mixed. In compliance with 'historical performance practice' he chose only those sound registers coming close to the Farfisa organs typifying the 1960s."