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.  This also included a version of the Saxophone Quartet arranged by Brooklyn Rider for String 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.

Philip Glass’ saxophone quarter was first performed by the Rashcer Quartet on July 27, 1995 at the Schleswig Hoolstein Gestival in Haselburg Germany – there is a version with full orchestra as a concerto for saxophone quartet.  It is in 4 movements  We will be playing both the version for saxophone 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 music for Mishima String Quartet (String Quartet No.3) originally appeared as parts of the film score for Mishima by film maker Paul Schrader. Having worked extensively in experimental theater, Philip Glass tends to utilize subtle but compelling musical effects to articulate distinct frames of narrative within a drama. In his music for Paul Schrader's film Mishima, Glass sets off three distinct 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 subjects were intercut to produce a shifting kaleidoscopic vision of Mishima's life.  In the film, the scenes of Mishima's childhood were filmed in black and white and scored by Glass for String Quartet. At the time of writing the film music, Glass anticipated the String Quartet section would be extracted from the film score and made into a concert piece in its own right.  And this is what we have in his String Quartet #3 Mishima. While this piece, like its predecessor has extramusical connections, Glass was aware from the outset that the string quartet sections might work well when freed from the score and given a life of their own, as a single, complete utterance, in the concert hall.

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