Philip Glass: Classic or Dud? Search and Destroy

shit i might need to road trip to Brooklyn or Berk to experience again, if they aren't sold out

here's PG afterward

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5343/7151276527_b55255e051_b.jpg

it was honestly life-changing. hasn't left me, four months on

oh that sounds great, love Einstein so much.

hey Stormy I have yr Dead LP! email - sleeve at kittymail d0t c0m

hey sleeve -- sorry for delay, i'm on it !

no problem man, and that concert ... jeez, so jealous! I saw a live version of "1000 Airplanes" in the 80's that was pretty good, but Einstein is one of the all time greats.

the Ann Arbor performances were billed as "dry run" or whatever, but from my space it was flawless

sorry, 'preview' i guess is the industry term. Still ruled from start to finish -- flawless

Saw this on Saturday, thought it was absolutely phenomenal - one of the best things I've ever seen. Might be worth seeing if the Barbican has returns rather than paying 100 quid for the few tickets left - we only paid 28 quid for our tickets, admittedly over a year ago.

Really changed how I think of certain parts of the opera, too - e.g. the prematurely air conditioned supermarket bit was amazing, but I've never noticed it that much on record.

I was there on Saturday as well, amazing experience. Thought it was a bit odd that PG and RW weren't there to take a bow at the end though, they are in London after all.

Was there yesterday too, seriously thinking about going again this Sunday.

for some reason i'm having trouble finding concrete dates/locations for this. did it already happen at Brooklyn Academy of Music? If not, when is it? Are there tickets? I really want to see this!

Oh wait, finally found it:

http://www.bam.org/einstein

Sep 14 & 15, 19—22, 2012 at 7pm
Sep 16 & 23, 2012 at 3pm

How difficult will it be to get tickets, for those in the know? Is this going to be some Kraftwerk shit where I hate myself all week again?

full list of tour dates here:

http://pomegranatearts.com/project-einstein/tour.html

Crazy to think that the Berkeley dates will be an effective West Coast premiere.

Any comments on the 10 CD "Glass Box"? Is it a good career overview or does it give long pieces short shrift?

Fair overview but the long pieces are truncated; which is always a crime, but especially with minimal music imho.

I think I just got the last ticket to the Berkeley shows.

super interesting thing upthread about glass organ works

I'm finally at a place where I can enjoy some glassworks & later stuff but glass is like...his early work is so convulsive & inventive & important & relentlessly focused and then suddenly he's not about phase & different conceptions of composition any more: he's a Composer for whom the singular focus of his earlier work yielded some melodic and strategic tools. still hard for me to deal with, the gulf between the Tomato records stuff and the almost pastoral, accessible stuff that came later. saw him twice back in the day, once at Dorothy Chandler and once at the Roxy, which was nuts - the early stuff he played at the Roxy, some selections from Einstein, had an effect comparable to a really loud metal band firing on all cylinders. Whereas the Glassworks stuff...is nice.

I have less against "nice" than I used to so it's cool, but it's weird to me that this real seismic shift in his strategies seems to be an asked-and-answered thing.

I like the weird sort of New Brucknerism he's come to on things like Symphony No. 8. Yes, it's worlds away from Music in 12 or even Koyaanisqatsi but there's something about it. You can really bask in this shit.

Glass played the Roxy? On Sunset? Wild. What year?

music with changing parts is one of the dopest things ever made

xpost

So when do folks suggest this shift in his strategies begins?

I see Glassworks as the turning point. (More on this later.)

Glass played the Roxy? On Sunset? Wild. What year?

I think '82 or '83? It was right after Glassworks came out. It's a tiny stage, I've played it myself; the sound in that room when they got into the Einstein stuff was fucking amazing

I like the weird sort of New Brucknerism he's come to on things like Symphony No. 8. Yes, it's worlds away from Music in 12 or even Koyaanisqatsi but there's something about it. You can really bask in this shit.

pretty interested by this by the way. the last time I was paying any attention to Glass he hadn't written any symphonies at all, so I should really check this out.

should I take acid before I go see Einstein on the Beach? I am leaning toward yes.

xpost Sym 8 is def my fave so far, though I haven't heard every one of them. The first couple of them were the Bowie-Eno-derived ones.

The first couple of them were the Bowie-Eno-derived ones.

see and that is sort of where my inattention to Glass since The Photographer felt justified to me. I love Bowie & Eno, think they're great, but as sources for symphonies? That feels gimmicky in the worst please-pay-attention-to-us-we're-the-classical-world way: and I say this as a guy presently doing work in that same rock-meets-elsewhere world. But I don't know - I feel like there's a certain way of doing it (Kronos on Hendrix, I fear, which I feel guilty saying, but) where it's just kinda sad.

I know I know without actually having listened to them I'm just being a grouch, but it just looked like Glass's careerism at its worst. Can't begrudge a guy trying to get the loft paid off but still.

Total trainspotter Philip Glass question : in the credits to Koyaaniqatsi it says something like "additional music by Michael Hoenig", who I guess is the Agitation Free / Tangerine Dream guy. So does this mean Glass didn't actually write all the score? Something like this track doean't really sound like him, for the first couple of minutes at least :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o64zjJeXClw

The first couple of them were the Bowie-Eno-derived ones.

see and that is sort of where my inattention to Glass since The Photographer felt justified to me. I love Bowie & Eno, think they're great, but as sources for symphonies? That feels gimmicky in the worst please-pay-attention-to-us-we're-the-classical-world way: and I say this as a guy presently doing work in that same rock-meets-elsewhere world. But I don't know - I feel like there's a certain way of doing it (Kronos on Hendrix, I fear, which I feel guilty saying, but) where it's just kinda sad.

I know I know without actually having listened to them I'm just being a grouch, but it just looked like Glass's careerism at its worst. Can't begrudge a guy trying to get the loft paid off but still.

Oh i totally agree with you, it turned me off big time. But I think he's got to a more interesting 'nothing particular to prove' zone with his symphonies now and I really dig it. Do try #8.

There was a two month period in 1999 where I could listen to nothing but The Photographer

The Photographer is FAR and away my favorite thing he's ever done. it reminds me of Lindstrom for some reason.

In 92 I was a junior in high school and I took the photographer LP out from the library and taped it. I'd drive around town with my windows down totally blasting it. I don't love a lot of his stuff just before or since but definately have a soft spot for it.

Checked BAM for tickets today and can't tell if I missed them or the general tix aren't for sale yet. I know a guy touring as part of the tech crew so maybe he can help.

Just got tickets to Einstein on the Beach for Sat, Sept 22nd! :) Waaaaay back in the balcony, but I am so, so pumped to finally see this!

They just went on sale about 15 minutes ago for non-BAM members:

http://www.bam.org/einstein
http://commerce.bam.org/tickets/production.aspx?pid=6637

It's so great, I'm sure you won't be disappointed. Matt#2 and I were so taken with it we're going to go see it again in Holland next year.

I'm going wed night. Balcony.

My seats are pretty fucking terrible for the small fortune that i'm paying for them

When i was considering whether or not I would last the full 5 hours (or my ass would) I tweeted Alex Ross to ask when would be a good time to bail for 5 mins (he had been tweeting about how great it was) he suggested somewhere in the middle of Night Train.

Philip Glass is coming to the Seattle area in October, but he's not performing Einstein On The Beach. Instead it's PG and Foday Musa Suso performing music from a soundtrack to “Powaqatsi” -- $65
*shrug*

I'd seen a handful of Glass-composed pieces performed here and there over the years, but seeing Glass w/ his band play for two solid hours outside near Battery Park earlier this summer was probably the most spellbinding thing I've seen this year. Wanted to run up to all the players and give them a big ol hug just for the physical / mental endurance it must take to pull off a lot of these pieces. To watch a performance of Act III from The Photographer, especially the vocal section, is just ... ugh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOU0koRXNcU

Dan, you've been? What did you think?

I'm going in two weeks.

Good god, the Knee Plays -- I was in tears by the fourth one. Glass doesn't compose much else that's got this pre-Renaissance (polyphonic?) choral thing, does he? But more to the point, WHY DOES IT AFFECT ME SO?

i was re-listening to Music in Twelve Parts the other day, for the first time since seeing Einstein. am i correct in thinking that one of the Music in Twelve Parts songs was featured in Einstein (near the end)?

Everything Glass has done up to Einstein was a case study and all these things combined let to Einstein. So yes, there us Music in Twelve parts in there, and the several different 'a different look at harmony's' are in there, among other pieces.

This guy's got a bunch of surprisingly good quality audience videos from multiple stops on the 2012 Einstein tour.

(He's also got a bunch of Captain Beefheart TV appearances, the complete Live from the Met: Nixon in China film, and a terrible looking-and-sounding video boot of a complete Laurie Anderson show from 1986.)