PHILIP GLASS
GLASSWORLDS • 1
PIANO WORKS AND TRANSCRIPTIONS
GLASSWORKS: OPENING • DREAMING AWAKE •
ORPHÉE SUITE • HOW NOW
NICOLAS HORVATH, Piano
Philip Glass has made an immense and stylistically wide-ranging contribution to piano repertoire. The Orphée Suite, a transcription of excerpts from the first opera in Glass’ Cocteau Trilogy, is one of his most distinctive piano pieces, blending virtuosity and melodic richness. In contrast, the hypnotic How Now is structurally influenced by Indian ragas and gamelan music, whilst Dreaming Awake contains one of the most powerful climaxes in all Glass’ works. Performed by Nicolas Horvath, a Scriabin Competition first prize winner, this is the first release in the complete Glass solo piano edition which will include many premières.
GP677
Listen to an extract from
Orphée Suite: III. Journey to the Underworld
About this Recording
Philip Glass (b. 1937) discovered “modern” music while working as a teenager in his father’s Baltimore record shop. When he graduated with a master’s degree in composition from Juilliard in 1962, he had studied with William Bergsma, Vincent Persichetti and Darius Milhaud. His early works subscribed to the twelve-tone system and other advanced techniques. But in spite of some success (including a BMI Award and a Ford Foundation Grant), he grew increasingly dissatisfied with his music. “I had reached a kind of dead end. I just didn’t believe in my music anymore,” he said. A 1964 Fulbright Scholarship brought him to Paris, where he studied with Nadia Boulanger and met Ravi Shankar, the Indian sitar virtuoso. In their different ways, those two individuals transformed his work. Boulanger, in his words, “completely remade my technique,” and Shankar introduced him to “a whole different tradition of music that I knew nothing about.”
1 GLASSWORKS: I. OPENING (1981)* (06:17)
ORPHÉE SUITE (ARR. PAUL BARNES FOR PIANO) (2000)* (27:17)
2 I. The Café (04:41)
3 II. Orphée's Bedroom (01:34)
4 III. Journey to the Underworld (03:22)
5 IV. Orphée and the Princess (04:08)
6 V. Return to Orphée's House (02:41)
7 VI. Orphée's Return (06:58)
8 VII. Orphée's Bedroom-Reprise (03:53)
9
DREAMING AWAKE (2003) (14:48)
10
HOW NOW (1968) (30:38)
TOTAL TIME: 79:00
About Nicolas Horvath
Recognized as a leading interpreter of Liszt’s music, Nicolas Horvath has in recent years become one of the most sought after pianists of his generation. Holder of a number of awards, including First Prize of the Scriabin and the Luigi Nono International Competitions, he frequently organizes events and concerts of unusual length, sometimes over twelve hours, such as Philip Glass’ complete piano music or Erik Satie’s Vexations, and composers from a number of countries have written for him. Nicolas Horvath is a Steinway artist. In addition to his career as a virtuoso, which takes him around the world, he is a composer.
UPCOMING RELEASES
