Naxos' American Classics series has here gotten around to two Philip Glass symphonies not long after their premiere recordings on Nonesuch. Philip Glass: Symphonies No. 2 and 3 combines two works from the 1990s that are more or less not in the vein that made Glass popular, which is a good thing if the insistent patterning and repetition of his most famous works, such as Koyaanisqatsi and Einstein on the Beach, drives one crazy. As the 1990s progressed, Glass seemed to have worked through the tentative aspects found in early ...
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Naxos' American Classics series has here gotten around to two Philip Glass symphonies not long after their premiere recordings on Nonesuch. Philip Glass: Symphonies No. 2 and 3 combines two works from the 1990s that are more or less not in the vein that made Glass popular, which is a good thing if the insistent patterning and repetition of his most famous works, such as Koyaanisqatsi and Einstein on the Beach, drives one crazy. As the 1990s progressed, Glass seemed to have worked through the tentative aspects found in early purely orchestral works such as his Violin Concerto and The Canyon into a formal approach that is in accord with his distinctive voice and artistic aims. Glass also introduces into these works, particularly in the Symphony No. 2, some stimuli from his formative education with Nadia Boulanger, a developmental twist no one could have predicted.So these Philip Glass symphonies are substantive pieces that maintain a good sense of forward momentum and variety of ideas. As the two...
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