Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Pianist Turns the Tables

Review of pianist Bruce Levingston's recital and premiere of a new work by Philip Glass. The review of the new Glass is glowing, but seems otherwise less than enthusiastic though solidly approving of the rest of Levingston's recital.

Key graf:

"The Glass was notably less portraitlike than its companions. "Mephisto" and "Ondine" undeniably paint portraits. Mr. Glass's work is more a tip of the hat. But it offered a glimpse of something new from Mr. Glass, or at least its first movement did. In both movements Mr. Glass draws on his stock figures, including scales and undulating minor thirds, and a few frequently used chord progressions. But in the first movement, which is meant to suggest Mr. Close in the early 1960's, when Mr. Glass met him, those elements are dressed in uncharacteristic dissonances, and they move briskly among figures. The second movement, meant to portray the mature Mr. Close, is more conventionally diatonic and repetitive."

Slog thru the rest of Kozinn's review here.

More about Levingston here.

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