Glass Reflections
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GLASS REFLECTIONS BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC Harvey Lichtenstein, President and Executive Producer and BROOKLYN PHILHARMONIC·ORCHESTRA 39th Season, 1992/93 Dennis Russell Davies, Principal Conductor Lukas Foss, Conductor Laureate presents in the BAM Opera House November 13, 14, 1992; 8pm GLASS REFLECTIONS WORKS BY PHILIP GLASS BROOKLYN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA DENNIS RUSSELL DAVIES, Conductor PHILIP GLASS, DENNIS RUSSELL DAVIES, KENNETH BOWEN, KAREN KAMENSEK, MICHAEL RIESMAN, Keyboards NEW YORK CHORAL SOCIETY; John Daly Goodwin, Music Director Music in Similar Motion (1969) PHILIP GLASS, DENNIS RUSSELL DAVIES, KENNETH BOWEN, KAREN KAMENSEK, MICHAEL RIESMAN, Keyboards Itaipu: A Symphonic Portrait for Chorus and Orchestra (1989) I. Mata Grosso II. The Lake III. The Dam IV. To the Sea NEW YORK CHORAL SOCIETY; John Daly Goodwin, Music Director Intermission "Low" Symphony (1992) u.s. Premiere I. "Subterraneans" II. "Some Are" III. "Warszawa" from music by DAVID BOWIE and BRIAN ENO This presentation has been made possible, in part, by a grant from The Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust. Major support for the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra's 1992/93 season has been provided by a generous grant from the LILA WALLACE-READER'S DIGEST FUND. THE STANLEY H. KAPLAN EDUCATIONAL CENTER ACOUSTIC SHELL The Brooklyn Philharmonic and the Brooklyn Academy of Music gratefully acknowledge the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley H. Kaplan, whose assistance made possible the Stanley H. Kaplan Educational Center Acoustic Shell. Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra is the Resident Orchestra of the Brooklyn Academy of Music. BROOKLYN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA VIOLIN I VIOLA Ron Wasserman TRUMPET Dale Stuckenbruck Janet Hill Dean Crandall Wilmer Wise Diane Bruce Sarah Adams Philip Ruecktenwald Claudia Hafer Ron Carbone FLUTE Lowell Hershey Sander Strenger Mary Helen Ewing Diva Goodfriend-Koven Carl Sakofsky Robin Bushman Monica Gerard Elizabeth Brown Elizabeth Field Rozanna Weinberger Dan Gerhard TROMBONE Marilyn Reynolds Christine Ims Jonathan Taylor Gayle Dixon Lois Martin OBOE Hugh Eddy Katherine Hannauer Ronald Lawrence Henry Schuman Lawrence Benz Cecelia Hobbs Gardner Katherine Rite Melanie Feld Rena Isbin Leonard 'Gibbs Robert Walters TUBA Carolyn Wenk-Goodman Ah Ling Neu Andrew Seligson Gabriel Schatt CLARINET Luellen Abdoo CELLO Steven Hartman PERCUSSION Dennis Linkevitch Chris Finckel Larry Guy Richard Fitz Victor Heifetz David Calhoun Gerhardt Koch James Preiss Lanny Paykin Brian Hysong Norm Freeman VIOLIN II Michael Rudiakov William Trigg Ann Labin Peter Rosenfeld BASSOON Eugenie Seid Kroop Sally Cline Lauren Goldstein HARP Fritz Krakowski Frank Mruphy Jeff Marchand Karen Lindquist Carol Havelka Joshua Gordon Michael Finn Ming-Feng Hsin Lutz Rath KEYBOARD Nancy Ditto Michael Finckel HORN Kenneth Bowen Lisa Brooke Francisco Donaruma Roxanne Bergman BASS Katie Dennis Diana Smith Barker Joseph Bongiorno ' Scott Temple Elmira Belkin Dennis James Alex Cook Karen Anne Milne Jaime Austria Jeff Scott Laura Goldberg Louis. Bruno Milton Phibbs Marya Columbia Janet Conway Barbour Natalie Kriegler Jules Hirsh MUSIC CREDITS All rights reserved. International copyright secured. "Low" Symphony Used by permission. BY PHILIP GLASS "Warszawa" by David Bowie and Brian Eno. © 1977 Tintoretto Music, Fleur Music. and E.G. Music. From the music of David Bowie and Brian Eno. Rights for Tintoretto Music and Fleur Music assigned © 1992 Dunvagen Music Publishers, Inc. Symphony to EMI Music Publishing Ltd. All rights for EMI administered throughout the world exclusively by Music'Publishing Ltd. in the USA and Canada con Dunvagen Music Publishers, Inc. trolled and administered by Screen-Gems - EMI "Some Are" by David Bowie and Brian Eno. © 1991 Music Inc. All rights reserved. International copy Tintoretto Music, Fleur Music and Opal Ltd. Rights right secured. Used by permission. for Tintoretto Music and Fleur Music assigned by ~ I EMI Music Publishing Ltd. All rights for EMI Music Publishing Ltd. in the USA and Canada controlled and administered by Screen-Gems - EMI Music Inc. ftaipu All rights for Opal Ltd. in the USA and Canada con trolled and administered by Upala music Inc. (BMI). Music composed by Philip Glass All rights reserved. International copyright secured. © 1991 Dunvagen MusiC Publishers, Inc. Used by permission. "Subterraneans" by David Bowie. © 1977 Tintoretto Music and Fleur Music. Rights assigned to EMI Music Publishing Ltd. All rights for EMI Music Music in Similar Motion Publishing Ltd. in the USA and Canada controlled Music composed by Philip Glass and administered by Screen-Gems - EMI Music Inc. © 1973 Dunvagen Music Publishers, Inc. Program Notes by JAMES M. KELLER The music of Philip Glass and his artistic Born in 1937, Glass had studied music since relatives has grown so familiar during the childhood, and earned estimable "seals of last decade that listeners may forget how approval" credentials that included degrees astonishing its impact was when it began to from the Juilliard School (where he studied filter out of avant-garde hideaways, nearly composition with William Bergsma and twenty-five years ago. Much of the cutting Vincent Persichetti), study at the Aspen edge music of the post-war years had grown Music Festival (with Darius Milhaud), and frustratingly turgid, and audiences who had an extended stint (through the graces of the yet to come to terms with such relatively Fulbright Foundation) in Paris, where he antiquated composers as Schoenberg or underwent the rigorous regime of harmony Webern found themselves utterly perplexed and counterpoint that Nadia Boulanger had by the increasingly complex and abstracted imposed with stunning success on decades of scores of such composers as Elliott Carter, developing American composers. It was in Milton Babbitt, or Pierre Boulez. By the late Paris, in 1965, that Glass met up with the 1960's, many have argued, serious composers Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar, who invit had by-and-Iarge lost contact with all but the ed him to collaborate in the composition of tiniest' minority of the concert audience. a score for the film Chappaqua. Besides pro viding much needed pocket money, the It was in this context that, in the late experience·brought him into contact with 1960's, a small band of composers emerged the musical rudiments of Indian music, with an alternative approach to composi which is based on the interlacing of defined tion. By stripping music back down to rhythmic and· melodic cells (as opposed to immediately perceptible elements, and then the harmonic tension and resolution of exploring those musical aspects obsessively, Western music). Finding himself on the verge these composers at once challenged the of discovering his authentic voice as compos reigning establishment of avant-garde music er, Glass shortly embarked for India, Central and argued that serious music·need not be Asia, and North Africa; and, settled in New inaccessible to listeners· unschooled in the York the following year, he put the sounds subtleties of advanced Serialism. heard in these travels to immediate use. Though the several ~omposers associated By 1968, Glass had formed the Philip Glass with the new movement· (including Terry Ensemble, consisting of amplified wood Riley, LaMonte Young, and Steve Reich, in winds and keyboards, singers, and (begin addition to Philip Glass) proceeded accord ning in 1970) an indispensable sound engi ing to their individual curiosities, they neer. In 1969, the ensemble introduced three shared an interest in repetitive patterns and pieces that stood as style-defining monu in structures that grew by minute gradations ments of the composer's brand of minimal from rudimentary musical material. The ism: Music in Fifths (in which a melody is term "Minimalist" was quickly pressed into simultaneously performed at two levels of service to describe their efforts. Glass attrib pitch a fifth apart), Music in Contrary utes the label to Tom Johnson, a composer Motion, and Music in Similar Motion (this and (then) critic for for the Village Voice, last being the only of Glass's classic who later repudiated its usage when applied Minimalist works to have remained in his to the repertoire to which it was widely ensemble's repertoire). Music in Similar attached. Motion displays the Minimalist hallmarks of simple melodic lines perpetually repeating In fact, the concert world initially had little use within strict rhythmic patterns, with the for these composers, whose ground-breaking su:btlest of alterations injected over long works were often embraced and promoted stretches. Though the Ensemble performed more ardently by visual artists and gallery on two electric organs and three synthesizers owners than by traditional concert producers. when the work was premiered (at New This inevitably led to charges from musical tra York's Guggenheim Museum), it can be ditionalists that the Minimalists lacked proper (and has been) performed and recorded with training and technical competence. But such other instrumental combinations as well. accusations were largely unfair, and proved Although the musical material is clearly understandably exasperating to Glass. composed, the Ensemble's leader determines the overall structure of the piece in the what's happening at each moment be the course of the performance, cuing the. per- essential and important thing. There's a spa 'formers as the piece progresses. The work's cious, epic quality about the music." relentlessness suggests the machine age, and its exhilaration