Notes and Editorial Reviews
Impressed as I have been by Steffen Schleiermacher’s series
of recordings of composers such as Morton Feldman and John Cage,
I was intrigued to hear what he would make of some of Philip
Glass’s more ‘hard core’ early minimal compositions,
more usually played by ensembles emulating groundbreaking performances
by Glass’ own musicians back when minimalism was new and
confrontational.
Schleiermacher plays Music in Similar Motion and Music
in Fifths on electric organs. These instruments were apparently
recorded
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separately and subsequently mixed together, though
the timing is so exact that this is not apparent in the final
result. What we to get is quite a good approximation of the
‘Farfisa sound’ which is very much part of the character
of these pieces, immediately recognisable and distinctive. MDG’s
recording provides just enough acoustic to make the organ sound
very listenable.
If you can imagine the musical equivalent to minimalist sculpture
by artists of the 1960s such as Ellsworth Kelly or Donald Judd
then you might be able to get an idea of what to expect here.
The music is based on repetition, but also on variation within
a strict framework, and an organic sense of slow development
in terms of sonority and colour. Such uniform fields of sound
might easily induce a meditative state, but if you take Steve
Reich’s attitude of ‘the mind which is wide awake’
then one can also appreciate the monumental nature of these
pieces, and if you can inhabit the way in which they bring the
air to life then you can also gain a sense of heightened rather
than dulled perception. Schleiermacher’s point in the
booklet notes is well made, that “Philip Glass’
music seems to be neutral yet interdependent - since it depends
on the actual state of the listener’s mind: He may be
fascinated by the music, but the very same person may be incredibly
annoyed by it on a different and unsuitable occasion.”
With this CD, you will know if the occasion is suitable - and
when it is, it can be a kind of sonic embodiment of perfection.
The perfection in these performances and the nature of the music
almost makes one forget the player as a factor in their creation,
though such precision never seems to sound mechanical in Schleiermacher’s
hands and somehow always retains an element of expressivity.
Such technical excellence is very much to Steffen Schleiermacher’s
credit, and never more so in the title work for the disc. How
Now works very well on the piano. The Alter
Ego ensemble has recorded this and other works effectively
on the Stradivarius label, but the impression here is markedly
different. Schleiermacher makes extensive use of the pedal to
allow sonorities to mix and tonalities to mingle, and the initial
effect is something like a fragment of Debussy stretched into
infinity through repetition. Filled with fifths and quasi-pentatonic
colours, the musical semantics of the recording have to deal
with associations from Eastern musical scales, though this is
by no means a bad thing. Imagine timeless and ancient bells
or gamelan, and considerations of modernist difficulty easily
slip away. This by the way is also a quality which takes hold
in Music in Fifths if you allow your imagination to take
you to some strange medieval place where the monks have just
discovered LSD.
With the gentler sound of the piano providing a substantial
filling and contrast to this organ sandwich, this is a well
considered and attractive programme. You may be the kind of
person who has no patience for this kind of thing, and I would
be the first to admit this is not a CD for all people and all
occasions. Of its kind however, this is one of the best Philip
Glass discs I’ve come across in many a year, and that’s
after quite a few attempts at climbing Orange Mountain, the
Glass specialist record label.
-- Dominy Clements, MusicWeb International Read less
Works on This Recording
1.
Music in Similar Motion by Philip Glass
Performer:
Steffen Schleiermacher (Organ)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1969; USA
Date of Recording: 10/02/2008
Venue: Ehemal. Ackerhaus der Abtei Marienmünste
Length: 18 Minutes 29 Secs.
2.
How Now by Philip Glass
Performer:
Steffen Schleiermacher (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Date of Recording: 10/02/2008
Venue: Ehemal. Ackerhaus der Abtei Marienmünste
Length: 26 Minutes 42 Secs.
3.
Music in 5ths by Philip Glass
Performer:
Steffen Schleiermacher (Organ)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1969; USA
Date of Recording: 10/02/2008
Venue: Ehemal. Ackerhaus der Abtei Marienmünste
Length: 22 Minutes 8 Secs.
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