Philip Glass: “The American Four Seasons” Violin Concerto No. 2 (2009)

Classical Music Discord: Philip Glass ( b. 1937 ) Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass’s work has been associated with minimalism, being built up from repetitive phrases and shifting layers. Glass describes himself as a composer of “music with repetitive structures“, which he has helped evolve stylistically. “The American Four Seasons” Violin Concerto No. 2 ( 2009 ) It was American violinist Robert McDuffie who proposed to Glass the notion of an “American Four Seasons”—a work that could be programmed with the classic Vivaldi warhorse to provide a study in contrasts as well as back-to-back virtuoso vehicles for the soloist. McDuffie had fallen in love with Glass’s Violin Concerto No. 1 (1987) after hearing Gidon Kremer’s premiere recording of the piece, and he recorded it himself in 1998. He began talking to the composer about a sequel in 2002, but Glass, flush with other commissions, was not able to begin writing until the summer of 2009. The commission for the Concerto came from a consortium of arts organizations and two orchestras, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. It premiered in Toronto, Canada, on December 9 2009, with McDuffie as soloist and Peter Oundjian conducting the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Although there is no mistaking Glass for Vivaldi, there are certain Baroque characteristics that link the two works. Glass’s orchestration, for strings and synthesizer, could have resulted in new, modernistic timbres, but by designating a harpsichord-like sound for the synth, the composer places the work firmly in the early 18th-century tradition. (Let it be noted that the synthesizer does not act as a traditional continuo instrument. For the most part, it merely doubles things that are happening in the strings and does not come much into its own until the third movement.) And by substituting separate movements for solo violin (interspersed between concertante movements) for traditional cadenzas, he clearly evokes the spirit of Bach’s solo works for the instrument. Even his titles for these sections bear a Baroque stamp: replace Prologue and Song with Prelude and Aria and the Bach connection is clear. Interestingly, Glass composed these intervening movements with the idea that they could be separated from the Concerto to make a free-standing work for solo violin. Even some of Glass’s most identifying thumbprints—use of arpeggio figures and frequent repetitions—evoke the Baroque masters. But he leaves the period far behind in his harmonies that, while triad-based and mostly consonant, emphatically do not function in any way that Vivaldi (and especially Bach) would have recognized or approved. Absent as well is any sense of the counterpoint that was so important in Baroque composition. But what remains is a sense of palpable energy and momentum that outpaces most Baroque Allegros. Another difference between the two works is that, while Vivaldi prefaced each movement with a poem identifying the season in question, Glass has chosen not to label the movements and allow each listener to decide for themselves which season the music evokes. As the composer has written, “When the music was completed, I sent it on to Bobby, who seemed to have quickly seen how the movements of my Concerto No. 2 related to the ‘Seasons.’ Of course, Bobby’s interpretation, although similar to my own, proved to be also somewhat different. This struck me as an opportunity then, for the listener to make his/her own interpretation. Therefore, there will be no instructions for the audience, no clues as to where Spring, Summer, Winter and Fall might appear in the new concerto—an interesting, though not worrisome, problem for the listener. After all, if Bobby and I are not in complete agreement, an independent interpretation can be tolerated and even welcomed.” Movements 00:00 Prologue 01:16 Movement I 07:29 Song No. 1 11:22 Movement 2 22:54 Song No. 2 25:18 Movement 3 31:37 Song No. 3 35:16 Movement 4 Instrumentation for Violin and Orchestra Performer Berner Kammerorchester, Kammerorchester Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Piotr Plawner (Violin) The music published in my channel is exclusively dedicated to divulgation purposes and not commercial. This within a program shared to study classic educational music which involves thousands of people around the world. If someone, for any reason, would deem that a video appearing in this channel violates the copyright, please inform me immediately before you submit a claim to Youtube, and it will be my care to immediately remove the video accordingly. Your collaboration will be appreciated. #sheetmusic #classicalmusic