Philip Glass - How Now, etc (Steffen Schleiermacher organ/piano, rel. 2010)

Haven't actually posted any Glass on this blog yet, so here we go.  The three works on this collection were composed in the late 60s, and are among the best representations of the composer's early, austere and challenging style.  Disliking the term 'minimalist', Philip Glass always referred to himself as a "composer of music with repetitive structures", and for me, German composer/pianist/organist Steffen Schleiermacher is one of the very best Glass interpreters who can really bring out the simplicity, and then complexity by addition, subtraction and mutation, of these structures.

Music In Similar Motion and Music In Fifths, both composed in 1969, were originally written and recorded as works for a small ensemble, but on this recording Schleiermacher strips them down to just a single organ to great effect; the gradually evolving patterns are laid bare and the single instrument arguably enhances the hypnotic potential.  In between these two on this programme is a piano version of How Now (1968), which I also have on a recording of Glass' debut concert performance (released on his archival imprint).  On that occasion, Glass performed How Now on organ for a patience-stretching half hour, but the piece is transformed in Schleiermacher's hands into a calm, extended meditation that Erik Satie might've been proud of.  If you're looking for the minimal, engrossing magic of early Philip Glass, you'll scarcely find it more perfectly expressed than on this release.

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