Ensemble Detail(s)
Bruckner Orchestra Linz
Label name
Orange Mountain Records
Conductor details
Dennis Russell Davies
Philip Glass is back to his best in this symphony, which also marks his return, after a number of major works, to writing orchestral music. Unlike his previous three symphonies, in which Glass made a major feature of his use of voices, this is written in the instrumental tradition of the 18th- and 19th-century symphony, yet with unmistakeable Glass trademark. If you’ve never listened to the composer before, this could be a good starting point, with a first movement bursting with energy, before gliding into a passacaglia and ending with the multi-layering of themes in the third. What impresses me about Glass, who will be 70 next year, is that his music always sounds so fresh.
Nick Bailey, Classic fm Magazine, 9/1/2006