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WNYC: New Sounds - Geeking Out On P. Glass with Timo Andres

WNYC - New Sounds writes….Brooklyn-based composer and pianist Timo Andres performs two of the Philip Glass Etudes, and nerds out about his work on a new special edition of the Philip Glass Piano Etudes.

Pioneering composer and pianist Philip Glass is considered to be one of the founding fathers of minimalism - or as Glass describes it, “music with repetitive structures.” His hypnotic, meditative work has had a profound influence across modern American music and stretched the borders of contemporary classical music. Philip Glass has said that “writing a piece is a lot quicker than learning a piece” – and his Etudes are a group of works originally written by Glass to improve his own piano playing.

For this New Sounds, Brooklyn-based composer and pianist Timo Andres performs some of these Etudes, and describes how he has been involved in the Philip Glass Etude project, a beautiful box set of 20 folios, each with an accompanying essay. In the process, Andres and host John Schaefer go down a rabbit hole of comparison performances and reflect on this group of works.

Listen to Etude No. 2, Etude No. 5, and Etude No. 6 – what Timo Andres describes as the “toccata etude”, a piece with repeated notes – in several different recordings as Andres observes how Philip Glass’ scores leave a lot open to the interpreter. While there are tempo markings on the scores, but for whatever reason, perhaps in the tradition of Philp’s own playing and his embrace of so many interpretations, people tend to take a very flexible approach to his works. And as Timo says, Philip himself, “takes quite a lot of liberty with his own music.”  - Caryn Havlik

Program #4823, Geeking Out On Glass With Timo Andres (First aired 12/06/2023)

ARTIST: Timo Andres
WORK: Philip Glass: Etude No. 6 [:30]
RECORDING: Live, at Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts in Chicago, Nov. 2023
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.
INFO: https://philipglass.com/compositions/etudes/

ARTIST: Timo Andres
WORK: Philip Glass: Etude No. 6 [4:31]
RECORDING: Live, WNYC, Nov. 2023
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.
INFO: https://philipglass.com/compositions/etudes/

ARTIST: Timo Andres
WORK: Philip Glass: Etude No. 6 [4:31]
RECORDING: Live, WNYC, Nov. 2023
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.
INFO: https://philipglass.com/compositions/etudes/

ARTIST: Christopher O'Riley
WORK: Philip Glass: Etude No. 6 [1:00]
RECORDING: Live, WNYC FM 50th Anniversary, 6/13/94 Allice Tully Hall | WNYC Commissions Volume 1
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.
INFO: https://philipglass.com/compositions/etudes/

ARTIST: Vanessa Wagner
WORK: Philip Glass: Etude No. 6 [1:00]
RECORDING: Study Of The Invisible
SOURCE: InFiné Music
INFO: https://vanessa-wagner.bandcamp.com/album/study-of-the-invisible

ARTIST: Maki Namekawa
WORK: Philip Glass: Etude No. 6 [1:00]
RECORDING: Glass: The Complete Piano Etudes
SOURCE: Orange Mountainh
INFO: https://philipglass.bandcamp.com/album/philip-glass-the-complete-piano-etudes

ARTIST: Simone Dinnerstein
WORK: Philip Glass: Etude No. 6 [1:00]
RECORDING: A Character of Quiet
SOURCE: Orange Mountain
INFO: https://philipglass.bandcamp.com/album/a-character-of-quiet

ARTIST: Timo Andres
WORK: Philip Glass: Etude No. 6 [4:33]
RECORDING: Live, WNYC, Nov. 2023
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.
INFO: https://philipglass.com/compositions/etudes/

ARTIST: Philip Glass
WORK: Philip Glass: Etude No. 2 / (fka Prelude No. 2) [5:08]
RECORDING: Live, WNYC, July 1995
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.
INFO: https://philipglass.com/compositions/etudes/

ARTIST:  Vanessa Wagner
WORK: Philip Glass: Etude No. 2 [1:11]
RECORDING: Mirrored
SOURCE: InFiné Music
INFO: https://vanessa-wagner.bandcamp.com/album/mirrored

ARTIST: Lisa Moore
WORK: Philip Glass: Etude No. 2 [:51]
RECORDING: Mad Rush
SOURCE: Orange Mountain Music OMM0099
INFO: Available at Amazon.com, AppleMusic, Spotify, YouTube Music

ARTIST: Jeremy Denk
WORK: Philip Glass: Etude No. 2 [1:21]
RECORDING: Jeremy Denk c. 1300 -c. 2000
SOURCE: Nonesuch
INFO: www.nonesuch.com

ARTIST: Víkingur Ólafsson, Siggi String Quartet
WORK: Philip Glass: Etude No. 2  (Reworked By Christian Badzura) [1:28]
RECORDING: Philip Glass: Piano Works
SOURCE: Deutsche Grammophon
INFO: Available at Amazon.com, AppleMusic, Spotify, YouTube Music

ARTIST: Timo Andres
WORK: Philip Glass: Etude No. 5 [8:20]
RECORDING: Live, WNYC, Nov. 2023
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.
INFO: https://philipglass.com/compositions/etudes/

Michael Wilson

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