Sym No 3 / Music From Voyage & Civil Wars / Light
Philip Glass has already written more operas than Wagner and more symphonies than many composers. With his astonishing output and his professed joy in writing, he shows no hesitation as he approaches the supposedly jinxed No. 9 (he has premiered five so far). The Symphony No. 3, for 19 strings, dates from 1995. Longtime champion Dennis Russell Davies and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra give a snappy, atmospheric reading of this enigmatic work, whose emotional core is the third movement's ruminative chaconne, flanked by shorter, faster movements that toss off grace notes recalling the gestures of Middle Eastern dancers.Next, two scene-change interludes fromthe CIVIL warS, omitted from the1999 recording of  Glass and Wilson's aborted Olympics spectacle, surround the "Mechanical Ballet" from the Columbus operaThe Voyage. As excerpts, these pieces cannot significantly influence our interpretation of Glass's evolving aesthetic, but they offer revealing snapshots of works that have never been completely represented on disc. The last track,The Light, part of his Portraits of Nature trilogy (along withItaipuandThe Canyon), was booed on its Cleveland premiere. However, there's no good reason for such a response. By his own admission, Glass remains primarily a collaborative composer. It's easy enough to imagine this piece accompanying a retro silent film about Michelson and Morley, the two light-obsessed scientists Glass commemorates. LikeThe Canyon, this one-movement work demonstrates his good humor, fertile imagination, and skillful orchestration. His critics always claim that he lacks these gifts, that his music is nothing but the same thing over and over again. On the contrary, this marvelous disc shows how Glass's music isneverthe same thing, over and over again.--Robert Burns Neveldine