June 14, 2012

Issue Project Room

Philip Glass: Music with Friends

This was the second of three nights and I am so pleased to be there for the final two.  I hadn’t yet been to the new Issue Project and it is great.  The architect also did Grand Central Station so it’s that sort of grandeur on a smaller scale.  Renovations will take place as time goes by.  Glass opened the evening performing solo his “Metamorphosis.”  It was great to hear him in this intimate setting.  I arrived way-early so I could get a good seat right behind the “preferred” (expensive) seating.  The music of Tristan Perich was next and this was a real treat.  I am loving watching what he creates next and hope he will be able to perform in my Fresh Sound music series in the Fall.  The first piece was “Momentary Expanse” for solo vibraphone (Mike McCurdy) and 2-channel 1-bit electronics. The second piece blew me away.  “What’s thought of as a boundless, continuous expanse . . .” for five sopranos and 15-channel 1-bit electronics.  This was performed by the Quince Contemporary Vocal Ensemble and they were wonderful. I’ve never heard anything like this which is always nice for me. After intermission Philip Glass and Jon Gibson, woodwinds, who has collaborated with Glass since 1968, played as a duo for two pieces by Glass from Einstein on the Beach and two by Gibson. They then each performed solo.  I wish I could say the names of the pieces but it was very hard to understand what Glass was saying as the acoustics are not yet perfect.