By: David Salvage

David Salvage — Wed, 07 May 2008 01:21:35 +0000

I am one of those who sometimes deplore Glass’s simplicity of means. But I also recognize that the man understands something important about music and theater. My evidence would be the boring string quartet adaptation of his music for “Mishima” versus the riviting experience of watching the same music on film. (It helps that Schrader’s film is also pretty damn great.)

Similarly with Ahknaten: I hated it when I listened to it on CD; loved it when Boston Lyric put in on stage a number of years ago. I just wonder whether Glass understands his limitations.

That said, this possible lack of understanding doesn’t have anything to do with his style of composition; I would say the same thing about Charles Wuorinnen, whose music can hardly be called banal or simple.

By: Walter Ramsey

Walter Ramsey — Tue, 06 May 2008 22:12:08 +0000

“The succeeding scene – Tolstoy Farm (1910) was just as imaginatively realized , as Gandhi , his wife Kasturbai ( mezzo Maria Zicak ), Gandhi’s German secretary Miss Schlesen (soprano Rachelle Durkin) , Mrs Naidoo (soprano Ellie Dehn); and Improbable’s co-workers built Gandhi’s ashram ( itals ) in miniature. And nowhere could Gandhi’s and Glass’ means be shown to more effect than in the long – 60 plus minutes, though 31 minutes in Christopher Keene’s CBS LP set – by Argentine Dante Anzolini, who’s Glass’ best advocate, Dennis Russell Davies, frequent right hand man, single scene of Act 3 – Newcastle March ( 1913 ) where the composer’s “limited means “ – roughly three themes / harmonies,became Gandhi’s much longed for peace—which seemed to burrow into the listeners’ psyches / hearts, until all was “released” at the final but not so final cadence/chord.”

Huh?

Walter Ramsey

Comments on: On Becoming Gandhi: Satyagraha

By: David Salvage

By: Walter Ramsey