It’s often said that the distilled essence of composers can be heard in their string quartets. And so it is with Glass, whose quartets here show a craftsman of considerable invention. String Quartet No. 6 begins as a bustling burst of dense energy, its second movement beautifully meandering, rich, and complex. The single-movement String Quartet No. 7 is almost Beethovenian in its restless questioning. Arranged for string quartet (with two violas), the Saxophone Quartet is warmly scored and yet shows Glass at his most forensic, with each bar stunningly sculpted.

Pianist Vanessa Benelli Mosell and cellist Henri Demarquette find common ground between Philip Glass and Rachmaninov in this release that revels in both composers passion for sonic storytelling. Presenting a program of personal, dramatic and spiritual music, Mosell and Demarquette perform these selections with intimate ardor.

In 2001, Philip Glass composed the music for the film Naqoyqatsi: Life as War. It was the last film in a trilogy by director Godfrey Reggio that featured only images and music. When the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra invited Glass to be a creative director for its Boundless Series during the 2011-12 season, Glass thought of his cello concerto and its possible life beyond film. The CSO commissioned the Cello Concerto No.2 - Naqoyqatsi and gave the composer the opportunity to have it reborn as a proper concerto. The resulting recording is drawn from the live performances. This dynamic seven-movement work is conducted here by long-time Glass champion Dennis Russell Davies with soloist Matt Haimovitz.

Piano is Philip Glass’ primary instrument (he also studied violin and flute); he composes at the keyboard. With its seemingly contradictory elements of lyricism and percussiveness, it is in some ways the ideal medium for Glass’ musical language. With its deep roots in tradition (spanning the Classical, Romantic and Modern eras), the instrument embodies the composer’s desire to merge new ideas with classic forms. It is perhaps via piano (and, by extension, keyboard) that performers and listeners can make the most direct and personal contact with Glass’ musical genius. Nicolas Horvath is an unusual artist with an unconventional résumé. He began his music studies at the Académie de Musique Prince Rainier III de Monaco, and at the age 16, he caught the attention of the American conductor Lawrence Foster who helped him to secure a three-year scholarship from the Princess Grace Foundation in order to further his studies. His mentors include a number of distinguished international pianists. Known for his boundary-less musical explorations, Horvath is an enthusiastic promoter of contemporary music. He has commissioned numerous works and collaborated with leading contemporary composers from around the world including Philip Glass.

With this eagerly anticipated complete recording of Philip Glass’s Études, Vanessa Wagner offers far more than an album: it is a testament to the deep bond she has forged with a body of piano music that now straddles the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Her reading is embodied, exacting, and profoundly lived-in.

Orange Mountain Music presents this new limited edition 11 disc boxed set - The Symphonies by Philip Glass. This collection features conductor Dennis Russell Davies who has arranged the commission of nine of ten Glass symphonies, leading the orchestras over which he has presided during the past 15 years including the Bruckner Orchester Linz, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonieorchester Basel, and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra. This collection is the fruit of a 20 year collaboration between Glass and Davies and showcases a wide variety within this surprising body of work by Glass.

Over a period of many years, filmmaker Mickey Lemle set about capturing a portrait of His Holines the Dalai Lama, now in his mid-80s, as he travelled the world talking about his life, compassion, his disciplines, and his work. The film commissioned original music from Philip Glass and Tibetan musician Tenzin Choegyal. The score is performed by Glass and Michael Riesman on pianos, Tenzin Choegyal on vocals and various Tibetan instruments, Tim Fain on Violin, Robert Black on double bass, and the Scorchio String. Quintessential traditional offering, "Om Ma Mi Phad may Hum" can be heard in "Heart Strings," sung by 150 Tibetan children. The album ends with Philip Glass's own live performance of Mad Rush, composed for the Dalai Lama's first public address in New York in 1978.

Working on a new album with composer Philip Glass is a dream collaboration for Brisbane-based musician Tenzin Choegyal. Choegyal, who came to Australia as a refugee, has made a name for himself as a bit of a world music star. His friendship and collaborations with revered American composer Philip Glass has been a meaningful journey together. Glass, now 88, is a Tibetan Buddhist, like Choegyal, although Glass is more devout and spiritually accomplished, insists Choegyal.

Simply MARI is the name of the Deutsche Grammophon debut of Norwegian violinist Mari Samuelsen. Recorded with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin under the baton of Jonathan Stockhammer, MARI's music reflects the contradictions of life in our time - the feeling of haste in everyday life, of being driven by constant communication, of being uprooted in a boundlessly mobile world, but MARI also refers to the longing for peace and quiet, for a place in nature to find oneself again.

Since their first encounter in May 2011, Lavinia Meijer has worked with some frequency with Philip Glass, even though he has never written solo works specifically for the harp. However, many of his piano works and piano transcriptions, after minor adjustments, prove to be well suited to the modern pedal harp. Initially, Lavinia Meijer added Glass's five movement Metamorphosis to her repertoire, on the instigation of the undersigned, the Amsterdam gallery owner Robert Malasch and the American composer himself. After a first and successful performance (in the composer's presence) in the Amsterdam 'pop temple' The Melkweg, a first official recording was made for Channel Classics in June 2011 in the Dutch town of Schiedam. Since this recording was exclusively intended for a brief national marketing campaign, it has now been followed up by this complete Glass CD for international distribution. Lavinia Meijer is recognized worldwide as one of the most successful rising stars. Besides performing the standard harp repertoire Lavinia Meijer is very keen on playing modern music.

Pianist and composer Anton Batagov is one of the most influential Russian musicians of our time. As a performer Batagov introduced the music of John Cage, Morton Feldman, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass to Russian audiences. On this his debut recording with Glass s record label Orange Mountain Music, Batagov offers a recital of Glass s music which is personally important to him, music which has never been heard on solo piano. Three of the four tracks offered on Batagov s program are from Glass s epic opera Einstein on the Beach - Trial, Night Train, and Knee Play 5. These pieces capture the sound of a particularly expansive moment in Glass s career as he transitioned from hard core Minimalism to a more expressive medium. That artistic pivot is captures in Batagov s mystical reading of Prophecies from Koyaanisqatsi. In 2009, after a hiatus of 12 years from live performance Batagov returned to the stage presenting a series of unique solo programs including this program which was recorded in Moscow in November 2015.

To say this barrier-breaking string quartet plays modern music is an understatement. All of the five composers showcased on this audacious recording were born in the 20th century. Minimalist Philip Glass is among the best known of the five, whose works cannot possibly be mistaken with anything from the baroque or classical periods. This particular foursome illustrates the grace, beauty, and even power of a string quartet, but goes well beyond. In the words of first violinist and leader David Harrington, "I've always wanted the string quartet to be vital, and energetic, and alive, and cool, and not afraid to kick ass and be absolutely beautiful and ugly if it has to be." The album-ending cover of the Jimi Hendrix classic "Purple Haze" must be heard to be believed.

Here are three 20th-century violin concertos written within a 30-year period in three totally different styles, played by a soloist equally at home in all of them. Bernstein's Serenade, the earliest and most accessible work, takes its inspiration from Plato's Symposium; its five movements, musical portraits of the banquet's guests, represent different aspects of love as well as running the gamut of Bernstein's contrasting compositional styles. Rorem's concerto sounds wonderful. Its six movements have titles corresponding to their forms or moods; their character ranges from fast, brilliant, explosive to slow, passionate, melodious. Philip Glass's concerto, despite its conventional three movements and tonal, consonant harmonies, is the most elusive. Written in the "minimalist" style, which for most ordinary listeners is an acquired taste, it is based on repetition of small running figures both for orchestra and soloist, occasionally interrupted by long, high, singing lines in the violin against or above the orchestra's pulsation.

When Philip Glass was asked to compose incidental music for a Broadway production of King Lear in 2019, he immediately knew he wanted to write for string quartet: “I know how to write for string quartet. I love its range of emotion.” Indeed, this concert version of the play’s score is his ninth work for string quartet, a medium he employs to great effect to depict the tumult, violence, and despair at the heart of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy.

Orange Mountain Music presents the world premiere recording of Philip Glass' The Passion of Ramakrishna. Commissioned by the Pacific Symphony and premiered in 2006 during the opening of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Orange County, Glass' 45 minute oratorio, written for soloists, chorus and large orchestra, is a passion play and a tribute to 19th Century Indian spiritual leader Sri Ramakrishna. The work portrays his death with the chorus taking up the voice of Ramakrishna himself and the soloists are those of his loved ones, doctor and disciples. Maestro Carl St.Clair, a longtime champion of the music of Philip Glass, leads the Pacific Symphony, Pacific Chorale and soloists Christopheren Numura, Janice Chandler Eteme, Kevin Deas, I-Chin Feinblatt and Nicholas Preston.