Free classical mp3 downloads

Read reviews, listen to the music, and purchase the CD GLASS: Symphony No. 4, "Heroes" / The Light

Customer Service Toll Free 866.489.4152

Free MP3 Download

NaxosDirect is pleased to help you stay on top of all the great new music we offer by giving away periodic free mp3 downloads.
Click for details.

Narrow your search
with our Music Browser

Classical Music

        Ballet
        Chamber Music
        Choral
        Concertos
        Film Music
        Folk Legends
        Instrumental
        Musicals
        Opera / Operetta
        Orchestral
        Vocal

Recent Releases

September New Releases

Clearance

NaxosDirect Podcasts

Other Genres:

Audio Books

        Anthologies / Collections
        Arts
        Biographies
        Children's Classics
        Classic Fiction
        Great Epics and Tales
        History
        Junior Classic Fiction
        Junior History
        Literature
        Music Biographies
        Music Education
        Non-Fiction
        Philosophy
        Plays - Others
        Plays - Shakespeare
        Poetry
        Religion
        Samplers
        Sports
        Wine Guide

DVD

        Ballet DVD
        Classical Concert
        Classical Documentary
        Dance Documentary
        Opera DVD
        Pop/Rock Concert

Jazz

Jazz Contemporary
Jazz Icons

New Age

World

        Ballad
        Bhuddist
        Chinese Music
        Classical (World)
        Early Music (World)
        Folk
        Gamelan
        Gypsy
        Hindustani
        Jazz (World)
        Klezmer
        Sufi
        Vocal (World)
        World

Labels
Composers
Conductors
Ensembles
Orchestras
Choirs
Artists
Instruments
Producers

GLASS: Symphony No. 4, "Heroes" / The Light

Home

Classical Music

Orchestral

GLASS: Symphony No. 4, "Heroes" / The Light

View large image

Total playing time: 01:10:09

$8.99 (CD)

In Stock - Usually ships within 24 hours.

Email this title to a friend

Add to del.icio.us del.icio.us Icon

digg this

StumbleUpon StumbleUpon Icon

Link to this CD Link to this page

Philip Glass (b. 1937) Heroes Symphony • The Light Although he remains best known for the works written for his own ensemble (above all, Music...

Read more about this recording

Philip Glass (b. 1937)

Heroes Symphony • The Light

Although he remains best known for the works written for his own ensemble (above all, Music in Twelve Parts of 1974) and works for the stage, not least the trilogy of operas written in collaboration with Robert Wilson, Einstein on the Beach (1975), Satyagraha (1980) and Akhnaten (1984), orchestral music has been at the forefront of activities for Philip Glass for much of the last two decades. Already in 1987 his Violin Concerto [Naxos 8.554568] gave notice of a new interest in the forms and procedures of the Classical and Romantic eras, an interest that has led to eight symphonies and a number of independent orchestral works.

The symphonies evince a wide range of approaches to the genre. Only two (Nos. 2 and 8) are full-length abstract designs. No. 3 is a compact work for string orchestra [Naxos 8.559202, Symphonies Nos. 2 and 3], No. 6 a setting of Allan Ginsberg's Plutonium Ode, while Nos. 5 and 7 are large-scale choral works, symphonic in designation only. Nos. 1 and 4, though multi-movement orchestral works, are distinguished by having drawn their inspiration from decidedly non-Classical sources.

In 1993, Glass completed his Low Symphony, a work taking inspiration from the Low album released by David Bowie in 1977. Among the most prolific and influential of rock musicians, Bowie had established an international reputation with such albums as The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972), Aladdin Sane (1973) and Station to Station (1976), enhancing the individuality of his music with often elaborate stage-shows where he appeared as the character central to each album. After an exhausting 1976 world tour, Bowie decided on a radical change of approach to making music. Relocating to West Berlin, in the then divided city, he began a collaboration with Brian Eno that changed rock music as decisively as any other development in what was a radical and innovative era for the medium.

A former member of rock band Roxy Music, Eno had gone to make a series of solo albums, but was then about to devote himself to the possibilities of synthesizer technology in what became known as 'ambient composition': abstract and often understated electronic music intended to create an environment for listening rather than being the focus of attention as such. Beginning with Low, an album of powerful songs and evocative instrumental pieces, he and Bowie went on to create two further albums in Heroes (1977) and Lodger (1979), each drawing inspiration from the segregated city, with its tangible resonance of the 'cold war' era, that was then Berlin.

Having selected several tracks from Low to create his Low Symphony, Glass did the same for Heroes in his Heroes Symphony of 1996. The immediate incentive came from American choreographer Twyla Tharp, keen for a work for her new dance company. Glass took six of the ten tracks from Heroes, reworking them so that they become independent pieces that between them build into a self-sufficient musical work.

Horns sounding out over a tramping rhythm in the bass usher in Heroes, which gradually increases in harmonic and rhythmic activity; elements of the song being distributed across the orchestral texture so that the Bowie/Eno original informs the music at all levels without ever dominating it. The initial horns and bass motif, now with a rejoinder from the strings, presently returns to round off the piece.

Against castanets and pulsating strings, Abdulmajid (a bonus track on the 1991 re-release of Heroes by Rykodisc) unfolds a wistful, Arabic-sounding theme complemented by delicate tags from celesta and percussion. This takes on a notably more ominous quality as the textures gradually thicken out, but the emotional feel of the music remains consistent through to its understated close on flute and pizzicato basses.

Sense of Doubt opens with a stark descending motif for brass against a starkly-held chord on upper strings, contrasted with rising figures for tuned percussion. This suddenly breaks off to leave solo woodwind and strings musing over a rhythmic bass, the texture becoming more animated in the course of new instrumental entries. The initial motif returns, and plangent woodwind chords effect a poignant close.

Hesitant initial gestures prepare for the wistful theme of Sons of the Silent Age, shared between wind instruments over an undulating string backdrop. The accompanying rhythmic pattern migrates across all the strings, bringing a crescendo towards the heightened return of the opening gestures, after which, the main theme returns much as before to take the piece through to its ruminative conclusion.

A carillon-like gesture on tuned percussion opens Neuköln, alternating with angular gestures from strings. Rhythmic activity at length picks up, and strings then unfold a tensely expressive theme that gradually winds down, only for the initial motifs to resume their alternating dialogue. The piece presently focusses on a cadential phrase in the lower strings, which itself brings about the questioning close.

V2 Schneider opens with animated rhythmic motion in brass and percussion, strings and woodwind excitedly trading motifs as the music gains in incisiveness. The rhythmic motion solidifies into a pulsating ostinato, over which the activity gains both in textural and dynamic intensity, building to a peak of activity which is topped by the forceful closing chord, so rounding off the whole work to decisive effect.

Written to a commission from Case Western Reserve University in 1987, The Light has its inspiration in a very different source: the Michelson-Morley experiment confirming the uniform speed of light, so paving the way for its theoretical explanation in Einstein's theory of Relativity two decades on. Seeking a musical corollary, Glass's piece has an expressive introduction followed by an energetic main movement: a 'before' and 'after' mirroring the onset of modern scientific research.

The piece opens with a gently undulating motif in strings, which gradually extends over an intent rhythmic backing from lower brass. Gentle woodwind patterns emerge as the music gains in momentum, further such patterns on strings and brass entering before the tempo picks up markedly. Brass and timpani confirm this increase in activity, as do skirling gestures from woodwind and percussion. A sense of anticipation is central to the music's progress, with motifs expanding and contracting accordingly. At length the accumulated activity brings a transformed version of the strings' initial motif. Textures thin out to leave the motif over a pulsating motion in the bass, the music now losing impetus as tension subsides and fragments of the motif sound out over an accompaniment whose sudden cessation ends the piece.

Richard Whitehouse

Disc 1

The Light

(more info)

Performed by: Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Composed by: Philip Glass
Conducted by: Marin Alsop
Recording date: 16-17 May 2006
Produced by: Handley, Tim

The Light - 23:43

Symphony No. 4, "Heroes"

(more info)

Performed by: Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Composed by: Philip Glass
Conducted by: Marin Alsop
Recording date: 16-17 May 2006
Produced by: Handley, Tim

I. Heroes - 7:24
II. Abdulmajid - 9:19
III. Sense of Doubt - 7:57
IV. Sons of the Silent Age - 7:36
V. Neukoln - 6:48
VI. V2 Schneider - 7:22

Reviews

Be the first to review this title

Sign up for our newsletter!

Free shipping on orders
of 5 items or more!
Ship 2 items for the same price as 1.

Subscribe to our newsletter and unlock Naxos Rewards by creating an account. Create your account here.

See all of our great site features here.

Flash 9 required. Click to download.

Composer(s):
Glass, Philip

Conductor(s):
Alsop, Marin

Orchestra(s):
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

Label: Naxos American Classics
UPC: 636943932520
Item Number: 8559325
Release Date: Jan 30, 2007

GLASS: Symphony No. 4, "Heroes" / The Light

Your name:
Your email:
Friend's Name:
Friend's Email:
Write a personalized message:

Your name:
Rating:
Title:
Review: