The Philip Glass Ensemble - A Retrospective

I would never detract anyone from discovering the brilliance of Philip Glass. However, I don't see how you can appropriately listen to these various tracks away from their entire pieces of work. I would encourage anyone who is not familiar with his work, to take the time to listen to his full works, not just slivers. Its like reading a chapter from 11 different books of the same author. You will get a taste but will be lost from the entire story and genius of how the chapter fits. Having said that, every track on this collection is fantastic.

You know, most people would think that slow, classical music was boring. But Philip Glass proves them wrong. He really touches the hearts of people who really enjoy music, including me!

There are many wonderful Philip Glass CDs out there. This is not one of them. Glass' work is challenging (note how some other reviewers resort to poorly-spelled insults in response to music that challenges them), glorious, sensual, and very rewarding to listen to. He is also unique. There will be those who claim that "all minimalists are the same" -- that's a bit like claiming "all Beach Boys songs sound the same" -- yes, if you don't like them, they probably do sound the same. BUT -- How many other "minimalist" composers have based two symphonies on themes from instrumental works by David Bowie? How many others have produced so many wonderful music for film? (I'm thinking of Koyaaisqatsi and Kundun here but there are several dozen more) How many others will produce an opera whose story spans 1000s of years? Glass has a creative energy which is exhilarating for the careful listener. The issue here with this album is that it is supposed to represent some kind of sampler of the music of Philip Glass. Unfortunately, his music is not suited to sampling minute bits. There will usually be a cumulative effect of his longer pieces which is the primary emotive force in his work. Part of the power of his operas and longer works is that they ARE long. An analogy here is Mahler's Third Symphony. Were you to simply listen to the last 5 minutes without also listening to the preceding 85, your impression of Mahler's Third would be skewed. Maybe you'd like the whole thing but maybe not. There would just be no way to tell. I think there's a huge difference between becoming immersed in a sound-world and just checking out a snippet. What we have here is basically a biopsy of Glass' work -- a thin sliver of tissue meant to represent the whole. But the whole is the whole point of Glass' work. For those interested in Glass, I'd suggest starting with the "Low" or "Heroes" symphonies, or any of his film scores. If you like that then try his opera "Satyagraha" which is partially based on the life of Ghandi.

Yes I doubt the man's musical ability but that isn't the reason for the low rating. Glass celibrated his 70'th anniverary along with Reich a few years back so why his own label had the urge to issure a memento like this is just odd in both timing and content. Most telling are the slim sellections presented from a very narrow time in his creative output. His music has remained bascially the same from the sixties forward but he did attempt to wright in other genres. This disc fails to represent the whole of this output from the more interesting first string quartet to his most recent cello works and violin sonata. The premere recording of the later work would have at least been worth purchesing the album but they don't even give you a taste of it. If you're a rabid Glass fan you'll buy it anyway but for those who probabbly own most of the works here there really isn't any need to get this. And for those who don't have any of his works (and who won't heed my sound advice and not bother to get any of his discs) you would do well to purchase albums of completed works to get the whole effect. -Bz