Flashback Friday: The Time I Saw The Philip Glass Ensemble

I know you're probably wondering why I'm posting a Flashback Friday on a Sunday early, early Monday morning. Aside from the fact that it gives me yet another excuse to stroke my massive ego by reminiscing about triumphs past, I wanted to make up for not posting one last week (loyal readers might remember that I instead wrote about the new sanctions on Venezuela and whether they'll lead to military intervention in that nation). Truth be told, I had been hoping to publish that post earlier during the week and do a Flashback Friday post as I regularly do, but real-life commitments (hey, remember those?) conspired to keep me from writing it until Friday, putting me in a serious quandary: repost something I wrote almost a year ago for another site about a topic I have already covered in some depth on this blog, or write an original, hard-hitting post that deals with a topic that I have yet to cover? Of course, I opted for the later, if for nothing more than to provide you guys with something not only exclusive to this blog but that also amounted to more than my little hill of beans, to paraphrase Bogey. I postponed the Flashback Friday, and am finally getting around to sharing it, the topic being my review of the Philip Glass Ensemble's performance of "Music In 12 Parts" at UCLA's Royce Hall.

This particular piece was written, like my interview with Tim Russ, for UCLA Radio, and unlike that one it was actually published on it's Tumblr blog! The original post can be seen here, in case you're interested. Seeing the Philip Glass Ensemble live was a privilege in and of itself, but I must confess that I can't help feeling a little a glum as I revisit this experience. A week and a half before the show, I emailed Mr. Glass's publicist to set up an interview to promote the concert on UCLA Radio. I thought it was a long shot, but decided it was worth a try. Shockingly, I got a reply the next day, saying it might be possible if we could work out a time. I mapped out my schedule for the next week and a half and let them know what times worked for a 30-40 minute interview, as well as the fact that I could do it over Skype or phone, although ideally Mr. Glass would be able to come into the station for a live, 30-40 minute interview. I must have crossed my fingers before I clicked "send", and if I didn't, I sure wish I did. I never heard back from them. Maybe it was too short-notice, maybe it would have been too-long, maybe it was just they lost interest. I don't know. I emailed them a week later practically begging them to let me interview him for 5 minutes, and over the phone no less. Still nothing. Yet, a year later, I still believe, given a healthy degree of ambition and commitment to my work, that someday I will finally score that interview with Philip Glass. In the meantime, let's see that review, reprinted in full below!

Concert Review: Philip Glass Ensemble @ Royce Hall 5/3

The polarizing nature of Philip Glass's work can be summed up in my experience at one of his performances at Royce Hall this past weekend. While I sat through the program for the entirety of the five hours comprising it, the couple in front of me hastily departed after only the first portion. One might assume that they were expecting something similar to Glass's soundtracks for The Truman Show or Candyman. Given the pigeonholing of Glass by amateur film connoisseurs as "the weird soundtrack guy", this is plausible. It is also unfortunate, because "Music In 12 Parts" is one of Glass's crowning achievements, easily on par with his 1976 opera Einstein On The Beach and his soundtrack to 1982's Koyaanisqatsi.

As indicated by the name, the piece is composed of twelve individual parts, which were bundled by threes into single segments, for a total of four 50-minute portions. However, there were intermissions after each portion and an hour-long dinner break was held after the second portion, so endurance was hardly an issue. In typical Glass fashion, the portions started abruptly and ended in a similar fashion. Far from being disconcerting, this was a testament to the skill of the Ensemble to ensure that the three keyboards, the flute, the bassoon, the voice of Lisa Bielawa and, occasionally, the saxophone were able to play in perfect harmony off the top. Bielawa, the sole vocalist, deserves special mention in particular. Having listened extensively to Einstein On The Beach, I expected a whole chorus to perform the vocal parts at this concert. Instead, Bielawa magnificently sang all the vocal portions and perfectly alternated between the soothing melodies and ominous crescendos the piece dictated, at times rivaling the most apocalyptic moments of Einstein. This was most apparent in Part 12 of the composition where, in very small increments, her part grew more complex each time the rest of the Ensemble played the same musical passage. It is also worth mentioning that Part 12 was my favorite part of the concert.

Of course, the keyboard players drew my attention as well. Philip Glass may be the heart and soul of the Ensemble, but it seemed that in this concert, keyboardist Michael Reisman did most of the heavy lifting, playing some truly captivating organ passages throughout. This is hardly an indictment of Glass, however. Far from it, it's quite possible that he simply deigned to play the more subdued keyboard parts. Not that I would guess that simply by watching him. Indeed, while the other players sat still and appeared collected, Glass made no effort to conceal his passion for the music, lurching forward and throwing himself back before lurching forward again, in a manner as cyclic as his music. He really felt it that night, and the audience, including this writer, did too, because it granted the Ensemble a standing ovation when Part 12 of "Music In 12 Parts", after five hours, finally concluded.