6. 6. 2015

Music with Changing Parts. Slovak premiere.

Philip Glass' composition Music with Changing Parts (1971) had a slovak premiere in Ars Nova festival in Košicie on 6th of june 2015. "After the arrival to Košice we went to the concert, where Cluster Ensemble played, with absolute brilliance, Glass‘ Music with Changing Parts. This piece from 1971 varies in length from 70 minutes to 3 hours. At the time the composition was written Glass used to perform it with his ensemble [The Philip Glass Ensemble]. Since then, not only has he not performed it, he couldn’t even have heard it, because nobody else found the courage to pick up the piece.  When he found out that the Slovak group had prepared the piece, Glass asked, with surprise: “Where did they get the material? It wasn’t even published.” The truth was, that it had indeed been possible to order the music, but nobody did, until now. This was the first case. And the young musicians (up to 30 y. of age) play the piece as if it was Glass himself with his ensemble, with the same enthusiasm, the same precision, magic and a certain feeling, which – fortunately – cannot be described with words. After the concert Glass said: “If the young generation can play it like this – I am satisfied.” For me everything would be in perfect order if this music was performed at least as often, as they do with the concerts by Tchaikovsky or with Chopin’s etudes. This kind of music has a lot to say to us, but it seems rather strange that we are somehow still not ready to take it in." Anton Batagov