PHILIP GLASS BRUCKNER ORCHESTER LINZ DENNIS RUSSELL DAVIESP hitlip Glass’ Eleventh Symphony could easily be subtitled his “Contrapunctus” symphony or even perhaps his “Abschied” (Farewell) Symphony as it was written for the Bruckner Orchester Linz and its departing music director of 15 years, the conductor Dennis Russell Davies. For those who have followed the trajectory of Philip Glass the symphonist since his first symphony 26 years ago at the age of 55, you would see with only one exception the world premieres of all the Glass symphonies were conducted by Davies. Determined not to let Philip Glass “be one of those opera composers who never writes a symphony,” Davies cultivated and encouraged this body of work and has championed it in performance and recording since the First Symphony in 1992. When preparing this album it was for this reason that we chose to present Davies on the cover. For a number of years the perception has been that Glass’s symphonies stood in contrast to one another, each new piece almost totally unlike the last. “Low Symphony,” was based on the music of David Bowie and Brian Eno. Perhaps emboldened by the viability of that piece -proving to himself that he might have something to say in the realm of symphonic music, Glass almost immediately filled a commission from the Brooklyn Philharmonic to compose his Second Symphony in 1994. That piece was a grand symphony that stood out for a particular kind of symphonic language to which Glass would not return to for more than another decade with the later symphonies. After writing a number of symphonies that had texts, dance, or other subject matter as a point of departure {as in Nos.5,6 and 7], Glass returned to the “language of music itself” as the central subject. This purely musical dialogue has been the subject for his most recent symphonies including Nos.8,9,10 and now 11. In all of those pieces Glass uses nothing more than the medium of purely instrumental music to make an artistic statement. However, unlike the other late Page 2 orchestral symphonies, Symphony No.11 stands out as a spiritual companion piece to Glass’s Symphony No.2 in its artistic intention, musical processes and structure. Symphony No.11 begins slowly but quickly builds steam with a series of musical motives and flourishes that could be heard as allusions, conscious or not, from the pieces Glass has composed for Linz Austria over the years. The principle motive that you hear recurring in the central section, the “main theme” if you will, is reminiscent of Glass’s opera “Spuren der Verirrten (The Lost.) Most of the first movement is a raucous affair about density, layering, and development and is right up there with some of the most contrapuntal music Glass has ever written. Not to have it lost on the listener, almost every section of the first movement repeats multiple times. To some degree, Glass’s thinking seems to be a return to his early process pieces that have to do with abstract nature of music and the relationship between content and structure. This was the general driving principle in his “Minimalist” period from 1965 to 1975. Now half a century later, those process pieces have come toa kind of full flower in his symphonic music, whereby the very essence of music becomes building blocks in a greater artistic expression. Glass states, “What | was trying to do in Symphony No.11 was to put some order to the post- Minimalist, post-Romantic, post-neoclassical periods that I've gone through. You can find all those periods in my music. | was trying to go beyond them into a language of music which is more expressive. | don’t know if I've succeeded or not.” The hallmarks of Glass’s recent music all have to do with harmonic density. In these new pieces the listener is thrown right into the action with almost no introductory material. This is the case with recent pieces such as “Four Page 3Movements for Two Pianos,” (2008) the “Double Concerto for Two Pianos (2014,)” and “String Quartet No.6 (2013.)” Unlike those works, Symphony No.11 offers a generous slow introduction to bring you into the layers of the piece. The discourse tends toward layering and counterpoint as a musical argument rather than more easily appreciated emotional trajectory of a piece like Symphony No.9, for example. In the second movement, in lieu of a traditional slow movement, Glass begins which what the listener anticipates will be a lengthy adagio, but quickly the movement gives way to brisker music that is a broad exploration into rhythmic ideas. In one particularly interesting section Glass has to do with the violin theme that we hear appear in the middle of the movement. Ostensibly the violins are playing in 12/8 {eighth notes of 5 plus 4 plus 3] with the predominant feel of the rest of the orchestra in 6/4 with emphasis on off-beats. Glass composed the piece with one kind of notation which was elucidated in the final printed score. Indeed, much of Symphony No.1 falls into fantastically interesting experiments in rhythm equally balanced with orchestral density, and variety of instrumentation. In a 2017 interview before the premiere of the new symphony, Glass said, “With Symphony No.11 | was looking for, | was hoping perhaps that with the experiments that began in Symphony No.8 onwards, the music starts to get abstract in certain ways, there appears to be a search for a language. There is more searching in this piece than in Symphonies Nos.6 & 7 which seem to be playing with things | already knew. With Nos. 8, 9 and 10, 1 was working in ways | hadn't done before. With Symphony No.11, having done these other things along the way like operas and ballets, | had arrived at a new musical plateau where | could write a piece which reflected a coherent musical and emotional expression. Page 4 When | get into symphonic writing I'm looking for what the essence of a symphony is for me at that point. With the Eleventh, |'m looking for resolution of ideas a polytonal and polyrhythmic language which defied a simple analysis. In other words, not only would a piece be in two keys at once, but one couldn't be even sure that they were in different keys.” Much of this new symphony was an opportunity and celebration of the Bruckner Orchester Linz and its players. This becomes clear in the final moments of the second movement which is the moment of Abschied, or farewell, to the orchestra This is a true farewell to this orchestra and a testament to that which Dennis Russell Davies, orchestra director Heribert Schréder, the orchestra, and the Landestheater have accomplished together in Linz, from commissioning the opera “The Lost” { 2013, the opera “Kepler” (2009,] “Symphony No. 6” (2002,) “Symphony No.8” (2005), “Symphony No.9” (2012) and now “Symphony No.11°(2017.) This farewell comes right at the very end of the second movement in the form of a soulful passage for English horn, clarinet, harp, piano, and strings. It isa moment of bittersweet gratitude. However, that feeling is not meant to last. Symphony No.11 is the closest that Philip Glass has come to composing a concerto for orchestra - to that end the listerner will hear moments where members of the orchestra were given great moments to shine. The way the musicians of the Bruckner Orchester Linz rise to the occasion of this dynamic writing is a testament to their artistry and a showcase of how far they have come in the performance of the music of Philip Glass These celebrations of the various sections of the orchestra extends to the percussion section and its nine percussionists that the score calls for. Perhaps unprecedented, the third movement begins with an extended passage for percussion alone and has them playing for almost entirety of the eleven minutes of the movement. Page 5