Philip Glass - Piano Works (Jenny Lin)

Information

Composer: Philip Glass

1. Opening
2. Metamorphosis No. 1
3. Metamorphosis No. 2
4. Metamorphosis No. 3
5. Metamorphosis No. 4
6. Metamorphosis No. 5
7. Modern Love Waltz
8. Passacaglia for Solo Piano "Distant Figure"
9. Mad Rush (version for piano)

Jenny Lin, piano
Date: 2020
Label: Steinway & Sons
https://www.steinway.com/music-and-artists/label/glass-piano-works-jenny-lin

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Review

Pianist Jenny Lin has recorded a great diversity of piano music over the years, but in mid-career, she seems to have emerged as a champion of Philip Glass, touring with the composer and making several recordings. The keyboard music of Glass has never been a terribly common facet of his output, which seems to require the sensory envelopment of large forms, but Lin does it justice. The result here is an attractive sampling, following on the grand success of her performances of the composer's Etudes, and beautifully recorded by her label, Steinway & Sons. She is sensitive to the development of Glass' musical language, seemingly entering into the composer's mind as he pushed and pulled at his basic minimalist arpeggiations. The pieces here range chronologically from 1979 (Mad Rush, written for an appearance by the Dalai Lama in New York) to 2017 (Distant Figure -- Passacaglia for solo piano), with the centerpiece being Metamorphosis. This five-movement work was abstracted and arranged by Glass from his music for the 1988 film The Thin Blue Line, and it's an effective suite that builds from simple textures to syncopations and big dramatic gestures of the kind Glass was beginning to develop at the time. Nowhere is the music technically difficult, but to bring it to life is not simple, and that's what Lin accomplishes here.

-- James Manheim, AllMusic

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Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the late 20th century. Glass's compositions have been described as minimal music, similar to other "minimalist" composers such as Steve Reich and Terry Riley, but Glass has described himself instead as a composer of "music with repetitive structures". He has written numerous operas and musical theatre works, eleven symphonies, eleven concertos, seven string quartets and various other chamber music, and film scores. Three of his film scores have been nominated for Academy Awards.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Glass
http://philipglass.com/

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Jenny Lin (born 1973) is a Taiwanese-born American pianist. She studied music at Vienna's Hochschule für Musik with Noel Flores and later on at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore with Julian Martin. She also studied with Richard Goode, Dmitri Bashkirov, and Andreas Staier. Lin is one of those adventurous pianists unafraid to tackle contemporary repertory or to explore the works of lesser-known composers of generations past. She has been serving on the faculty at the 92nd Street Y (92Y) cultural institution in New York, and has made recordings for Steinway & Sons, Hänssler Classics, BIS, and Koch International.

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/jenny-lin-mn0001518455/biography

http://jennylin.net

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