Philip Glass Ensemble at The Colston Hall in Bristol review

Posted on: 2014-11-10

Our rating:

Intense, loud, repetitive, insistent and utterly dazzling, this was an absolutely stunning concert that the Glass-fan massive enthusiastically lapped up from the first unremitting notes to its final frenetic musical undulations.


 

In the context of contemporary classical music, Philip Glass is a musical behemoth. In a career that's spanned over four decades he's amassed an incredible body of work, including symphonies, chamber works, solo piano pieces, theatre works, operas and film soundtracks. 

He's always been - and continues to be - incredibly prolific, and his compositions have become such go-to pieces for TV producers and advertisers that his extremely distinctive, immediately recognisable sound has become ingrained in the public consciousness. Even if you don't know his name, you'd have heard his music. In other words, the Philip Glass sound has become the soundtrack – the sonic landscape - of our lives.

Glassfest was held last week over three days with events at the Colston Hall, Watershed and St Georges, and culminated with Glass and his ensemble performing at the Colston Hall on Saturday night.

It's the first time the Philip Glass Ensemble had played in Bristol since it first visited the city in 1975 to perform the minimalist masterpiece, Music in 12 Parts, at the opening of the Arnolfini. Entitled Retrospective, the concert was, appropriately enough, a collection of pieces - a kind of greatest hits programme - traversing the composer's career, with the focus primarily on his works from the 70s and 80s.  

The Cologne section of his opera, CIVIL warS, kick-started the evening - and we were immediately in full-on Glass mode, all propulsive rhythms, pounding ostinatos, oscillating triplet figures and an incessant, relentless furious energy. It was the kind of hyper-real, hypnotic, trippy sound which dominated most of the evening. This is music at its most unstoppable and unrelenting; an aural assault on the senses, crossing the lines between avant garde and classical, energizing and meditative.  

Dance 9 from the composer's Dances album kept the indefatigable exuberance going, aided by the superb vocal work of Lisa Bielawa alongside the piece's breakneck, hammering oscillations.  

Music in 12 Parts - Glass' first major minimalist success - next held the stage with parts 1 and 2, the introduction slow and sinuously repetitive, the second pumping up the gears a notch for a series of nimble-fingered, dexterously tricky note sequences. The delirious, spaced-out soundscape The Grid from Godfrey Reggio's visual, non-narrative filmic masterpiece, Koyannisquatsi, thrust us into the interval for a chance to catch our breath. 

Glass' 1983 conceptual album, Glassworks, was designed to introduce his music to a wider audience, and three compositions from it led us into the second half. The sustained triplet rushes of Facades were counterbalanced by the seductively dark and sensuous saxaphone-led Facades, whilst the dynamic, thrilling Rubric put the ensemble through its paces for another rip-roaring workout.  

Music in Similar Motion represented one of Glass' earliest compositions, its dense, tightly structured, cyclical patterns spooling mesmerically through its near 20-minute duration. Act III from The Photographer began quickly with a strident repeated sequence and gradually increased tempo and volume until it became a blurring, unstoppable whirling dervish of sublime aural intoxication. 

Applause, cheers and a standing ovation saw the ensemble return to the stage for an absolutely gob-smacking, stamina-testing encore performance of Spaceship from Glass' seminal 1975 opera, Einstein on the Beach.

PGE Retro - as it was billed on one of the flyers - was an event, a concert of near-Rock proportions (some of the audience were practically head-banging), and a possibly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see one the world's greatest contemporary composers in action with his ensemble. 

Intense, loud, repetitive, insistent and utterly dazzling, this was an absolutely stunning concert that the Glass-fan massive enthusiastically lapped up from the first unremitting notes to its final frenetic musical undulations.

Genius in every conceivable way.

5/5

Reviewed by Jamie Caddick for 365Bristol

Philip Glass performed at The Colston Hall in Bristol on Saturday 8 November 2014



Article by:

James Anderson

Born and raised in the suburbs of Swansea, Jimmy moved to Bristol back in 2004 to attend university. Passionate about live music, sport, science and nature, he can usually be found walking his cocker spaniel Baxter at any number of green spots around the city. Call James on 078 9999 3534 or email Editor@365Bristol.com.