Philip Glass, Piano Works
Mad Rush Music by Philip Glass Fabio Álvarez, piano
Études for Solo Piano, Book 1 Music by Philip Glass Vicky Chow, piano
The piano music by Philip Glass seems to not have waned in popularity; over the past two weeks two new recordings of piano music have come across my radar. It’s somewhat tricky music to perform because some of it has already been recorded by the composer himself.
Among the most interesting interpreters, I’ve thought, has been Vikingur Ólafsson (2017). His recording on DG also pulls from the first book of etudes. Can other performers play the music better than the composer himself? One might not ever think of uttering such a sentiment in the shadow of Bach, Handel, maybe even Mozart? But yes, under Ólafsson’s fingers, there is a whole world of nuance that a world-class pianist can bring to, well, a world-class composer’s work.
Álvarez is a new name to me; he’s got quite a good cover to this new album. After listening to several tracks, which include four etudes, the title piece, Mad Rush, Wichita Vortex Sutra and the Triology Sonata pulling from Glass’ operas, he’s willing to provide dynamic shifts in nuanced ways; compared to Chow, he’s willing to vary dynamics across terraces of repeated phrases. I’d say his approach is closer to Ólafsson’s than Chow, who varies dynamics in a way to highlight the structural underpinnings of each piece.
Chow’s recording came out first and I lived with it for some time, admiring her technical gifts, especially in the way she runs out of the gate in the first étude.
In terms of sound, the recording by Álvarez employs a harder, more percussive sounding piano. Chow employs a Yamaha CFX. While the piano sound is different, both benefit from good recording engineering. The final track of Álvarez’s recording includes narration from Einstein on the Beach, which is a treat to hear the pianist’s own voice.
I don’t own a copy of the 20 etudes by Glass, but when listening to the opening of the ninth etude over and over across both recordings, it sounds as if Álvarez may have flubbed a note about twenty seconds in; I can’t be sure, if it’s the way he’s emphasized the voicing of the chord or is an actual mistake.
In many ways, it sounds as if Chow is more generous with the pedal; her overall sound across the etudes is more distant and dreamy in approach; in many ways her sound on the Yamaha is closer to the effect achieved by Ólafsson in some of his tracks. I can’t seriously say there’s a superior performance among these two recordings. They are both good, but are certainly different. Neither musician, comparing the four etudes that appear across both recordings, are universally slower or faster. In fact, Chow’s reading of the first and sixth etudes for their speed are both exciting and refreshing.
In terms of programming, I like the variety in Álvarez’s recording; the Triology Sonata is new and I love the music from Knee Play 5. That said, Chow seems to have more dynamic control and technical gifts, which are attributes I admired in the recording by Ólafsson.
Neither performer for me tops Ólafsson’s sensitivity and welcomeness to shape and contort Glass’s phrasings. Yet, both of these new recordings I believe are worth checking out for fans of Glass’s music.
