Just an Evening?

I went to Schemrerhorn tonight and saw Phillip Glass.  No, not just a performance of a Phillip Glass piece, actually Phillip Glass.  For one thing, he gave a talk for an hour in the Education Hall before the performance tonight.  He talked about working as a film composer and writing opera’s and the difference between them (and their many similarities as well).  Glass also poked fun on his early years reputation for incredibly long pieces as lampooned in an episode of The Simpsons:

Homer: You know, Marge, I was thinking about how much I enjoy       your interest.  So I wandered over to that theater you        went to last night and I bought tickets to their entire        season. Look, "Mostly Madrigals"...         [faking interest] Yeah, that might be good.

       Ooh, ooh, "An Evening with Philip Glass."         [overacting]  Just an evening?

Glass himself mentioned that he has been writing shorter and shorter operas because, he claims, he gets tired and wants to go to bed earlier.  Glass also happened to mention that he is good friends with film composer Danny Elfman, who coincidentally, does The Simpsons.  At any rate, his talk was interesting, and he explained why he wrote the piece we heard tonight and what his overall hopes were for the piece. 

For another thing, when the performance started, Phillip Glass sat right below my seat!  Well, sort of.  He sat in the row right below my seat, which had four chairs, three unoccupied, and Glass sat in the fourth aisle seat, furthest from my box.  Still, he was right there.  It was a great moment to see three teenage girls walk up to him at intermission and ask for his autograph, which he graciously gave.  This also made me slightly peeved, because I had had the same thought, but did not have a pen. 

In terms of the evening, I thought that NashSO was outstanding again.  I think the place still sounds terrific.  The Beethoven was very nice, and the Haydn was pleasant, but, as the person I went with said, "I mean come on, it’s Haydn, you can’t do too much with it."  As for the Glass piece, I thought that it was quite nice.  Choral works in English still sound a little klunky too me.   Many of the great Brittish choral pieces had the good sense to do Latin, but I try and remind myself of the Vaughan Williams pieces I enjoy that use English (’Dona Nobis Pacem’ is a favorite right now, and one probably deserving a blog post at some point.) 

Still, it was a good night, a privilege to see Phillip Glass both in the flesh and through his music.  another great show in a long line of great shows this year at Schermerhorn.  This season is not a good season "for Nashville," this is a good season PERIOD.   And there are still a couple of stellar shows looming on the horizon… in case Phillip Glass, Leila Josefowicz, and the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra weren’t enough.  And let us not forget Madame Butterfly on April 12 and 14 is on the horizon as well!