Briefly Noted: Music Writer And Critic Alex Ross On Young Composers, Beethoven, And Philip Glass's Late-Period Renaissance

... "Has [Philip] Glass entered the late-period renaissance that his admirers have long awaited? Maybe so, although no one should discount all that other work in his catalogue, even those middling pieces which seem to fade away immediately after they have been heard. Glass is really a composer in the spirit of the Baroque, producing music on demand, tailoring each piece to the occasion. He is the determined antithesis of the Romantic artist, the one who writes in suffering secret for a posthumous public. This is perhaps the most significant message that Glass delivers to the young composers whom he assists behind the scenes: stop dreaming of Beethoven and get your music played."

Alex Ross "The Endless Scroll: New Works by Philip Glass" New Yorker November 5, 2007




















A portrait of Beethoven by Joseph Karl Stieler, 1820.

Photo credit: Public Domaine. Wikimedia Commons. Source: Beethoven-Haus Bonn, Germany, European Union.

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