Philip Glass

Piano Concerto No. 2

Internationally renowned minimalist Philip Glass composed this Piano concerto in the traditional three-movement form. The first movement, titled 'The Vision' is classic Glass, with a steamroller quality that suggests the immense drive and ambition the two explorers needed to draw on for their journey into the wilderness. At the beginning of the second movement, the theme in the solo Indian Flute musically represents the name 'Sacajawea', the Shoshone Indian mother and guide who assisted the explorers on their way, for whom the movement is named. The final movement, entitled 'The Land', is an exploration of expansiveness, both of the land that was being explored, but also of the geologically expanded time over which the landscape has evolved, and the great changes that followed Lewis and Clark's journey. This concerto is designated as part of The Concerto Project recording series started by Glass in the year 2000, currently in four volumes and including eight concerti.

American composer Philip Glass is widely known as one of the most celebrated, influential and prolific of the modern composers. He is frequently referred to as a minimalist, though he prefers to call himself a composer of 'music with repetitive structures. ' His operas, among them the renowned Einstein On The Beach, are performed across the globe, and he has created work for small and large ensembles, film and experimental theatre, and founded his own performing group, The Philip Glass Ensemble.