Philip Glass : The Etudes
Maki Namekawa, piano
That should maybe read, "The Etudes - so far", because there's no particular indication that Glass never intends to write another one. Quite the contrary, in fact, given how the set ends. The Etudes fall into two 'Books' of ten apiece, each set lasting just under an hour. Playing the full complement of 20 is quite a challenge, and the Japanese pianist Maki Namekawa is apparently the only performer currently choosing to meet that challenge. The composition of the Etudes is spread over the last twenty years, but there is a big difference between the first and second books.
Glass claims he began writing the Etudes in order to improve his own piano technique, as well as to give himself new material to perform in concert. The thing is, at least in Book I, Glass's musical style doesn't permit the kind of clearly audible variety of technique you get in the Chopin or Debussy Etudes, and while I don't doubt they pose an adequate technical challenge, you don't hear the individual requirements, the elements being tested, as distinctly as you do in those older, celebrated examples of the genre. Of the ten numbers, the only one that really stood out for me was the second, almost like an echo of Beethoven's "Moonlight" Sonata (the first movement, that is), and a moment of calm in an otherwise increasingly frenetic progression of studies, in which volume seemed to be controlled by the density of the texture, and there was the impression that everything was in the same key. There are no "keys", per se, it's just an illusion, but a persistent one.
The second Book is an entirely different matter. It is far more pianistic, with a greater variety of harmonic and rhythmic content all the way through. No.12 is driven by a relentless Alberti bass - for a moment, as it starts, you're hearing Mozart, before the stresses start to shift in characteristic Glassian fashion, while No.15 has a flamboyant richness reminiscent of Rachmaninov. These Etudes, 11 through to 19, fall into line, inheritors of a tradition rather than weak imitations. And then there is No. 20, achingly beautiful, transparent and open-textured, like a door opening onto new vistas in the music. The source for the material of this Etude is apparently the music written for Godfrey Reggio's most recent film, "Visitors", and it really stands out from the rest, as if indicating a fresh approach for the future - hence my comment that there might, perhaps, be more Etudes to come.
Namekawa, very glamorous in an elegant costume inspired by traditional Japanese dress, was clearly wholly invested in these works, and gave an absorbing performance that responded acutely to the individual qualities of each piece, so the evening gained steadily in intensity as the music itself grew increasingly interesting. The long silence at the end of the last Etude was telling, she had spun its extended lines into a captivating web for her audience, enmeshed in the magic of the moment.
[Next : 12th November]
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