Customer Reviews

Music of the Human Spirit

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

I, too, bought this album specifically to hear the Glass piece. I had no idea the rest of the album would be such a treat! Leisner makes "Fourth Knee Play" sound as though it was originally written for the guitar, and there isn't a single bad cut on this album. If you buy this one, don't overlook the liner notes. What's really important about this album is that all of the composers are 20th century composers, and Leisner knew all of them personally, save for one. He explains, for instance, that he met Philip Glass on the subway. Lastly, be sure to listen for the most important thing about this album- if you play it loudly enough, and listen very closely, you can hear the guitar's repertoire expanding.

I confess that I haven't spent much time with any of the tracks on this disc apart from Philip Glass' Knee Play 4, so let this review serve only as a review of that piece.

As is indicated by the significant difference in length between this version of the popular Einstein on the Beach segment and any of the original opera recordings, this version contains new material. Actually, the new material really just represents one other violin passage from the opera that wasn't originally performed within Knee Play No. 4. The performance of the piece on this recording is nice but isn't quite everything I was hoping it would be. The recording quality is very professional, but the performance somehow lacks the vigor of the original.

Regardless, I would recommend this track to anyone who would like to hear Glass on such an atypical instrument for him.