Customer Reviews

Philip Glass and Foday Musa Suso: The Screens

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Foday Musa Suso, esteemed African composer, had a great role in co-composing this music. What he & Glass did was literally work on each line of music together, writing a note or a few notes before the other had his turn at it. The result is something they were both very pleased with & which neither could have composed on his own. The work is brimming with Glass's repeated figures, but it's not music you might expect from him. Exotic, dry, often ethereal, it'll coat your dreams at night with a fine white sand.

Well, I simply love Philip Glass' music and I think 'The Screens' is one of the most beautiful pieces he ever composed. It was composed as incidental music for a Jean Genet play and has french feel to it (the style is quite similar to the style of his String Quartet No.5, La Belle et la Bete and the Saxophone Quartet Concerto) - and it's very lyrical. Apart from that I liked the contrast between Suso's and Glass' music a lot. The 'France' pieces and 'Night on the Balcony' are especially ravishing beautiful.

I am so glad that I have found this CD again. It is one of the most beautiful collaborations Glass has ever composed. The music floats with amazing richness and the images it conjures are deep and powerful. Truly touching.

I enjoy every one of my 15 or so PG cds, but this one didn't quite come together as well as I would have expected. There seems to be a separation between the different styles. Perhaps I just need to give it another chance. I do prefer, however the Kundun sdtk, Dracula, Koyaanisquattsi and Akhenaten first. Heroes is cool too.

This score composed by Glass and Suso was written for a production of The Screens at the Guthrie theater in Minneapolis in 1989. The play takes place in 1960s Algeria during a struggle for independence from France. This is an excellent collaboration for Glass, but there are a couple of Suso's contributions I could live without. For me Glass's The French Lieutenant's Dream is the highlight of the CD. Like most of the composition it is delicate and ephemeral. Good quality headphones are recommended here, as should be with most of Glass's work now that I think of it. The Screens is Jean Genet's finest stage work and was first seen in Paris in 1966.

French Lt.'s Woman is the best piece on the cd the rest is disjointed at best.

The French Lt.'sWomen is very slow and very powerful. If you don't get

a choked feeling in your throat.....you probably voted for Bush.

This one selection is worth the entire CD