Time Curve: Music for Piano by Philip Glass and William Duckworth

Bruce Brubaker (Artist), Philip Glass (Composer), William Duckworth (Composer), n/a (Conductor) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Conductor: n/a
• Composer: Philip Glass, William Duckworth
• Audio CD (June 16, 2009)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Arabesque Recordings
• ASIN: B002DMMMMM
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #61,195 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic !! CD of the Year !?!!, July 8, 2009

By 

eric22 "eric" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Time Curve: Music for Piano by Philip Glass and William Duckworth (Audio CD)

CD of the year !?!!

"Time Curve" is fantastic! This is my CD of the year! Bruce Brubaker reveals unexpected beauty in piano music by Philip Glass and William Duckworth. I didn't know Duckworth before -- the music here is gorgeous -- and Brubaker's playing shows great depth and nuance in Duckworth's pieces and in the etudes by Glass.

Many of these short pieces are calm and even trancelike. One incredible aspect is that listening to this CD makes you calm, and at the same time you will be completely drawn into an intense, magic world of feelings.

The entire "Time Curve" CD is sonically beautiful, emotionally profound and in every way compelling. Listen to it as soon as you can!

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If you like Debussy, September 21, 2009

By 

Alan Penchansky (Miami, FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Time Curve: Music for Piano by Philip Glass and William Duckworth (Audio CD)

Philip Glass is a keyboard composer at heart and his innovative art is captured in its essence in this superbly played solo recital, which features some of his best-know piano compositions. Shorn of the multi-textures and color rainbows that characterize Glass' orchestral and ensemble compositions, the profoundly meditative and trancelike quality of his music -- while never becoming cloying and avoiding any sense of vapidity -- comes to the fore. Hearing Glass' music stripped down to its essentials one also becomes aware of his place in the tradition of great keyboard composer/pianists -- and particularly his affinity with Debussy, whose non-Western composition idiom is evoked throughout this disc. The interesting Duckworth pieces are written in a similar idiom. All the selections receive excellent, beautifully recorded performance from Brubaker, one of the leading exponents of contemporary classical piano works.

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Considerable Disappointment!, October 17, 2010

By 

Lyre Lyre (Juneau, AK United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Time Curve: Music for Piano by Philip Glass and William Duckworth (MP3 Download)

I am not a fan of Philip Glass and will not be addressing his compositions. I am a fan of the "Time Curve Preludes" and it is regarding that piece that I address my comments.
Brubaker takes what I feel to be questionable liberties with Duckworth's Preludes. By "interpreting" them via an emotive approach most noticeably manifesting as a constant relaxing and accelerating of speed, Brubaker chips away at the crystalline structure of these pieces. Duckworth's placement of notes within cycles and against drones is ingenious and complex. Brubaker's tinkering with the timing and execution of events and therefore with the larger presentation of contrasts, patterns and meanings embodied in these compositions is to me a profound annoyance. Neely Bruce's debut recording of this work (on the Lovely label) is simple and direct without being overemotional. He understands that the profundity and emotional impact of these pieces is best enabled to emerge with the performer having the discipline to allow the composition to speak for itself. And the "Time Curve Preludes" does speak; it speaks mythically, mathematically, historically, religiously and artistically. It also has a transcendent musicality and an otherworldly beauty that in my opinion required and received the perfect interpreter in Neely Bruce. This was always a composition That I felt would never need to be recorded more than once. Brubaker's conception of this piece was in my opinion misguided and his recording of it unnecessary.