Glass/Schoenberg Recording Announces Release Date of 6/15

Philip Glass's acclaimed Songs and Poems for solo cello, written for and recorded by Wendy Sutter in 2007, surprised many fans and critics with a new voice for the composer, one imbued with deeply Romantic emotion and Classical tradition. Subsequent works such as Glass's Sonata for Violin and Piano (2009) and Partita for solo violin (2010) have continued this direction.

Now a new CD marks the arrival of the Glass Chamber Players, a group of classical virtuosi and chamber musicians whose mission is to perform Glass's chamber works in conjunction with masterpieces of the classical repertoire, putting both in striking new contexts.

'Glass/Schoenberg: The Glass Chamber Players' pairs Glass's String Sextet with Arnold Schoenberg's hyper-romantic Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night). Orange Mountain Music releases the CD on June 15, 2010.

Wendy Sutter, who helped form the Glass Chamber Players, says: "The chemistry between The Players is just spectacular. Many of us were at Marlboro and Curtis together, and are thrilled to reunite today. These are very busy hardcore classical players, and outside of this group, they would probably not be playing Philip's music."

The members of the GCP are respected soloists who perform with such ensembles as the Brentano String Quartet, Baltimore Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Trio Solisti, Trio Verlaine, and others. Each is rooted in the great classical chamber music tradition, but most have only recently discovered the music of Philip Glass.

Glass has long been passionate about the Classical masters. He has said: "My father owned a record store and I would listen to classical music with him. He'd say 'Come here kid, listen to this.' One of the great things about my father was that he had to know all about music because his customers liked all different kinds. He preferred chamber music, central European, and liked modern music: Bartók, Shostakovich. He never told me that one was better than another."

And though Glass may be best known for his many operas and symphonies, chamber music has always been a key part of his musical identity. During studies at Juilliard and with Nadia Boulanger in France, and Darius Milhaud in Aspen, Glass constantly composed pieces for small ensembles. With 'Glass/Schoenberg: The Glass Chamber Players,' we hear Glass's mature work in a very different, yet totally appropriate context, alongside Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht. This mix of styles and traditions defines the Chamber Players. As Glass himself says: "This is not a new music ensemble. This is a music ensemble."

The Glass Chamber Players are captured on this new live recording with an immediacy and almost cinéma vérité-like quality, an unedited snapshot of an event that happened in real time (their debut performance at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in Manhattan in December 2009). The ensemble prefers to record this way, aspiring to the sound of Golden Age groups like the Budapest Quartet: up close and personal.

For more information please visit www.orangemountainmusic.com.

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