hr-Sinfonieorchester / »Philip Glass zum 80.« / »Philip Glass at 80«

With his radical restriction to repetitive motifs and rhythms, his work produces a kind of trance-like pull on the listener, an effect few people can resist. His music has long been familiar to the masses, and this is especially true about works such as his First Symphony, which makes use of three songs from David Bowie’s 1977 album »Low«.

Glass was already 55 years old at that time, and he’d only composed his first concerto – the Violin Concerto No. 1 – a few years before that. But age is relative, and Philip Glass, who is celebrating his 80th birthday in 2017, is still composing music that appeals to young and old, establishment and underground alike.