The sun is high in the sky, and a deafening chorus of cicadas tries its best to interrupt Michael Riesman’s thoughts. “I’m in rural Saugerties, New York,” says the composer and arranger. “I’m sitting in the sun. It’s very nice.”
Riesman is enjoying a brief escape from Manhattan, where he has been an important collaborator for 50 years with renowned composer Philip Glass. He first worked with Glass in 1974 as keyboardist with the pioneering Philip Glass Ensemble. At the time, Glass was widely regarded as a heretic and viewed with suspicion, especially by the American classical music community.
Half a century later, Glass has become a respected figure and perhaps one of the most famous living composers. His works have graced films such as “The Hours,” “Candyman,” and “The Truman Show,” and his repertoire of more than 10 operas, including “Satyagraha” and “Akhnaten,” has performed internationally. It’s being performed in a packed theater. He is name-checked on The Simpsons. The New Yorker praised his "vast, intensely stirring, monumentally obsessive work.” His list of collaborators includes David Bowie, Brian Eno, and Indian composer Ravi Shankar.
These artists are drawn to Glass’s reputation as the originator of minimalism, classical music’s “last big idea.” His signature technique of stretching out repeated sounds over long periods of time has had a huge influence on everything from classical music to electronica. Chicago Tribune critic John von Rhein said: . Glass’ music is now part of our cultural lingua franca, just a click away on YouTube. ”
Riesman has been with Glass every step of the way from outsider to icon. During that time, he grew from a humble background figure to one of Glass’ most important musical foils. In his role as Glass’s unofficial ambassador, he will bring the Philip Glass Ensemble to Dublin to perform there next week.
The show will feature some of Glass’ signature works. The first concert on Thursday will feature a complete recital of his landmark 1981 album Glassworks, a six-movement chamber work that influenced contemporary musicians such as Nils Frahm, Hania Rani and Ludovico Einaudi. It will be done.
“‘Glassworks’ was a conscious scale-down of his aesthetic,” Pitchfork explained in a 2016 review of the LP’s reissue, and Glass brought it to mainstream audiences. It was intended to serve as an introduction to the music. “Instead of playing his gradually changing themes for hours, we will perform a suite of six compact pieces in just under 40 minutes.”
Michael Riesman (left) and the Philip Glass Ensemble perform in Madrid in June. Photo: Pierre-Philippe Marcou/AFP, Getty Images
The second night at the National Concert Hall will see the premiere of an orchestral reworking of experimental director Godfrey Reggio’s score for the 2002 art film Nakoikatsi. This was their third collaboration after Koyaanisqatsi (1982) and Powaqqatsi (1988). The new version, co-commissioned with NCH, will feature the National Symphony Orchestra and cellist Kate Ellis.
Nakoikatsi means “life as war” in the language of the Hopi people, a Native American tribe from present-day Arizona. Completed in the shadow of the September 11 attacks – Reggio’s studio was located near the World Trade Center – the film combines stock footage, computer animation, and Glass’s music to explore the dangers of capitalism and the impact of technology on humanity. I meditate on (mainly negative things). from a Reggio perspective). This is not a gentle watch. It aims to challenge viewers rather than provide escapism or entertainment.
“What Reggio has done here is shoot primarily stock footage, and sometimes subtly, sometimes not so subtly, emphasize what we see until a kind of eye strain sets in, and then It’s about changing digitally,” The Washington Post said of Nakoikatsi at the time of the announcement. “We want to look away, but we can’t, not necessarily because the image is so seductive, but because, ironically, it forces us into a kind of obedience that feels voluntary. In other words, it hurts a lot.”
Riesman collaborated with Glass on three of Reggio’s films. His relationship with the composer dates back to the early days of Glass’s career, when the two were struggling classical musicians. They were both outsiders. Glass grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Latvian and Russian Jewish immigrants, and graduated from the University of Chicago. Meanwhile, Riesman was a Fulbright scholar who studied with composer Gottfried von Einem in Vienna before returning to the United States and taking a teaching position at the State University of New York outside Harrison.
Composer Philip Glass rehearsing “Appomattox” in Washington, D.C., 2015. Photo: Gabriela Demchuk/New York Times
“I had met him socially. I was living in New York and working as a composer and performer,” he says of his interaction with Glass. “I met him through a friend in the art world. He needed a keyboard player and my name came up. So he called me and said, ‘Would you like to come and audition?’ and. Then I did. Then he said, “Well, come join us on this tour.” He had no intention of making me a permanent member of the ensemble, but someone dropped out at the last minute, which put him in a bind. So I went on tour and have been with them ever since, gradually moving into the role of music director. ”
New York in the 1970s was in decline, but it was also exploding with creativity. A robber roamed the subway. Times Square was a cross between a red-light district and an outdoor toilet. But downtown, the city was buzzing with cutting-edge music. This was the New York that gave the world Blondie, Talking Heads, and television, along with avant-garde artists like composers La Monte Young and Rhys Chatham (who influenced 1980s indie provocateurs Sonic Youth). It was also from this cauldron of creativity that Riesman and Glass emerged.
(Blondie guitarist Chris Stein: “I’ve always been into chaos. There was nothing to avoid.”Opens in new window)
“Exposure was primarily in art galleries and lofts downtown,” Riesman says. “In 1974, before I joined the group, he took the big chance of renting the Town Hall (theatre) to see if he could get an audience for the premiere of ‘Music in Twelve Parts’. It worked. He certainly drew a crowd. And I was in that concert hall, and I was like, “Oh, Philip Glass can fill this uptown space.” It was quite a surprise for people. Yes, he could do it. ”
The 12-part music ran for over three hours and was praised for introducing bold and different elements to the orchestral performance. In 1978, The New Yorker wrote, “New sounds and new chords suddenly enter, creating the effect as if a single wall in a room had suddenly disappeared, revealing an entirely new vista.”
Yet, despite all this acclaim, there wasn’t much money for a minimalist three-hour song cycle at the time. Glass paid his bills by running a furniture moving business with fellow avant-garde composer Steve Reich and driving a taxi. The goal, Riesman said, was to not compromise.
“He definitely set some rules in terms of how he thought music should be constructed. Instead of begging people to play his songs, he said, ‘No. , I’m going to be the boss.” I’m going to start my own group to perform my music. And instead of begging to be played, we pay to be played,” Reisman says.
“He didn’t have to do any political maneuvering other than perform and seize the opportunity, like he did at City Hall, which was an act of courage. This proved that there was a market for it and people would come. This allowed him to make a living primarily from performing, but he still didn’t make enough money to live on, driving taxis. And so on. That was his choice. He didn’t want to have students, he didn’t want to have a teaching position, he didn’t want to have disciples. He just formed his own group and made his own music. I just wanted to perform, make enough money to live on, and see where it went all on my terms.”
(Philip Glass: “Everyone needs a skill, whether you’re a plumber or a cook” opens in new window)
Even if City Hall was a victory, New York was content to let Glass remain downtown, a loft and art gallery presence. His next breakthrough was in France, where his five-hour opera Einstein on the Beach premiered in Avignon in July 1976. Reminiscent of the surrealist interludes in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, Einstein on the Beach was a groundbreaking meditation on the world. The legacy of the founders of the nuclear age.
Performance of “Einstein on the Beach” held on September 12, 2012 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. Photo: Sarah Krulwich/New York Times
There was no pandering, and its avant-garde was almost offensive in places. The story wasn’t that old-fashioned. Glass described the story as “not a plot.” True to its character, the opera unfolded as a series of hallucinatory sequences that referred to Einstein’s theory of relativity in very euphemistic terms.
Critics acknowledged that Glass had produced challenging work, but praised his determination to push boundaries. They also noted the way music disarms and calms the audience, an assault on the senses that ultimately turns out to be hypnotic and calming. did. “Listeners usually reach a point pretty early on where they become rebellious about the needle-in-the-groove sound quality,” the New Yorker said. “After a minute or two, he realized the needle wasn’t in. Something had happened.”
“Einstein on the Beach” was the beginning of a new chapter, Riesman said.
“He had two major events that made him famous. The first was “Einstein on the Beach,” which made it to the front page of the New York Times art review, and as a result. , which came to New York and was performed on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House.The next real and internationally recognized one was director Godfrey Reggio’s first film, which was a huge hit. It was the film score for the film Koyaanisqatsi, which was first shown at the New York Film Festival, then released in theaters around the world, and later on television. My position as one of the top artists has been solidified through exposure through film music.”
A juggling troupe visually expressed the spiral rhythm of the music from Philip Glass’s opera Akhnaten at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York in 2019. Photo: Sarah Krulwich/New York Times
Glass was Riesman’s most important collaborator throughout his career. But he also worked with other artists, most notably David Bowie, who asked him to provide string arrangements for his 1993 record Black Tie White Noise, It is largely seen as marking his return as a serious artist after the humiliation of the 1980s.
“Oh, that’s such a fond memory. He asked me to do some arrangements, so I did a string arrangement of ‘The Wedding Song’ (Bowie’s Valentine’s Day song for his new wife, Iman). I made it. I’m very proud. Unfortunately, I think he just buried it in the mix. You haven’t heard what I did – it’s not enough. he liked it. I thought the mix might need a little more work, but it was fine. Then I worked on another track and added some bells. It was fun in the studio. ”
When he brings the Philip Glass Ensemble to Dublin, the atmosphere will change. The highlight of the two nights will be an orchestral version of Nako Ikatsi, a rumination on the impact of technology on humanity, a work that is as relevant today as it was when it premiered in the shadow of 9/11. .
“Koyanisqatsi, Powaqatsi, Nakoyanisqatsi – they are timeless about the human condition, what we do in the world, and how we impact the world. How people change due to different pressures. They also show some of the flaws of humanity. The destructive effects of war. The subtitle of “Nakoi Katsui” is “Life as War.” It’s about struggle. It is an eternal theme that never changes. ”
The Philip Glass Ensemble will perform at the National Concert Hall in Dublin on Thursday 10th October and Friday 11th October.
