- Philip Glass
Violin Concerto No 2 'American Four Seasons' (2009)
- Dunvagen Music Publishers Inc (World)
Co-commissioned by Toronto Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival and School, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and Carlsen Center at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas
- synthesizer/str(6.5.4.4.3)
- Violin
- 42 min
- 21st June 2025, Sidmouth Parish Church, Talaton East Devon, United Kingdom
Scores
Preview the score
Reviews
Glass's Violin Concerto No 2 is subtitled The American Four Seasons. Written for Robert McDuffie as a Vivaldi companion piece, it links Glass's own minimalism to the classicism and neo-classicism of the 18th and 20th centuries respectively. Baroque in scale, and slyly using a synthesiser as continuo, it interweaves unaccompanied solos with formal movements of great melodic beauty...the standing ovation at the close was richly deserved.
[FOUR STARS]
[FOUR STARS]
21st April 2010
[Philip Glass’s new violin concerto, The American Four Seasons] was dignified and contained, even when the soloist launched into passionate flights of virtuosity, which was quite often...Glass has a magical way of giving the merest twist to banality and ordinariness, which makes it interesting – the mark of classic art down the ages. As for the solo performance by Robert McDuffie, it was beyond praise, as cool, poised and heroically strong as a piece of Greek statuary.
[FOUR STARS]
[FOUR STARS]
19th April 2010
Discography
Glass: Violin Concerto No. 2
- LabelOrange Mountain Music
- Catalogue NumberOMM0072
- ConductorMarin Alsop
- EnsembleLondon Philharmonic Orchestra
- SoloistRobet McDuffie
New Seasons
- LabelDeutsche Grammophon
- Catalogue NumberDeutsche Grammophon: 00289 479 4817
- EnsembleKremerata Baltica
- SoloistGidon Kremer (violin)
More Info
- LA Phil Announces Noon to Midnight Festival curated by Ellen Reid
- 1st October 2024
- Ellen Reid will curate the 12-hour festival featuring live performances and art installations at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.