• 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
    View all

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]
Tim Ashley, The Guardian
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]
Ivan Hewett, The Daily Telegraph
19th April 2010

Discography

Glass: Violin Concerto No. 2

Glass: Violin Concerto No. 2
  • Label
    Orange Mountain Music
  • Catalogue Number
    OMM0072
  • Conductor
    Marin Alsop
  • Ensemble
    London Philharmonic Orchestra
  • Soloist
    Robet McDuffie

New Seasons

New Seasons
  • Label
    Deutsche Grammophon
  • Catalogue Number
    Deutsche Grammophon: 00289 479 4817
  • Ensemble
    Kremerata Baltica
  • Soloist
    Gidon Kremer (violin)

More Info