Philip Glass, Timo Andres and Maki Namekawa at National Concert Hall, 4 May 2015

First performed in 2013, tonight the Études by Philip Glass receive their Irish premiere. The promise of a glimpse of the man – and the chance to hear him play his own work – attracts an almost sellout crowd to the concert hall. As a composer he’s best-known for orchestral soundtracks for film and TV, and music for the stage, so the idea of a sequence of solo piano pieces is intriguing. What emerges is a kind of compositional diary, with the earliest pieces written in the mid-1990s as keyboard exercises (hence the name: ‘études’ or ‘studies’, a familiar term in piano repertoire), and the most recent dating from 2012, the year he turned 75.

In an interesting departure from the usual format of a piano recital, where one pianist plays alone, tonight the twenty pieces are shared between three, Timo Andres, Maki Namekawa, and the composer himself, Philip Glass. Glass begins and ends the first half, playing five out of the first ten études, with Namekawa playing two and Andres the other three, while in the second half Glass plays just one to Andres’ four and Namekawa’s five.

The effect is to refract the études through three different lenses, putting the emphasis back on the pieces themselves. Being ostensibly ‘practice-pieces’ the focus is on the action or craft of music, music as something one does rather than a product to be consumed – a notion which seems both radical and sweetly nostalgic at the same time. Glass’ pattern-filled, repetitive musical style has little interest in concepts of linear narrative; there’s no story or sequence to follow. Instead, as ever, the joy is to be found in the steady pulse and the colour that can gather around it, as each étude addresses a different issue or idea. Ironically, though, there are times when a sense of remembrance does peep through – momentary suggestions of Schubert, Chopin, Janácek, even Rachmaninov – whether through the pianism of those playing or through the musical material itself.

Glass plays with a sense of thoughtful gravity, warm and loose. There are moments when he seems to be almost improvising, but the intentions come through clearly, and hearing him play these pieces himself certainly gives the concert a feeling of intimacy and immediacy. Andres, also a composer-pianist, brings an intensity and directness to his pieces, with an expressive fluidity where needed. In pianistic terms, however, the first among equals is surely Namekawa, who plays with verve, refinement and evident enthusiasm, bringing a brilliant clarity to the fast passages and graceful calm when the tempo drops back. For the audience, tonight is as much about celebrating Glass’ art and career as his new set of pieces, and they have no hesitation rising as one to applaud the final étude.

Programme:

Philip Glass: The Études

Philip Glass (études 1-2, 8-10, 17), Maki Namekawa (3-4, 11-12, 18-20), Timo Andres (5-7, 13-16), pianists