Philip Glass. Heroes, Low Symphonies.(Sound Recording Review)

American Composers Orchestra; Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra/ Dennis Russell Davies. Philips B0000840-2, 2003.

Philip Glass, David Bowie, and Brian Eno represent an almost irresistible marketing triumverate: the label that manages to involve all three in a recording project can reasonably expect to make significant inroads into three generations of record buyers and cut across several different boundaries of musical genre as well, so it is easy to see why these recordings were made. Whether the musical result is satisfying remains a separate question, of course. For these two symphonies, Glass adapted thematic material taken from two critically venerated pop albums made in 1977 by singer and songwriter David Bowie in collaboration with producer Brian Eno: Heroes (RCA Victor PL1-2522) and Low (RCA Victor CPL1-2030). The Low Symphony is a traditional three-movement work, each movement of which is based on an instrumental section from the Bowie album of the same name; for the Heroes Symphony, Glass drew more broadly from its namesake album and ...