Last Thursday I attended the next concert in my season ticket to the National SO: the world premiere (and on opening night) of Philip Glass's Symphony No. 7, and Matthias Goerne singing Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn songs. This was the first real exposure I've had to Glass; I've even managed to avoid his film music somehow. I didn't know what to expect, and held my breath at the first downbeat. Surprisingly melodic and accessible! This three-movement work had several really interesting passages and was rhythmically very complex. Scored for orchestra, piano, organ, and choir, the 37-minute work was much better than I was expecting. I would definitely like to hear it again, and even my wife, no lover of contemporary music, was impressed. In the Afterwords session after the concert, Glass and Leonard Slatkin talked about their days at Julliard. Glass, who seems hyper-intelligent but very approachable, said that although he is not into the Central European music world anymore, his most useful exercise in learning orchestration came when he copied out the score of Mahler 9. He also categorizes himself as a composer for the theater, not the concert hall, which gives him another tenuous connection to Mahler (true, you can argue that both ways; Mahler was comfortable in both). I thought the insights were worth thinking about. A member of the audience asked Glass if, now that he has heard his piece for the first time, would he be tempted to revise it. "I thought it worked pretty well," he said. So did I. This makes two interesting discussions with composers of modern works. I talked about Slatkin's Afterwords discussion with John Corigliano here: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0411&L=CLASSICAL&P=R1766&I=-3 Goerne was great in several of the Wunderhorns, but there's only so much even he can do in the Kennedy Center, which is an outstanding hall for symphonies but can swallow even the greatest singer. I liked what he did in Lob des hohen Verstandes. He started out in typically jaunty character, but when it came to "zu singen um das Meisterstueck," he really turned it into a legato phrase, which makes sense given the lyrics. I'm sure others must do this but it was really noticeable that night. Good thinking by him. Unfortunately, he also had a premature entry in the same song. Covered it up nicely, I have to say. I thought Goerne and Slatkin nearly derailed a couple of times regarding tempo, but none of the near-glitches ruined the performance for me. Next up: Mahler 9 in April. Mitch Friedfeld