Todd Townsend  wrote:

>Driving home tonight, I heard Philip Glass's Violin Concerto for the first
>time.  It was just a first listen, but I was really intrigued by the piece.
>Oh learned colleagues, how is this piece rated? any particular performance
>recommended?

A nice and pleasent work.  You might also try Glass's second symphony or
the opera Echnaton which have a similar style (of course you might say
Glass's music has always the same style...).  But these are much more
symphonic and with more melody as the more famous works by Glass.  I
personally like this work, though I usually do not really like Glass's
music in general.  Always the same, you know.  ;-)

There are two recordings of this currently available.  One on DG done by
Kremer and Dohnany and one on Telarc by McDuffy and Eschenbach.  I know
the Kremer one, done a couple of years ago with the Vienna SO.  A nice
performance that couples the concerto with Schnittkes 5th concerto grosso.
Both works were dedicated to Gidon Kremer, by the way.

Achim Breiling