Philip Glass’ interesting new Piano Concerto No. 3 was given its world premiere at Jordan Hall in Boston on Friday by the group ‘A Far Cry’ and pianist Simone Dinnerstein.
Much of the Glass concerto is a lush collection of harmonies, where soloist and string orchestra are in search of resolution. Yet resolution comes by deliberate, cyclical turns. Dinnerstein opened with a gentle grops of full, familiar triadic chords, shifting by seconds and thirds, the tonality both enveloping and undermining itself. Throughout the first two movements, minor-tinged melodies and portions of quiet, chromatic music from the piano were like 19th-century ghosts drifting in and out of the shadows. Most fascinating was how the steady rhythmic concerro was manipulated to produce something like Romantic-era sounds.
During the entire piece, both Dinnerstein and the supporting players seized on opportunities for interesting musical expression.
The Glass concerto was paired with Bach’s Keyboard Concerto in G minor, composed some 300 years earlier, yet still loved and appreciated today…
Here is Simone Dinnerstein, performing several Inventions by Johann Sebastian Bach:
