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Violin Concerto No.2, “The American Four Seasons”

I was waiting on an official announcement of this for a while now.  Philip Glass' new Violin Concerto will have its North American and United Kingdom premieres next season.  One announcement came from London's Southbank Centre and the other from the concerto's co-commissioners, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra

The soloist, Robert McDuffie produced, in my opinion, the finest recording of the Glass Violin Concerto (no.1) on record (Telarc).  McDuffie has been reporting for years that he had a concerto forthcoming from the composer. 
2008 was such a quiet compositional year from Philip Glass publishing only two pieces. However, the composer's Sonata for Violin which receives its world premiere on Feb. 28th was also composed last year. 2009 stands to see the premieres of these two major pieces, Kepler and this new concerto. The world premiere being December 9, 2009 under the direction of the wonderful conductor Mo. Peter Oundjian.

The UK premiere will be April 17, 2010 by the London Philharmonic under the direction of Glass-Champion Maestra Marin Alsop.  On that program is also the world premiere of Gorecki's Fourth Symphony.  Later that seasons, the London Phil will be doing Glass Violin Concerto No.1 with McDuffie on the same program premiering Ravi Shankar's "Symphony" on July 1, 2010.

1 thought on “Violin Concerto No.2, “The American Four Seasons””

  1. I booked my tickets for both of these concerts today. I don’t know how I’m going to make it through the great gulf of time between now and then!
    Thanks for posting this news; GlassNotes was the first place I heard about this, so I’m very grateful!

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