Angèle Dubeau & La Pietà: Signature Philip Glass
Analekta
Five years on from Portrait: Philip Glass, celebrated violinist Angèle Dubeau and La Pietà, the all-woman string ensemble she founded in 1977, revisit the American composer's catalogue for a panoramic presentation of his music. While not necessarily intended as such, Signature Philip Glass might be regarded as the ideal entry-point for someone coming to the composer for the first time. The collection includes recently penned pieces as well as some written almost fifty years ago and couples symphonic and chamber music pieces with others composed for film and theatre. His signature voice is present throughout the recording and establishes a connecting thread regardless of contrasts in mood and tempo.
There are now a vast number of Glass recordings from which to choose when one considers the voluminous number he's issued as a soloist and with his ensemble as well as those by Dubeau, saxophonist Amy Dickson, Kronos Quartet, Brooklyn Rider, The Dublin Guitar Quartet, cellists Wendy Sutter and Matt Haimovitz, pianists Paul Barnes, Víkingur Ólafsson, Bruce Brubaker, Maki Namekawa, Valentina Lisitsa, Lisa Moore, Nicolas Horvath, Bruce Levingston, and countless others. What argues on behalf of Dubeau's is its inspired set-list: yes, there are well-known pieces from Glassworks and Koyaanisqatsi, but also deeper dives that include selections from Bent, A Brief History of Time, and Les Enfants Terribles.
With Dubeau playing the “Des Rosiers” Stradivarius violin (1733) and augmented by an ensemble boasting five more violinists, three violists, two cellists, a double bassist, and pianist, the sound presented is rich, full, and lustrous. That's never more apparent than during the rapturous “Opening” (from 1981's Glassworks). Contrast is just as much a part of the project too, as shown by the abrupt shift from that scene-setter to an aggressive reading of the fourth movement from 1995's third symphony. Dubeau's the dominant presence, of course, but with piano so central to Glass's music, it follows that La Pietà's Amélie Fortin would be prominent too. Her piano's the first instrument that appears in the ensemble's haunting treatment of “Metamorphosis II” (1988), and Fortin lays a solid foundation for many another setting besides. Dubeau also shares the spotlight with La Pietà member Julie Trudeau on two Glass violin-and-cello duos from 2010 and ends the release unaccompanied with the elegiac “Epilogue for Solo Violin” (from 1997's Bent).
Koyaanisqatsi (1982) is no less effective for replacing the portentous soundtrack's bass-register vocals with La Pietà's instrumental textures and Dubeau's keening phrases. The most recent selection comes from 2018, specifically the lyrical opening part from Piano Quintet “Annunciation,” and the ten-minute piece is both instantly identifiable as a Glass work and as enchanting as the other material. Among the more bewitching settings are Candyman Suite (1992), “The Somnambulist” (from 1996's Les Enfants Terribles) and “Signature” (from A Brief History of Time, the1992 documentary about physicist Stephen Hawking).
Glass is in exceptionally good hands with Dubeau, and it's fitting that a composer so prolific should see his work performed by a violinist with a similarly staggering output: forty-eight albums to date (the latest one included), and no doubt many more to come. From the prizes she received as a teenager at the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal to her 2012 appointment as an Officer of the Order of Canada, the awards she's accumulated over the decades and the recognition she's received attest to her stature. With Signature Philip Glass, Dubeau and her colleagues have produced a recording that's perhaps as diverse and eclectic as any Glass compendium could possibly be.December 2023