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RELATED COMPOSITIONS:

Les Enfants Terribles

Music 4 Hands

(2005)

Music by Philip Glass / Steve Reich
Maki Namekawa and Dennis Russell Davies,
pianos

CATALOG:

Orange Mountain Music 0022

TRACKS:

NOTES:

Like other great opera composers, much of
Philip Glass' finest music has been written for
the theater and is known only to the theater-
going public. While discussing with Philip the
possibilities for a work for my piano duo with
Maki Namekawa, I recalled the fun I had
playing a suite from the opera Les Enfants
Terribles with Philip and the conductor Dante
Anzolini in its original scoring for three pianos.
Philip gave his permission for Maki and me to
select pieces from the opera and to re-score
them for two pianos. We restricted ourselves
to music that was mainly instrumental or with
little independent vocal writing. The resulting
"Six Scenes" was performed in celebration of
Ars Electronica's 25th Anniversary in New
York and at the Ars Electronica Festival in
Linz, Austria in September 2004. I am very
confident that this music substantially
enriches the two-piano repertory – it certainly
is fun to play.

Philip and Steve Reich were leaders of a new
music revolution in New York City in the
1960's and 70's that included Terry Riley,
Lamonte Young, and Meredith Monk. In the
years since then their careers and music have
greatly diverged, and it was rewarding to find,

STEVE REICH

1.

Piano Phase

17:33

PHILIP GLASS

Six Scenes from

Les Enfants Terribles

2.

Overture

4:04

3.

The Bedroom

9:19

4.

Paul Sleepwalking

5:29

5.

Snow Falling in
the Playground

4:42

6.

Elizabeth Chooses
a Career

5:55

7.

Death of the
Twins / Finale

4:31

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Philip Glass: Music: Music 4 Hands

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http://www.philipglass.com/music/recordings/music4hands.php

with Gerfried Stocker, a way to reconnect
these two outstanding musicians for this
production.

Steve's Piano Phase is a seminal work of the
modern repertory for two pianos. It is also the
first work that Maki Namekawa and I
rehearsed and performed together. I've come
to the conclusion that Maki agreed to develop
a two-piano repertory with me after I proved
to her in this work that I was able to play (not
just conduct) a steady tempo. The skill and
discipline she demonstrates in achieving the
subtle and complex accelerations of tempo
are extraordinary. I make an admirable
"straight man."

— Dennis Russell Davies

October 2004

LES ENFANTS TERRIBLES BY PHILIP
GLASS

© 1996

Dunvagen Music Publishers

Inc.

Used by Permission.

Distinguished as one of the greatest
composers of our time, Philip Glass'
repertoire ranges among opera, dance,
theater, orchestra and film. Lauded for
Einstein on the Beach and Music in Twelve
Parts, Glass is also renowned for the scores
for Godfrey Reggio's Koyaanisqatsi and the
Academy Award nominated films The Hours
directed by Stephen Daldry, The Fog of War
directed by Errol Morris, and Kundun directed
by Martin Scorsese. Glass' non-traditional
musical syntax, his experimental, minimalist
approach and his ambiguous tonality have
long resisted interpretation.

(Reprinted by kind permission of

Dunvagen

Music Publishers

, Inc., New York)

Background on the work:

Les Enfants Terribles was composed in 1996
as the final part of a trilogy of operas based
on three films by Jean Cocteau. The first two
operas, Orphée and La Belle et la Bête, were
composed in 1991 and 1994 respectively –
Orphée for voice and chamber orchestra, and
La Belle et la Bête for my own ensemble. Les
Enfants toured internationally in 1996-97 with
stage director and choreographer Susan
Marshall's own dance company, a vocal
ensemble and a three-piano ensemble made
up of Eleanor Sandresky, Nelson Padget and
myself.

The present recording for two pianos is based
on six scenes from the opera – "Overture,"
"The Bedroom," "Paul Sleepwalking," "Snow
Falling in the Playground," "Elizabeth
Chooses a Career" and "Death of the
Twins/Finale" - and presents a new
arrangement by Dennis Russell Davies and
Maki Namekawa. It is currently being
performed by them internationally.

Page 2 of 5

Philip Glass: Music: Music 4 Hands

24-9-2008

http://www.philipglass.com/music/recordings/music4hands.php

— Philip Glass

October 2004

PIANO PHASE BY STEVE REICH

© 1980 by Universal Edition (London) Ltd.,
London.

Steve Reich was recently called "...America's
greatest living composer." (The Village
Voice), "...the most original musical thinker of
our time" (The New Yorker) and "...among the
great composers of the century" (The New
York Times).

Steve Reich is a leading pioneer of
Minimalism whose music has been influential
to composers all over the world. His music
combines rigorous structures with propulsive
rhythms and seductive instrumental color.
Many choreographers have used his scores,
including Alvin Ailey, Siobhan Davies, Eliot
Feld and Jiri Kylian. Virtually all of his works
have been commercially recorded. He has an
exclusive recording contract with Nonesuch,
on which label Different Trains earned him a
Grammy for Best Contemporary Composition.
His documentary video opera works The
Cave and Three Tales (in collaboration with
video artist Beryl Korot) have expanded the
boundaries of the operatic medium.
(Reprinted by kind permission of Boosey &
Hawkes)

Background on the work:

Piano Phase (1967) is the direct result of my
work in 1965-66 on two identical audio loops
played simultaneously on two separate tape
recorders, whereby barely perceptible
changes in the tape playback speed produced
minimal phase shifts between two identical,
repeating patterns. This tape study led to It's
Gonna Rain, Come Out and Melodica. Since
the process of progressive phase shift is
actually typical of machines (windshield
wipers on a bus, audible signals at a railroad
crossing, etc.), I wasn't sure if it could be
reproduced by two people. Over the course of
several months, Art Murphy and I – by first
working at home playing against tape
recordings of our own performance, and then
playing on two pianos – found that, while we
lacked the perfection of the machine, we
could give a good approximation of it and we
got to like this totally new and particularly
satisfying way of playing, which was
completely worked out in advance and
eliminated the necessity of actually reading a
score. The result was that we became totally
absorbed in listening while we were playing
the piece.

(Reprinted by kind permission of Universal
Edition AG, Vienna)

MAKI NAMEKAWA, PIANO

Maki Namekawa is one of the young
musicians who are introducing new works by
leading composers into the mainstream of

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Philip Glass: Music: Music 4 Hands

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http://www.philipglass.com/music/recordings/music4hands.php

German concert activity. As a soloist and a
chamber musician equally at home in
classical music and contemporary repertoire,
Maki Namekawa appears regularly at major
concert venues in Japan and Europe, at
international festivals (including the Musik-
Biennale Berlin, the Festival Eclat in Stuttgart,
Ars Electronica Linz, and the Ruhr Piano
Festival), on radio broadcasts as well as with
prestigious orchestras such as the Stuttgart
Chamber Orchestra, Bruckner Orchester Linz,
Munich Philharmonic and Concertgebouw
Orkest Amsterdam.

Maki Namekawa studied piano at the
Kunitachi Conservatory with Mikio Ikezawa
and Henriette Puig-Roget (Conservatoire de
Paris) and continued her studies with Werner
Genuit and Kaya Han at the University of
Music Karlsruhe, where she completed her
diploma as a soloist with special distinction.
She then broadened her experience by
studying with Edith Picht- Axenfeld, György
Kurtág, Prof. Dr. Stefan Litwin (University of
Music Saarland), Florent Boffard (Ensemble
Intercontemporain) and Pierre-Laurent
Aimard (Hochschule für Musik Köln).

DENNIS RUSSELL DAVIES, PIANO

Dennis Russell Davies, chief conductor of the
Bruckner Orchestra Linz and the
Landestheater Linz since 2002, as well as
chief conductor of the Stuttgart Chamber
Orchestra since 1995, was born in Toledo,
Ohio. His activities as an opera and concert
conductor, as a pianist and chamber musician
are characterized by a very broad repertory
ranging from the Baroque to the very modern,
with an intense commitment to the composers
of our time. As pianist and conductor, he has
premiered important works by Robert Beaser,
Luciano Berio, Henry Brant, William Bolcom,
John Cage, Philip Glass, HK Gruber, Lou
Harrison, Gija Kancheli, Thomas Larcher,
Bruno Maderna, Philippe Manouri, Kurt
Schwertsik, Johannes Maria Staud, Balduin
Sulzer, Heinz Winbeck, and Herbert Willi.

Davies began his piano studies at an early
age. He first studied in Toledo with Berenice
B. McNab, and later with Lonny Epstein and
Sascha Gorodnitzky at The Juilliard School of
Music. Over the years, his chamber music
partners have included the Stuttgart Wind
Quintet, cellist Janos Starker, violinists Oscar
Shumsky and Romuald Tecco, oboist Heinz
Holliger and singers Simon Estes, Hanna
Schwarz, Wolfgang Schöne, Uwe Heilmann
and Thomas Mohr. His recordings as a pianist
can be found on ECM, Orphée, Orange
Mountain Music and Koch-Schwann. Most
recently, his performances of Kancheli's
Valse Boston and Glass' Tirol Concerto were
released on ECM and Orange Mountain
Music.

DENNIS RUSSELL DAVIES AND MAKI
NAMEKAWA

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Philip Glass: Music: Music 4 Hands

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http://www.philipglass.com/music/recordings/music4hands.php

Dennis Russell Davies and Maki Namekawa
worked together for the first time in 2003.
After their highly acclaimed performance at
the Festival Ars Electronica in Linz, both
musicians decided to continue their
cooperation as a piano duo. Recent
performances include concerts at the
Metropolitan Pavillion in New York and at the
Festival International de Colmar, at the
festival in Gmunden, the Festival Ars
Electronica Linz; upcoming recitals include
concerts in the USA and at the Ruhr Piano
Festival.

CREDITS:

Music by Philip Glass, Six Scenes from "Les
Enfants Terribles" and Steve Reich, "Piano
Phase".
Performed on two pianos by Maki Namekawa
and Dennis Russell Davies.

Idea by Dennis Russell Davies and Gerfried
Stocker. Recorded at Brucknerhaus Linz by
Erich Pintar / Studio Weinberg, Kefermarkt,
Upper Austria.
Cover photo by Nicolas Naveau.

Translation by Mel Greenwald. Project
management by Manuela Pfaffenberger.

Many thanks to
Philip Glass and Steve Reich for their support
of this project.

Participating artists Dennis Russell Davies,
Maki Namekawa, Wolfgang Winkler, Doris
Hintermaier and Gustav Bauer from
Brucknerhaus Linz, Don Christensen from
Orange Mountain Music, Annette
Kulenkampff from Hatje Cantz Verlag, Erich
Pintar, Wolfgang Schiefermayr and Herwig
Preiss from Studio Weinberg, Michael
Schimpelsberger from MUSIK & CO
Schimpelsberger, Wolfgang Gruber, Christian
Wührer and Andrea Fleissner from Sony DVD
Center Europe, Cat Celebrezze from

Dunvagen Music Publishers

Inc., Karoline

Guggenberger-Spanny from Universal Edition
AG / Vienna, Dr. Heribert Schröder, Dr. Karen
Kopp and Andrew Rosner.

© 2004 Ars Electronica Center Linz All rights
reserved. Ars Electronica Center Linz
Hauptstraße 2, 4040 Linz, Austria T: +43 (0)
732 72 72 - 0 E: [e-mail]
http://www.aec.at

Exclusive worldwide distribution: Orange
Mountain Music, Inc. 632 Broadway suite 902
New York, NY 10012

© 2008 Dunvagen Publishing, All Rights Reserve

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Philip Glass: Music: Music 4 Hands

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