NSOI: Philip Glass Explored with Russell Davies & Kidjo

National Symphony Orchestra Ireland
Dennis Russell Davies, conductor
Angélique Kidjo, voice

Philip Glass
Prelude and Dance (‘The City’) from Akhnaten  (Irish Premiere)
Ifè Songs  (Irish Premiere)
Symphony No. 8  (Irish Premiere)

National Symphony Orchestra Ireland’s two-concert focus on Philip Glass begins with the composer’s most authoritative interpreter, conductor Dennis Russell Davies, and dynamic, charismatic force of nature with a show-stopping voice, Angélique Kidjo.

Hailed ‘Africa’s premier diva’ and one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine, the multi-Grammy Award-winning Kidjo’s groundbreaking career has made her one of the most recognisable, exciting and influential African artists of her generation.

Glass’s own website declares ‘perhaps no person is closer to Philip Glass’s music-making than conductor Dennis Russell Davies’ who has premiered more of the composer’s works than any other conductor.

Three Irish premieres include two passages from the landmark opera, Akhnaten: the mesmerising Prelude and mounting intensity of Dance (‘The City’.)

Based on African creation poems, the Ifè Songs were composed for Angélique Kidjo and are sung in her native Yoruba. Named after a legendary kingdom, each of the three songs evoke deities in colourful, rhythmically complex music that fuses together Glass’s signature minimalist techniques with the inflections and phrasing of Yoruba chant and song.

The expansive Symphony No. 8 treats orchestral sections to virtuoso writing in three contrasting movements as daring as they are beautiful. The first, weaving eight different themes into a compelling tapestry of colour and sound, echoes Haydn and Beethoven; the second blends beauty and melancholy in compelling variations; the third dissolves into ‘deepening twilight and unending night’ (New Yorker).

Presented by NCH