In 2019,
Philip Glass
composed incidental music for a Broadway production of
Shakespeare
's
King Lear
, starring none other than
Glenda Jackson
in the title role. The music is for string quartet. His score has spawned an independent
King Lear Overture
(not the same as the two-minute Overture heard on this release), and now a recording of the entire work on the composer's
Orange Mountain Music
label, with the various cuts put together into continuous music for his handpicked quartet.
Glass
is certainly to be commended for consistently broadening the stylistic range in his music, even into his 80s. This score mostly harks back to his earlier repetitive style, but there is a new wrinkle: the requirements of incidental music, with its shifting action on stage, precludes the use of
' typically large-scale structures. He changes gears effectively with music that, though simple, evokes the action and characters of the play.
even tries his hand at a few
songs, sung in a slightly punked-out style by
Ruth Wilson
as Cordelia. The only long-form piece is the penultimate "Here Is My Pledge," beginning with that line by the Duke of Albany that begins the final terrible unraveling.
' mood here is somber, and the music imparts a tragic calm to the carnage playing out on stage. Beautifully recorded, as usual, this is another strong work of
' old age. ~ James Manheim