Glassworks, Philip Glass – Crash Ensemble – The Complex – Review

Glassworks, Philip Glass (Irish Premiere) – Crash Ensemble
The Gallery @ The Complex
28th – 30th July

Curated by Crash Ensemble. Tickets: €15

“Glassworks was intended to introduce my music to a more general audience than had been familiar with it up to then.”  — Philip Glass

The Gallery at the Complex is a small ramshackle space, complete with exposed concrete blocks and brick walls. There is a timber frame roof with pipes and steel beams in various locations. It is a far cry from the usual spaces that the Crash Ensemble occupy, in Concert Halls and grand rooms. Still, it added to the bohemian flavour of this event, which moved the collective into a different world.

Glassworks was written in 1981 when Philip Glass was 44 years old. It is one of the pieces that helped launch his career, moving him from avant-grade circles to the mainstream.

There were 7 musicians on the small stage, with keyboards, flutes, clarinets and saxophones, amongst other instruments. The piece is broken down into six movements, each having a slightly different arrangement or emphasis. As you would expect from a composer that describes himself as creating “music with repetitive structures”, small sections repeat throughout the work, creating a swirling and engaging piece.

The MusicTown Festival was curated by three main companies over the weekend, with Foggy Notions, IMC and Crash Ensemble taking on different genres. It was a lovely concept to mix and match different sounds, with no one style of music too sophisticated or cool for the others. The weekend highlighted the wealth of musical talent currently in Ireland.