Many see early 20th century music, like Stravinsky and Schoenberg, as nothing but noise. A wunderkind who challenged the musical establishment in less acceptable ways than Mozart challenged his elders a generation or two before, Arnold Schoenberg's bending of the rules of tonality spearheaded a revolution whose full measure would not be realized until a generation or two after. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the newly released album by the Glass Chamber Players, "Schoenberg/Glass."

Ben Glass, Philip's father, took a not-so-sentimental journey from auto mechanic, who began to repair car radios, to bootstrap entrepreneur, whose car radio repair led to a shop where he sold and repaired radios and, later, sold those Bakelite beauties, 78 RPM records. Periodically he'd call his own Philip in to this company and "listen to this, kid" became their mantra.

Ben had begun to listen to Schoenberg and Stravinsky when he wanted to find out why people weren't buying their records. What he found surprised him, and his taste, and that of his son, became more and more refined. Philip's early work, as he eventually got into the Juilliard composition program and began his peregrinations to Colorado, Paris and beyond, was influenced by the early 20th century masters.

The delicious contrast between Schoenberg's "Verklärte Nacht," or Transfigured Night, composed in 1899, and Glass' Sextet for Strings, performed by the handpicked Glass Chamber Players, virtuosi Tim Fain, David Harding, Maria Bachman, Wendy Sutter-also Artistic Director of the group, Misha Amory and Alexis Pia Gerlach, who combine the voices of the violins, violas and celli and, sometimes, the occasional intake of breath by one or other of these artists adds texture to this live recording. Recorded over two evenings at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York in December 2009, this is a great gift to us from this talented group and a late 20th century treasure. This is a new chamber work and marks the return of a mature composer to the music that first exerted its divine influence more than half a century ago.
Schoenberg/Glass is available through Orange Mountain Music through your favorite classical music outlets. Visit www.orangemountainmusic.com and www.philipglass.com for additional information.