Anne Akiko Meyers: Philip Glass – Violin Concerto No. 1

Philip Glass:

Violin Concerto No. 1
Echorus
New Chaconne

Philip Glass: Violin Concerto Review by James Manheim

Philip Glass’s Violin Concerto No. 1, his first concerto for any instrument, was composed in 1987. It succeeded quite fast and has remained one of the composer’s most popular works. Glass wrote the piece in memory of his father, complete with a D-A-D motif, and it was one of the key stages in the development of Glass’s later style, in which his minimalist repetitions are combined with larger harmonic gestures in a more or less traditional mode. Glass said that he was seeking a popular idiom, and he found one; almost alone among contemporary works, this one offers listeners choices in the dozens. They could do much worse than this 2025 release by violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, who is honored by the inclusion of two short encores specifically for her. She applies a Romantic sound to the violin concerto, and she is backed up by Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic working in the same vein, with emphatic harmonic shifts. In effect, they grasp the big, theatrical nature of the work, very much akin to Glass’s larger masterpieces of the 1980s, rather than looking backward toward his minimalist instrumental style. This streaming release appears under the aegis of the new Apple-controlled Platoon label, which often focuses on single works rather than on album-length presentations. Here, there are two shorter works at the end, Echorus (for two violins) and New Chaconne; these do not feature the Los Angeles Philharmonic but do testify to Glass’s ongoing connection with Meyers; that connection is in evidence everywhere here, and it really works.