NSO: Music by Philip Glass from the music of David Bowie & Brian Eno

National Symphony Orchestra
David Brophy, conductor
Presented by Paul Herriott, RTÉ lyric fm
Symphony No. 1 “Low”
Symphony No. 4 “Heroes”
Programme Notes: bit.ly/NSO1802...
Having turned 85 last month, Philip Glass, the father of minimalism, is one of the most influential composers of his generation who has produced hypnotic, era-defining music for the concert hall, opera house and cinema screen.
Five years after his death, David Bowie remains one of the most original and uncategorisable music-makers of the last half-century. Morphing from Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane to the Thin White Duke, his late musical Lazarus and swansong confessional, Blackstar, Bowie was the great chameleon of popular music.
​​​The National Symphony Orchestra and David Brophy perform two symphonies by Philip Glass inspired by seminal albums by David Bowie and Brian Eno that took popular music into new realms. Music of startling originality and surprisingly vivid emotions.
Composing his First Symphony, Glass turned to Bowie’s 1977 collaboration with Eno, Low, a daring experiment in fusing art rock with electronic and ambient music. With the heft and richer colours of an orchestra added, it transforms epic intimacy into a thrilling symphonic statement.
Inspired by Bowie and Eno’s Heroes, Symphony No. 4 elevates the original’s sophisticated blend of rock, pop and art music into a stunning six-movement work of pent-up propulsive energy, thrillingly dark drama and an understated but ravishing sense of grandeur.

[@zorinwiseputramuller2551]

Thanks for the upload. Making the world a better place.

[@depniff]

I really love the Low Symphony. I came across the cd in a library back in the 90s and hired it out of curiosity when I saw David Bowie on the cover otherwise i may never have tried it. The music has remained in my head ever since like a familiar old friend. It is like the soundtrack to a film or story that doesn't exist but one that my mind wants to make up as I listen to it

[@beatrixvantil8623]

Magnificent treat ! both symphonies ! is an enormous joy ! extraordinary concert , thank you for sharing

[@TCNHC]

I was at this concert. Magical. This music will stand the passing of time into forever.

[@programacion7344]

Philip Glass and Brian Eno. Amazing disc !! . All Philip Glass is Amazing.

[@alsatch]

Thank you so much for sharing this online!

[@allentwomey1271]

Second piece after the interval .....Sublime

[@connfitzgibbon4017]

second piece of the second piece, magic

[@gregrice1354]

Please re-publish this video/page with "Ireland" included in the terms of description. My grandmother is an O'Galligan from OldCastle, Co. Meath, but I had to guess, based mostly on the RTE abbreviation, and the accent of the announcer - then dig into linked pages, pdf (no help), etc.. But give yourselves the credit and linking you deserve for this treasure!! Ireland's National Symphony Orchestra!

[@OSIRIS1980WHS]

Don’t tell DAVID or BRIAN but I sought and bought the LOW album and side 1 became my Saturday night I’m gonna git stoned and run around, to quote a famous IGGY POP lyric, but listened once to side 2 and thought it beyond my thought process. Years later I bought the LOW SYMPHONY because (1) PHILIP GLASS was the composer and (2) PHILIP GLASS was the composer. I heard it. Heard it again. Heard it again. Next to IVES’s symphonies 1 and particularly 4 I’ve never admired a symphony composed in the 20th century - or any other century, including the usual HoF characters - that impressed me save PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION - and SHOSTAKOVICH’s most discussed, for good and bad reasons, symphony. IVES body of work suffers a similar fate. In the end the only American Symphony deserving of more commentary and programming than the LOW SYMPHONY is IVES’s FOURTH. I’d pay $1,000 for a seat in the last row to hear the two symphonies performed on the same bill.

[@andrewlark1306]

This is equal to Stravinsky, but it took Bowie, Eno, Glass, and a god-damned good conductor for it to become what it was... a sublime night of ethereal magic.

[@gregrice1354]

Amazing live performance AND amazing live recording! Fabulous. The mix, orchestration, arrangement is better than Glass' own studio release of this music. I heard instruments clearly; here, that were buried in "official" recording. I hear the wonderfully recorded and balanced drum & percussion. Thank you to the musicians, conductor and recording engineers. This recording is a world treasure honoring great musicians/composers - Glass, Bowie, Eno. Sooooo goooood! (and an audience quiet during performance - I believe transfixed - by the naturally mesmerizing performance and score.) I do love Philip Glass' work - it has driven me back to relearn music theory and composition at 60, at least to understand more of WHY I love his music. I sense Glass' long history of work, practice, and intense desire for novelty - in sense of knowing, understanding, comprehending so much of the best music to precede him - and his drive to create his own, unique sounds, musics, melodies, harmonies, arrangements. Learning of Glass' work with Bowie's and Eno's music, which I am very fond of too, I felt confirmed that Glass had indeed heard and included references and quotes of popular 20th century musics in many of the pieces of his I had heard performed by Chronos Quartet - This last paragraph was just to give some personal credentials for my stated love of this recording and performance of a piece that just sounds like it was meant to be as enriching and delightful as some of the best music ever - I am reminded of Aaron Copeland, and ???. Just great. Thank you folks. Fantastic team effort and successful achievment.

[@user-kz9sg2cx6]

Hello. You are not quite right; Recording of this Symphony1 by Bruckner Orchestra (conducted by legend - Dennis Russell Davies) is PERFECT AND CLEAR, STRING ARE VERY EMOTIONAL.

[@terrypmusic]

Very good, keep it up

[@crescentsi]

Has anyone been able to listen to Lodger Symphony online? Compared to "Subterraneans" and "Some Are" I always found "Warszawa" a bit dull and ponderous. The addition of the repetitious arpeggios in the second part really give a sense of drama, rhythm and builds tension that results in a beautifully potent and melodic climax. The Eno/Bowie melodies and sonic experimentation from the Berlin trilogy are, at times fascinating and, particularly in the Low Symphony, Glass seems to alter and extend the original pieces in a complimentary way.

[@tedwilks]

I enjoyed this concert very much, but I must challenge your statement that Philip Glass is the father of minimalism, which implies that he alone created it. It would have been more accurate for you to have written that Philip Glass, together with Terry Riley and Steve Reich, pioneered minimalism.

[@craigrose1130]

I'll never forget the masks and plastic dividers. It was magical!