Director Godfrey Reggio's Hopi-inspired Qatsi trilogy is one of most ambitious and challenging film cycles ever attempted. With groundbreaking visuals, the non-verbal films examine--and inherently critique--the rapid transition from the natural order to a world dominated by human culture and technology. Critical to the films' success has been the music of Philip Glass, for whom the projects have variously represented an entrée into a rich film-scoring career and compelling motivation for expanding his minimalist technique. In the first two chapters (Koyaanisqatsi, 1983; Powaqqatsi, 1988), the composer's music gave poetic rhythm to the striking images of man and nature in conflict; here's he's ironically asked to be the human link to the film's cascade of oft impressionistic, digitally manipulated images. The result is some of the composer's warmest, most organically friendly music. Crucial to the soundtrack's success is the collaboration of master cellist Yo-Yo Ma, the extent of which (the musician's brooding, lyrical lines are the work's veritable arteries) elevates Glass's work to de facto Ma cello concerto. His work on the "Old World" and "New World" movements may well rank with some of his most haunting, validating Glass's sage, back-to-the future tack in the bargain. --Jerry McCulley

Marin Alsop • Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra Philip Glass (b.1937): Symphonies nos. 2 & 3

Though he prefers not to be labeled a 'minimalist' composer, that is the style with which Philip Glass is most associated. His compositions, however, though bearing certain tradmarks, employ a great range of techniques. This adaptive ability contributes to his success as a composer of music ranging from string quartets to largescale orchestral works and mammoth film scores. Marin Alsop conducts her Bournemouth symphony orchestra in these amazing performances of the Second and Third symphonies of legendary American composer Philip Glass. The grand Second Symphony was comissioned by the Brooklyn Acadamy of Music and premiered there in 1994 by Dennis Russell Davies. Also a commissioned work, the Third Symphony is composed for chamber orchestra, and thus bears an intimacy that is brilliantly suited to a smaller ensemble. In both the epically-proportioned Second Symphony and the smaller-scale Third Symphony, Glass returns, in his own way, to his roots at the Juilliard School, writing polyharmonies, rousing finales, and fully-formed symphonic paragraphs. They are true symphonies in scope, structure and seriousness of purpose. Marin Alsop comments on this recording: "Conducting and recording the music of Philip Glass is the completion of a circle for me. I first met Philip Glass in the late 1970s when I started playing violin on some of his recording projects. The new music scene in Manhattan was one of my major inspirations at that time, so working closely with Philip and his ensemble was a dream come true. I had not seen Philip since the mid 1980s until he attended an all Glass concert that I conducted in London. Like his music, it felt like the contuniation of an old friendship, only changed in a simple but profound way."