Phillip Glass in Concert - Portsmouth, NH

In November we planned a mini-vacation in our fave city, Portsmouth, New Hampshire staying overnight on April 19 to attend this concert:

Philip Glass featuring Philip Glass, Wendy Sutter & Mick Rossi

The Music Hall Presents: The first composer to win a wide, multi-generational audience in the opera house, the concert hall, the dance world, in film and in popular music – simultaneously. Glass’ 20 operas, eight symphonies, multiple concertos, and numerous film soundtracks have had an extraordinary and unprecedented impact upon the musical and intellectual life of our time. Most recently he composed music in the hit film The Watchmen, this BBC visionary operatic and symphonic composer has collaborated with Paul Simon to Yo Yo Ma. The Music Hall concert will feature “Songs and Poems for Solo Cello” written by Glass for Wendy Sutter.

“The most powerful composer of our time” – DAILY TELEGRAPH Tickets: $55, $35

Glass is probably not known to the average person. His work is being featured more in films and video games and that has led listeners to his other works. His style is minimalist which most people love or hate. For a full bio check him out on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillip_Glass PBS's American Masters series recently profiled him and you can catch clips here: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/philip-glass/video-outtakes-from-the-film/1127/
We stayed again at this charming inn downtown minutes from the theater, great restaurants including a new Irish one we tried before the concert, and shopping. At my all time fave CD/DVD store I searched for a Glass anthology among his countless CDs but couldn't find the collection I wanted. I have his stirring soundtrack for Mishima that I wrote about here earlier but only on cassette and couldn't find the CD. There's always online shopping later. Glass also composed a score for Bela Lugosi's Dracula you can hear on that DVD's alternate soundtrack.
Portsmouth's Music Hall is one of the nation's oldest theaters restored to its former glory and presents all kinds of entertainment. On their website you can actually see how the stage looks where you will be sitting by clicking onto an unsold seat: http://www.themusichall.org/

We had rear seats on the aisle but a good view of the stage since the theater is small. Glass, a charming host, introduced his works and fellow musicians, cellist Wendy Sutter whose new CD of music written for her by him was on display at the store, and percussionist Michael Rossi who has previously performed with Glass. Sutter and Glass on piano would do solos, duets, and trios joined by Rossi. They played a balanced selection from his works and the program said this would be an 80 minute concert with no intermission. I could understand this time limit as playing his repetitive-sounding, but not really so as there's plenty of subtle variation & progression, music is taxing to musicians. The concert lasted 85 minutes and after the thunderous ovations, they returned for another 20 minutes of encores. What a wonderful evening! Again his music is not for all tastes but we all were mesmerized by these talented musicians. Glass is 72, doesn't look like it, and Martha who plays piano was dazzled by his fingering.
An update: According to the PBS show Glass is on his third marriage. Wikipidea says he is separated and romantically involved with Sutton. Talking about making sweet music together....