Philip Glass - Metamorphosis | complete

Philip Glass - Metamorphosis (1988)
I made this record using an old amazing (one of my favorite instrument actually) Steinway & Sons model O grand piano. (Steinway officially stopped production of the Model O in 1924, but I guess this one was built around 1925-1926 according to serial number)

"Metamorphosis One" – 00:00
"Metamorphosis Two" – 06:54
"Metamorphosis Three" – 13:59
"Metamorphosis Four" – 19:09
"Metamorphosis Five" – 26:29

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Starting today, Metamorphosis are available in all major streaming services*

"Metamorphosis", refers to and was inspired by the 1915 short story The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. While all pieces were written in 1988, some were written for a staging of Metamorphosis, while others were for a documentary film called The Thin Blue Line directed by Errol Morris.
"Metamorphosis One" is played in an episode of Battlestar Galactica by Kara "Starbuck" Thrace. Within the narrative, her father composed and performed the piece. It is also played in the series finale of Person of Interest, Return 0. "Metamorphosis Two" formed the basis of one of the main musical themes in the film The Hours. It is also the song that the American rock band Pearl Jam uses as their introduction music to concerts.

*I prepared this release to celebrate 4 million streams of this composition in my interpretation on Youtube (a bit late though, because the number of views has grown since then). After several unlucky attempts to make this recording on different instruments and in different studios I returned to the same living room and the same piano - Steinway & Sons model O made in 1926. I can not possibly explain this, but despite all the obvious technical obstacles that stand before you while recording in a regular room, with all the uncontrolled reflections, with the old piano in poor condition which makes you suffer a lot, with all the additional vibrations, rattling strings, hammers that require voicing, with a creaking chair - it turns out to be exactly how I perceive this music. So, one piano, 2 microphones, beloved Philip Glass, and my personal story with the place where this record session took place.

#Coversart

[coversart]

Starting today, *Metamorphosis* are available in all major streaming services

I prepared this release to celebrate 4 million streams of this composition in my interpretation on Youtube (a bit late though, because the number of views has grown since then). After several unlucky attempts to make this recording on different instruments and in different studios I returned to the same living room and the same piano - Steinway & Sons model O made in 1926. I can not possibly explain this, but despite all the obvious technical obstacles that stand before you while recording in a regular room, with all the uncontrolled reflections, with the old piano in poor condition which makes you suffer a lot, with all the additional vibrations, rattling strings, hammers that require voicing, with a creaking chair - it turns out to be exactly how I perceive this music. So, one piano, 2 microphones, beloved Philip Glass, and my personal story with the place where this record session took place.

[victormorgado]

In 1980 I worked selling toe shoes for ballet dancers in New York City. One Saturday morning this guy comes in and asked for some shoes for his daughter's ballet class. We engaged in conversation about music and he invited me to see him play the piano the next day afternoon in a concert to raise funds for Tibet. It was in a church around the store where I worked. That is how I met Philip Glass. Ironically what impacted me when I saw him arriving on stage that Sunday afternoon, was that he was wearing old blue jeans and a working man's shirt. It was a total new way for me to be around a "classical" environment

[aminzargarian]

master of repetitions. if art could mimic the repetitiveness of being alive it’d be a clause on a sheet written by Glass. the irony is you can repeatedly listen to this and still want to listen again like you never stop repeating a breath. Thank you Mr Glass.

[jorgebarcelo]

This is by far the best cover performance of Metamorphosis on the net.

[wendyfoxmyn]

I see there are many of us commenting who find Glass to be our best accompaniment for focus on work. It's almost magical.

[robertmoore]

Played this to my mother who is in a hospice with late stage cancer, she had the night terrors and couldnt sleep, even with heavy medication. She slowly slipped off into a deep sleep half way through, with a faint smile on her face. Thankyou coversart.

[isaactarica]

Hi, I m a Sonographer MD and every day I begin in my offices with this piece, my patients thanks me for the music and I thank you. Some times my work it is not about "good news"· but the music helps me to create an atmosphere of care. We need more concerts in the hospitals and less TV !!!

[pmcdonough]

Hauntingly beautiful and calming, was driving home late last night from work and came across this on the radio, parked in front of my house until it was over, couldn't stop listening to it.

[Jimpassarotri]

I've been listening to Philip Glass since 1982, but your pace really moved me. Thank you. You're one of the few people who give each note its time and space . Especially the space between the notes.

[wouldntyouliketoknow]

I discovered his music in 2008 when I was 14. On an autumn afternoon, It was a very overcast rainy day in Los Angeles and I looked out my window to see the skyline gradually disappear into the dense rainy clouds. The rain was cold and when I opened the window I can smell it and feel the gusts of wind blowing in. Again, I listened to this album in Washington D.C. and Virginia on a very grey and rainy afternoon as I rode past the Potomac river and all the large government buildings - the music emphasizing the gravitas of their brutalist architecture. But for some reason it made me think of rainy days in New York before 9/11. So grey, cold, wet and melancholy, yet so beautiful and ethereal. A chilly nostalgia rains on me when I listen to this.

[davidsleger]

Many of you probably are aware already but Glass was commissioned by a Brazilian ballet company to compose the score for a production called "Aguas da Amazonia" Portions of Metamorphosis were interwoven into that score. It was performed by the acoustic ensemble Uakti and can found on their album 'Glass: Aguas Da Amazonia'

[mirrorimage]

Asked to write a piece that never ends, Glass nailed it.

[benc]

Never ever have I come across a composer who so immortalizes and reinforces the words of Victor Hugo....

“Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent”.

[Victoria-bhht]

There's something about melancholy piano solos that reach right into my soul ;-;

My fears are banished. My doubts are stilled. My mood carefully cradled and levelled.

[martinebourdeau]

I attended Philip Glass's first concerts in Paris and right away was mesmerized by his compositions; now my son is a great admirer of his work as well.

[ritaangelicasales]

Absolutely admirable. It's like I can feel the pain of the metamorphosis in me at the same time of observe the relief of transformation. Art and music have their way of touching the soul as we need it

[gracehopper]

It’s amazing how wordless music can speak directly to your soul. Love love love this piece and everything else Phillip Glass has created.

[jocelyngroomm.a.]

You don't know me, but you have been with me as I write my thesis. When my brain needed a bittersweet jolt to aid reflection, your interpretation of Glass' incomparable imagination provided just what I needed to get through the countless hours. Thank you!

[margaretfarquhar]

The right hand asking the question
The left hand answering
The left hand asking
The right answering

[italobino]

I'm an "old" man, but about 30/40 years ago i discovered Philip Glass.. still today is always great. Hoping also for new generation