A negative review of the Glass treatment of "Heroes" Glass `Heroes' Symphony. American Composers Orch, Denniss Russell Davies (Point Music 454-388-2) Heroes Symphony

....THERE is a certain irony in the fact that Philip Glass's "Heroes" symphony has been vouchsafed to us in the form of a disc on the Point Music label, for the music seems to have no point whatsoever.

....While it is perfectly possible that followers of the American cult composer may detect in it, as has been claimed, a sweeping Wagnerianism and a Puccini-esque elegy to lost idealism, such similarities are, in reality, obscure, and it is hard to imagine Wagner or Puccini seeing it that way.

....Glass has again been worshipping at the shrine of David Bowie and his sometime collaborator Brian Eno. Glass's Low Symphony of 1993 was a reworking of Bowie's 1977 album of that name; in this new work, Glass has taken tracks from another Bowie / Eno album of the same vintage, "Heroes", and, he asserts, produced "a tribute to that moment" when "people from the world of Art Rock and progressive new music were very close to each other".

....Progressive? Regressive, more like. There is nothing in Glass's symphony to match the punch of the originals. Even with severely limited knowledge of (or affinity with) Bowie's work, it is possible to appreciate that, for example, the title track on his disc has a rhythmic impact and pungent instrumental colouring which are insipidly diluted by Glass. Bowie is the concentrate; Glass adds the water.

....Similarly, in Abdulmajid, the exotic resonances in the original track are curious, colourful, haunting, innovative; Glass makes them into a sort of Fry's Turkish Delight soundtrack, prettifying his score with tinkling touches of the xylophone and conjuring up an atmosphere of only pallid eastern promise. If Bowie awakened new ideas in the world of rock music, Glass, in "Heroes", is the musical equivalent of Mogadon.