Still, the inaugural Glass recording remains the ideal way to put the melodies and rhythms into your ears.Īfter reissuing Einstein, CBS Masterworks signed Glass to an exclusive contract as a performer. The only rival way to experience this avant-garde triumph involves doing so with Wilson’s dazzling staging added-something that’s now possible, thanks to a home-video version of Einstein’s most recent revival tour.

A booming live performance from 1984 comes close a ‘ 90s re-recording that restored the excised music isn’t anywhere as energetic or as charming. (Check out the delirious syllabic layering in “Knee Play 2.”) And the instrumental performance of the Philip Glass Ensemble-which included wind instruments and a small chorus-is locked in beyond belief.įorty years on, this first recording of Einstein has never been bettered as an audio-only experience of the opera.

The spoken vocals produce deadpan surrealism. The big ensemble riffs motor along at thrilling tempos the “trial” scenes unfold with otherworldly ease. The synths have a snarl that’s appropriate, given the opera’s Downtown New York parentage. But everything that made the recording still clicks. Glass had shortened some scenes for the first LP issue-on the logic that without Wilson’s stage tableaus, trims were advisable. But the pinnacle of this composer’s early, hardcore minimalist period-which relied on hypnotically long, not-quite-repeating melodic lines-would lead to a major-label deal before long.ĬBS Masterworks reissued Glass’ independent studio recording of most of the music from Einstein in 1979. (Renting the biggest opera house in the country wasn't cheap.) In the immediate aftermath of Einstein’s American premiere, Glass famously went back to driving his cab.

The brief run also set Glass and Wilson back nearly $100,000. It was a decade-defining sensation in New York’s artistic community. So they rented the Metropolitan Opera house for two nights. After a short workshop and tour in Europe, the creative partners decided that Einstein on the Beach-a four-hour plus, non-narrative opera-was ready for its American debut. In 1976, composer Philip Glass and director Robert Wilson executed an ingenious end-run around the cautious classical music establishment of their day.

Einstein on the beach album