Amsterdam Sinfonietta and the violinist William Hagen transport Philip Glass’s violin concerto to India: Glass’s four seasons are interwoven with traditional Indian ragas. Water by Jonny Greenwood also contains evocative traces of Indian music.
Minimal music composer Philip Glass wrote his second violin concerto “The American Four Seasons” as a companion to Vivaldi’s celebrated Four Seasons. Glass already became fascinated by Indian music in the 1960s. The seasons have their specific improvisations in the old Indian ragas. These ragas with traditional singing and instruments are now interwoven with Glass’s seasons. We can also find traces of Indian music in Water by Jonny Greenwood, the guitarist of Radiohead fame. Using a rich palette of classical and modern instruments, he creates sound worlds that exceed all boundaries.