Tumbling

When, in 2019, I first got my hands on the sheet music of the Etudes and began analysing and studying them, I realised that my conception of these pieces, acquired through the existing recordings, was, in some way, not exactly faithful to what the scores were telling me. I can’t deny that I was initially struck, almost with disappointment, by the fact that many pianists, to varying degrees, had deliberately transformed the sense of some of the Etudes – and in some cases even, of the work as a whole. The main discrepancies that first caught my attention were primarily regarding the tempos at which some Etudes had been recorded. I then tried to understand what Glass thought about these at times quite significant variations. In this regard, it is enlightening to quote his own words from an interview with Richard Guérin, given in 2014, just a few weeks before the publication of the printed sheet music (The Complete Piano Etudes): “I can’t tell people how to play it, and surely people won’t play it 100% (as written). There will be some things that I wish they had done differently. It has to be that way. Tempos are like that. I wrote down very carefully the tempos that I play, but I doubt anyone will follow those tempos very strictly. That’s not the way pianists approach music, and in a way, they’re right. I was talking to a guy, a very good player; I said, ‘I should give you a speeding ticket’; he was playing it much too fast, and he said, ‘I can’t play it any slower’. I said, ‘Why can’t you play it slower?’ He said, ‘My heart beats at that speed, and I have to play with my heartbeat’. He’s saying that, physically, the music has to fit his own physical process. His process is different from mine…” These variations have been used, of course, to match personal sensibilities and individual “physical processes”, but in many cases also to showcase technical prowess. Prominent pianists have frequently adapted these pieces to highlight their own virtuosity, often at the expense of the work’s original intent. As I delved deeper into studying these pieces, I realized that, besides the tempos, pianists often altered the dynamics and phrasing as well. As a composer myself, I won’t deny that this left me with a certain sense of frustration. In the book of short essays about the Etudes, Dennis Russell Davies, who has conducted nearly all of Glass’s operas and symphonies – and has a significant connection to this work (which we will explore further) – contends that the challenge of the Etudes is to keep them pure, “in the sense of keeping the ego out of it”. It is quite clear that Davies’ fear was that these compositions would be “romanticised” in the wrong hands. However, the fact that Glass decided to make this work available to any pianist willing to learn, perform or record it means that he doesn’t object to free interpretations – in fact, in many ways, he has even encouraged them. To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the publication of this masterpiece, I decided to record a selection of the Etudes, attempting to stay as faithful as possible to the original intentions of the composer, assuming that his intention is best represented by what is written in the sheet music. I adhered strictly to the score and preserved the tempos, dynamics and phrasing exactly as noted. I chose to record a selection and not the complete work, because I was not interested in an “encyclopaedic” publication but rather in creating an album that is enjoyable to listen to in its entirety and flows well from start to finish. The sequence I chose is intended to have a certain “narrative” function while also working harmonically and in terms of dynamic colours. This album doesn’t claim to be better than the others; my intention was simply to restore the work to its original spirit and present the Etudes in their most authentic form, creating a sort of reset point after ten years of several “personal” interpretations. This is not only a tribute to but also a celebration of the purity and clarity of these compositions, maintaining their minimalist aesthetic while also embracing their profound emotional depth. I did my best, and I hope my approach will offer listeners an opportunity to experience this opus in the most genuine style possible.