The "Naqoyqatsi" Cello Concerto by Philip Glass

Synopsis

In 2002, film director Godfrey Reggio released his latest movie. Entitled "Naqoyqatsi"—the Hopi word for "Life as War"—this was Reggio's third and final installment in a trilogy of unusual, non-narrative films, all with Hopi titles, each comprised of visually striking, collage-like visuals set against hypnotic film scores by American composer Philip Glass.

The preceding two films were: "Koyaanisqatsi: Life out of balance" (released in 1982) and "Powaqqatsi: Life in transformation" (released in 1988).

"Naqoyqatsi" may have been a non-narrative film, but Reggio's message was that humankind was transforming its natural environment into a technology-based one. Reggio described his 2002 film as a symphony in three movements, and even provided descriptive titles: Movement 1 - Language and place gives way to numerical code and virtual reality; movement 2 - Life becomes a game; Movement 3 - A world that language can no longer describe.

Fast forward ten years to 2012. That year Philip Glass was serving as the Creative Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and had been commissioned to turn his "Naqoyqatsi" film score into a concert work for cello and orchestra. In the film score, solos played by the famous cellist Yo-Yo Ma featured prominently, so this "repurposing" of film score seemed a logical step.

And so, on today's date in 2012, Philip Glass's Cello Concerto No. 2, subtitled "Naqoyqatsi," received its premiere performance with the Cincinnati Symphony conducted by Dennis Russell Davies and Matt Haimowitz as the cello soloist.

Music Played in Today's Program

Philip Glass (b. 1938) Cello Concerto No. 2 (Naqoyqatsi) Matt Haimovitz, cello; Cincinnati Symphony; Dennis Russell Davies, cond. Orange Mountain Music CD 0087

On This Day

Births

• 1935 - American composer Gordon Muma, in Framingham, Mass.;

Deaths

• 1764 - Italian composer Pietro Locatelli, age 68, in Amsterdam;

Premieres

• 1725 - Bach: "St. John Passion" (S. 245, second version) performed at Vespers on Good Friday as part of Bach's second annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig (1724/25); The first version had premiered on Good Friday in 1724 (April 7);

• 1881 - R. Strauss: Symphony in d, in Munich, with Hermann Levi; This was Strauss' first major orchestral work;

• 1951 - Piston: Symphony No. 4, by the Minneapolis Symphony, Antal Dorati conducting;

• 2000 - Corigliano: "Phantasmagoria" (Suite from the opera "The Ghosts of Versailles"), in Minneapolis, by the Minnesota Orchestra, Giancarlo Guerrero conducting.