Philip Glass/Patti Smith - St Lukes, 19 October 2007
The hot ticket du jour, sold out months in advance, and the only reason why I turned down Plácido Domingo in Die Walküre, was this one-off with Patti Smith and Philip Glass in the tiny and atmospheric St Lukes ex-church.
Described as an "evening of piano and poetry inspired by their mutual passion for the work of seminal beat poet Allen Ginsberg", it was part of the Barbican's 'Glassworks' weekend, a 70th birthday tribute to Philip Glass.
With Glass noodling behind on the piano, Patti delivered a few of her own poems as well as Ginsberg's. Reading with a passionate ferocity and a true musician's rhythm and dynamics, she melted between numbers, warm, equable, funny, spinning anecdotes like a favourite professor. In between the poetry, Philip Glass got a brief rest while Lenny Kaye joined Patti on guitar for a couple of songs.
Although it was nominally a Philip Glass evening, Glass himself played just three of his own works solo. Perhaps it was just as well. Although it's always fascinating to see a composer of Glass's stature performing his own work, it has to be admitted he's not up there with Pierre Boulez as a pianist. After titanically fudging Night on the Balcony, he redeemed himself with hypnotic readings of his Etudes 2 and 10.
The audience was perhaps more of a Philip Glass than a Patti Smith one, 'young people' in the minority. Neatly fitting the demographic was Leonard Cohen (and his gigantic crew) - who sat just inches away from me. He'll be visiting the Barbican for a Q&A on Saturday night (concert ticket holders only).
Some photos here - and thanks to the professional photographer who took them for being kind enough to share.
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