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Incredible CD - Kronos is fancinating!   October 6, 1999

More of the same, but when it's Glass - do we really care?   October 4, 1999

If you do, however, like Glass in quartet mode - buy this - it's like putting on a pair of comfortable shoes, and Kronos' playing is worth the price alone.


Neither here nor ther   September 30, 1999
  1 out of 3 found this review helpful

I liked Glass's score for "La Belle et la Bete" because of the vocal that went with it. Granted it was repetitious in the worst Glassian manner, but there was a certain mystique about it that pleased me. This score to scenes from "Dracula" simply does not stand up very well on its own.

Glass really has nothing new to say. This music--and how well it is played is beside the point--might be evocative of "Dracula" or a Bergman epic or anything but a Laurel and Hardy silent short. It is great music to play when you do not want to be distracted from whatever you are doing.

I really do not understand the popularity Glass enjoys. He is like a painter who could not paint a convincing apple and so draws endless series of waves on paper; so the rest of us could say (along with W.S. Gilbert)"If that young man expresses himself in terms too deep for me, then what a particularly deep young man that deep young man must be."

I would, however, love to see the old Lugosi film with this added to the soundtrack. Then I just might add a star or two. But again, without the video portion, this music is neither here nor there.


More of the same from the king of repetition   September 30, 1999
  3 out of 7 found this review helpful

I admit that I was once a fan of Philip Glass but with every new release, I find myself yawning with utter boredom and actually repelled by the mere mention of his name. Dracula is certainly no exception. To be fair, I have not heard the music in context with the film and I'm sure that's how Mr. Glass intended for it to be heard, primarily anyway. However, as stand alone music it leaves A GREAT DEAL TO BE DESIRED. This is rehashed, recycled Philip Glass without an ounce of novelty or originality. Rest assured, the repetitious, hypnotic motifs he's become associated with are all there, to a nauseating degree, I might add. Beyond that, there's little else. I can certainly understand why Philip Glass has managed to succeed in the most unpromising of fields: Contemporary classical (serious) music. The reason being that he makes few, if any, demands on his audience and most people are content just to have a simple, little melody thrown at them occasionally and then they can go about their business without feeling utterly unsophisticated. Philip Glass has, no doubt, talent. I just wish that he would use it more often. When I heard about this specific project, I said to myself "Wow, that should prove interesting." Sadly enough, it doesn't warrant the attention lavished on it. Any number of contemporary composers (Corigliano, Penderecki, Gorecki, Ligeti to name a few) could have done a far superior job than Glass. Unfortunately, they don't have the moniker necessary for such a commission. Truly uninspired music making, again, as stand-alone music. Incidentally, I didn't find it remotely ominous, haunting or what have you. What I did find was the same boring little formulaic music making that's become his undisputed trademark with a nice new package. Only for the die hard Philip Glass fan.