Philip Glass – Metamorphosis
Olli Sirén, piano
My first encounter with Philip Glass’s music happened by chance in 2009, whilst I was studying at the Loviisa Music Institute. My teacher, who was a composer, introduced my class to a number of composers who had used what he called a ‘minimalist musical language’, including John Cage, Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Philip Glass. At first, I found it very difficult to grasp the significance of this type of music – to me, it seemed to lack a clear leading voice, which I felt was an integral part of classical composition. After the lesson, our teacher gave both me and my friend a copy of a burnt CD containing several works, including the final sections of Philip Glass’s opera *Einstein on the Beach*. One of these pieces, listed on the CD as ‘Spaceship’, caught my interest with its sharp arpeggios, which consisted of scales played in different time signatures, and I listened to the track avidly over the following weeks, often as if in a trance. It was something completely new to me.
Then I forgot about Glass for a few years.
When I started my university studies in Vaasa in the autumn of 2012, I found myself surrounded by loneliness.
I found it difficult to make friends with my fellow students, who seemed to speak a completely different
language to me, even though it was, after all, Finland-Swedish. That’s why I spent a lot of time at the electric piano in the library (even though I should have been revising for my exams). One day, whilst leafing through the piano sheet music, lo and behold, I found a beige-and-black music book: ‘Philip Glass Solo Piano’. For a moment, it felt as though I’d met an old friend again! I started practising the first piece in the book: ‘Metamorphosis’. In the sheet music book, this piece was followed by two others: ‘Mad Rush’ and ‘Vichita Vortex Sutra’. I never even got round to practising them, as I put the book aside that very autumn and winter of 2012, having played through ‘Metamorphosis’ a couple of times. I was still searching for the leading voice, and eventually the repetitive sections began to feel tedious to me. But I told myself that it might still be fun to perform the piece somewhere, one fine day. And that beautiful day arrived a good twelve years later, when I had the opportunity to perform the piece at the (former) Lovisa Kafferosteri in January 2025. Now even more time has passed, and on the eve of All Saints’ Day, I’d like to treat you to the melodies of this piece – a piece that has travelled with me through the years, but which I still find difficult to fully understand. Perhaps you’ll hear the clock ticking or see the clouds forming patterns in the sky. Or perhaps you’ll recall something – a memory that has changed shape over time. I’ll round off the concert with a short piece called ‘Sorg’, which my
childhood friend Frank Jungner has composed for solo piano this year, 2026. Incidentally, he still has a copy of that burnt CD… A special thank you to my old music theory teacher, Jukka Koskinen, who introduced me to Glass.
– Olli Sirén
Ticket: €15 at the door
