“I looked at it and said, I know the piece!” When Philip Glass visited the construction site of the Itaipú dam on the border between Brazil and Paraguay in 1988, he was overwhelmed. He marvelled at the boldness and inventiveness of the undertaking and the sheer imagination through which humankind was transforming nature. The work “Itaipú”, written shortly afterwards and based on this experience, is a symphonic “portrait of nature” for choir and orchestra, composed in the tradition of minimal music. Philip Glass is a composer of images. Each of his works evokes a multitude of thoughts and ideas that merge and transform as the music sweeps towards its destination. Conducted by Brad Lubman, a renowned specialist for new music, this monumental work unfolds its full effect, creating “a pull from which there is no escape, one blissfully surrenders to the effect.” (Süddeutsche Zeitung)
