Vanessa Wagner: Philip Glass, The Complete Piano Etudes

If you’re not sure that you like ‘modern’ classical music, here’s my recommendation for a great starting point. Vanessa Wagner’s full recording of Philip Glass’s The Complete Piano Etudes. If you’ve ever watched a film and thought the music beautiful, the composer almost certainly knows these pieces.

And Wagner’s performances are exemplary. She’s a stalwart of the French music scene and now her attention has turned firmly towards one of the finest composers of our time. She says: “After more than three decades dedicated to interpreting the classical canon, discovering Philip Glass’s music has, in a  profound sense, reshaped my identity as a musician.”

The twenty piano etudes of Philip Glass were originally composed in the early 1990s as sketches intended for the Brazilian dance company Grupo Corpo, but they work perfectly in the composer’s adaptation for solo piano. Each one has its own quality and they made me want to sit at the piano with more dedication, while accepting that I’ll never come close to Wagner’s performances.

The pianist says of the etudes: “There’s such intensity and dreamlike qualities. It demands  the courage to surrender oneself entirely  to repetition, allowing the mind to drift freely.

“My relationship to these etudes is continuously evolving, shaped by the ebb and flow of my personal life, my shifting  moods, and my accumulated experience  performing them over the years. These pieces become lifelong companions - growing, maturing, and resonating ever more deeply within me.”

Most of these etudes are technically challenging and virtuosic, with Wagner making it all sound so simple. As an example of modern piano works, this album is an almost perfect place to start. Begin with number 3 if you like something exciting and energetic, or at number 20, for a little peace and dynamic control. Or enjoy all 20, one by one: lose yourself.