JOHN ADAMS • PHILIP GLASS China Gates, Phrygian Gates; Orphée Suite for Piano David Jalbert, piano ACD2 2556 • David Jalbert plays three works for solo piano by John Adams and Philip Glass, two living composers that have greatly influenced the musical landscape of American contemporary music. • Mr. Jalbert performs regularly as a soloist and recitalist across North America and Europe.   A national and international prize-winner, David Jalbert has won two Opus Awards (from the Conseil Québécois de la Musique) and was the 2007 laureate of the prestigious Virginia Parker Prize of the Canada Council for the Arts.   He is now on the piano faculty at the University of Ottawa. When Adams composed Chino Gates and Phrygian Gates in the 1970s, he resided in northern California near the Pacific Ocean.   Adams described how the natural movement of water served as his muse.   “Both the regularity and infinitely modulated variety of wave motion on the sea surface got me to thinking about the nature of sound, which itself reaches our ears via very similar wave motion.”   This fascination for the phenomena of modulating waveforms is the basis for the two works featured in this recording. … Philip Glass' Orphee Suite for Piano is based on his own chamber opera of 1991, which was in turn inspired by Jean Cocteau's 1950 film, Orphee.   The work was transcribed for piano by Paul Barnes in 2000 and premiered in New York City in 2001.   The conceptual origins for these adaptations derive from Gluck's opera Orfeo ed Euridice, first premiered in 1762.   In his retelling of the Orpheus myth, Glass explores the interplay of the physical and spiritual worlds. … Liane Alitowski John Adams [1947]   1. China Gates [1977]       4:53   2. Phrygian Gates [1977]       23:41 Philip Glass Orphée Suite   3.   I. The Café       4:27   4.  II. Orphée's Bedroom       1:52   5. III. Journey to the Underworld       3:06   6. IV. Orphée and the Princess       4:19   7.  V. Music Interlude       2:08   8. VI. Orphée's Return       6:56   9. VII. Orphée's Bedroom       4:33 ATMA Classique is distributed in Australia by Rockian Trading PO Box 44, Briar Hill, Vic, 3088, Australia Telephone +61 (0)3 9432 4149 ~ Facsimile +61 (0)3 9444 6879