The Concerto Project Volume II: Piano Concerto No. 2 After Lewis and Clark / Concerto for Harpsichord and Orchestra

MusicWeb - Recording of the Year 2008

"If you love the music from the The Hours, you will find great enjoyment in this piano concerto written around the same time. I never thought I would be extolling the virtues of a work featuring harpsichord, but this concerto is quite wonderful, with a finale that is four minutes fifty seocnds of sheer fun." (MusicWeb)

The Concerto Project Vol. II is the second release in Orange Mountain Music's Concerto Project series and features two world premiere recordings of works by composer Philip Glass.

Pianist Paul Barnes performs Piano Concerto No. 2, After Lewis and Clark with the Northwest Chamber Orchestra. The concerto was commissioned in part by the Nebraska Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commission in celebration of the 200th Anniversary of the explorers' journey across the American continent.

The three movements are titled "The Vision", "Sacagawea" and "The Land." The first and third movements bookend an intimate middle movement that features a traditional Shoshone Indian theme performed on the Native American flute by R. Carlos Nakai.

The dynamic flare of the first concerto is contrasted by the album's second work, Philip Glass's beautiful Concerto for Harpsichord and Orchestra. The three movement concerto is performed by harpsichordist Jillon Stoppels Dupree and the Northwest Chamber Orchestra.

Marked by refined writing for chamber orchestra which showcases the most lush sounds of the harpsichord, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer raved:
"The whole well designed work had life and shape and a beautiful balance between soloist and orchestra."
While the Seattle Times said:
"Glass does understand how to score for the harpsichord, giving the soloist plenty of trills and other effects that demonstrate its melodic as well as percussive possibilities..."