The Classical Radio channel (which is pretty good here) played excerpts from Glass' "Heroes" last night, and then broadast the corresponding parts from the Bowie/ Eno original. I thought it was nice that a "serious" radio show went to the trouble - or perhaps it's even more surprising that they even considered the idea.
very nice and appropriate gesture...and the 2 symphonies are extremely good (especially Low, which is a personal favorite). Too bad that Philip Glass never found the time to complete the project (originally it was planned as a symphonic trilogy of the Bowie-Eno albums, so there was supposed to be a Lodger Symphony, but it never happened)
I watched an interview with Glass from a few years ago where they asked about a Lodger symphony, and he said the reason it hadn't been done is because he didn't really have an idea of how to make it work (Lodger being the only album of the trilogy that features no instrumentals).
I think doing the trilogy fell by the wayside because Glass got into his own symphonic writing. Bow the first two symphonies were products of the record industry at its fattest point in the 1990s. I can't imagine a record label underwriting the commission of something like this today.
