Feature

Thomas Gould: Playing hot and cold

When it comes to playing Philip Glass, says the violinist, "Your fingers need to be a volcano, but your brain needs to be a freezer.”

by Jason Blake on 14 June, 2023

“The American Four Seasons”? Well, kinda, sorta …

Actually not so much, says violinist Thomas Gould.

Philip Glass’s Violin Concerto No. 2 is regularly subtitled “The American Four Seasons” and has come to be seen as in some way connected – musically and/or thematically – to Vivaldi’s evergreen Baroque masterpiece.

Gould, who is poised to play the Concerto with the Omega Ensemble, isn’t entirely convinced those connections are solid.

“You can try to find connections, in the rhythms, perhaps, or in the neo-baroque articulations, but I think there’s not much of Vivaldi’s Seasons in it at all – or nature’s seasons for that matter,” Gould tells Limelight.

“I know a little bit about how the industry works these days and I suspect that when it was commissioned, the idea of an ‘American Four Seasons’ might have seemed very programmable. Even when you’re are a famous as Philip Glass, you still have to think about that stuff.”