Symphony No. 6 "Plutonian Ode"
(2002) 45'

Music by Philip Glass.

American Composers Orchestra, 
Dennis Russell Davies, conductor
Lauren Flanigan, soprano
Bruckner Orchester Linz
Allen Ginsberg, libretto and recitation

Soprano and Orchestra: 2 + pic.2.2 + Ebcl + bcl.2/432 + btbn.1/timp.perc/hp.pf.cel/str


CD1
01 - Movement I   [20:51]
02 - Movement II  [11:28]
03 - Movement III [18:29]  

CD2    
01 - Movement I   [20:51]
02 - Movement II  [11:28]
03 - Movement III [18:29]




Symphony No. 6 "Plutonian Ode" is a new recording performed by the Bruckner Orchester 
Linz, with soprano Lauren Flanigan conducted by Dennis Russell Davies.
The Piece, Symphony No. 6, was co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall and Brucknerhaus Linz 
celebrating Philip Glass's 65th birthday and the libretto is his late friend's Allen    
Ginsberg's Plutonian Ode.   

"During the last ten years of Allen's life we had performed frequently together in 
poetry/music collaborations. Allen was a superb reader of his own work and I was often 
inspired to compose new piano music for these occasional collaborations. In the case of
Hydrogen Jukebox, we developed an evening length "opera" which was designed by Jerome 
Sirlin and directed by Ann Carlson. We presented that work in over 30 cities as part of 
an international tour.
"It had been our plan to make a new, major collaboration based on his epic poem 
Plutonium Ode (1978). Before he died in 1997, Allen had made several recordings for me 
of the poem in preparation for the new work. At that time I had in mind simply an 
extended piano work to accompany Allen in live performance. I put aside the project in 
1997, feeling that I wouldn't want to go ahead without Allen. A few years past and the 
commission of a new symphony from Carnegie Hall and the Brucknerhaus Linz reawakened my 
interest in the project. I felt, then, that Plutonium Ode was unfinished business 
between Allen and myself and this would be the opportunity to complete it. By then, 
the piano music I had originally imagined had grown to a full orchestra and Allen's 
resonant speaking voice to a lyric soprano.
"The three movements of the symphony follow the three parts of the poem, and follow, also, the passage of the poem-the first movement a passionate outcry against nuclear 
contamination and pollution, the second a turn towards healing, and the final movement 
an epiphany arrived at through personal transformation." — Philip Glass


February 3, 2002 at Carnegie Hall in New York City

Recorded in the Brucknerhaus Linz, Austria. Produced with kind support of the 
Austrian Broadcasting Corporation, ORF. Executive Producers – Dr. Heribert 
Schröder, Dr. Thomas Königstorfer, Bruckner Orchester Linz.
Mixed and recorded at The Looking Glass Studios by Michael Riesman, October and 
November 2004, March and May 2005. Vocal recording produced by Michael Riesman 
and Lauren Flanigan.

Commissioned by Brucknerhaus Linz and Carnegie Hall in honor of Philip Glass' 65th 
birthday
Published by Dunvagen Music Publishers