Symphony No. 9 for large symphony orchestra with expanded brass and percussion

"The piece is full of Glass's usual stylistic elements...The performance is sympathetic and excellent, as you might expect given that Dennis Russell Davies commissioned eight of the ten symphonies and premiered most of them." (BBC Music)

"He has without doubt composed a work of real substance here - in content, design and expressive weight. It is also one of his most unified and complete...Glass's inventory of repetitive patterns and rising and falling shapes accumulate to form a musical narrative that is as 'symphonic' as anything written before...Glass's Ninth Symphony makes a convincing case that there is still room in the orchestral repertoire for those big statements." (Gramophone)

"If the music occasionally hangs fire, its craftsmanship, as ever with Glass, is exemplary, and this performance under Dennis Russell Davies, who has commissioned eight out of the nine Glass symphonies so far, is authoritative."
(The Guardian)

"The music's lyricism, rhythmic punctuation, and minor-key tonality-in the opening movement especially-bring to mind the Eighth Symphony of Allan Pettersson, although the emotional ambience is less dreary and there's no evidence that Glass intended any reference. The central slow-ish movement begins with a particularly gorgeous idea and rises to a really harrowing climax. Let's be clear: there's nothing "minimal" about this confidently shaped music. It's fashionable still to demean Glass' style and technique as "Nadia Boulanger's harmony exercises on steroids" and such, but the truth is that this is a major symphonic statement in a fresh, personal, wholly approachable language, and it deserves to be recognized accordingly. Dennis Russell Davies and the Bruckner Orchestra Linz deliver a remarkably fine live performance. I could imagine a more forthright statement of the finale's trumpet theme, if we need to quibble, and the richness of the work is such that I would look forward to hearing alternate interpretations, but there's really nothing to carp at. The audience is mostly very quiet, and the sonics vividly tactile. Glass deserves credit for his courage in seizing the "Ninth" bull by the horns, but even more for his mastery in doing it so successfully." (ClassicsToday Dec 2014)