Lovely tone, like the quality the room gives the sound, but agree with jackal59 about the rubato. I had to look up what that meant, but I think he (or she ) is right - the slowing/speeding up detracts from the pulse of the Glass pieces, which for me is the absorbing reason to listen.
I heard this album for the first time about 5 years ago and immediately fell in love with it. The sound quality, btw, is quite good in my opinion. It's nice that it hasn't been mastered loudly or compressed, as that lets Glass's dynamics shine through more. You have a volume knob, right? Turn it up a bit and enjoy Glass's music at its best.
An interesting juxtapositon between two composers who are diametrically opposed in form and influences. Glass revisits tradition through minimalism while Cage forged into unchartered new music waters. I think Brubaker missed somewhat here, he might have thrown in one or two of Cage's more Bali influenced prepared piano pieces, which may have more in common with Glass. That might have been interesting to compare as well. The musics blend seamlessly under Brubaker's almost touch that causes a resonance, which almost reminds a listener of a vibraphone sound at times. This listener almost finds meditative quality come from these two composers' piano music.
This is one of my favorite albums as a whole. It moves in ways you won't expect.
Brubaker plays pretty well, with a delicate touch and nice tone, but he does throw in some rubato that interrupts the momentun of the Glass pieces... either that or he's simply struggling to hit notes. The recording is rather poor - room is much too resonant and levels are low. Still, not all that bad.
