I’ve been waiting patiently for a very, very long time in hopes of catching a live performance of Philip Glass’s Einstein on the Beach. And, given that this is Glass’s birthday year, I’ve been keeping my eyes and ears peeled for news of a production somewhere, anywhere. No luck so far, but mere moments ago I received a press release that put a smile on my face: The Philip Glass Ensemble will perform excerpts from Einstein in a concert at Carnegie Hall on December 6 at 8pm. The booking is so fresh that the event hasn’t been added to the Carnegie Hall website yet. Michael Riesman will conduct the performance, and Timothy Fain is the featured violinist.

The down side? It’s a Thursday, the one night of the week on which I’m generally unavailable to attend performances. But just watch me make an exception for this.

In other Glass news, Michael Riesman will conduct the Collegiate Chorale in a semi-staged performance of The Juniper Tree, a chamber opera co-composed by Glass and Robert Moran, next Tuesday (March 20) at Alice Tully Hall. The Lincoln Center Festival recently announced its big Glass offering for the summer: Book of Longing, a new concert piece based on the poetry of Leonard Cohen, will be presented at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater on July 14 and 15.

Factor in Orphée at Glimmerglass, Satyagraha at the Met and Appomattox in San Francisco, and it’s looking to be a strong year indeed. For the truly adventurous, there’s a complete performance of Music in 12 Parts scheduled for Sunday, October 21 at the Barbican in London, with Book of Longing presented the previous evening.

Finally, while it didn’t arrive quite in time to maintain the intended movement-a-month pace, Part Two of Glass’s new recording of Music in 12 Parts has just been made available at iTunes.

Playlist:

Marillion – Brave (Sanctuary)

Bryan Ferry – Dylanesque (Capitol, out June 19)

Arthur Honegger – Le Roi David – Ile de France Regional Chorus, Orchestre de la Cité/Michel Piquemal (Naxos)

Philip Glass – Music in 12 Parts, Part Two – Philip Glass Ensemble (Orange Mountain Music iTunes exclusive)

Igor Stravinsky – Mass – RIAS Kammerchor, musikFabrik/Daniel Reuss (Harmonia Mundi)