Its not rock n' roll... but I like it : a once-in-a-lifetime solo performance event from the world's leading modern composer. (Pic : Stock Photo)

Sometimes, you have to ask yourself what the point of art is. The best music and art in the world takes you off to another place, where the world outside you is transformed in some way. The worst is just meaningless pap, talking loud and saying nothing. Meaningless busyart; mere tolerated vandalism. But art, when it changes the way you look at the world... thats when it matters. And if thats the case there's a lot worth investigating here. There's sculpture, installations and performance.

At one end of the imposing cathedral, the centrepiece of the small (population; 28,000) town of Lichfield, is the mesmerising, minimal and haunting sound installation by Terry Mann entitled 'Bells Of Paradise'. A single bells rumbles ominously, meditatively, and sounds float in and out. Sculptures and prints set the scene.

At the other end, at the head of the nave, sits a single piano. Without doubt, the main attraction for the vast majority of the audience tonight is an appearance by legendary composer Philip Glass, in an incredibly rare chance to see a legend perform.And what has he got to do with rock n'roll? With modern music? Well, why not listen to DJ Shadow's "Building Steam", whose opening is almost entirely glassian - or ask yourself why The Aphex Twin once collaborated with him.

Greeted with rapturous applause, Philip Glass comes across as a quiet man who seemed to have stumbled into being a musical legend without ever intending to do so. Performing material from across the years - so much so he even jokes that he doesn't intend to perform it all chronologically but it just happens that way - Glass just sits down and plays. Like a demon. A note comes out of the ether, and builds to a rhythm. A pattern. Out of seeming random chaos, comes from. Variations emerge. A single note pings, and variates. Spellbinding, and hypnotic. From these variations, come mood.

(Philip Glass On South Park)

With a single piano, one might think the musical palette would be limited. And it is, to a certian extent. But out of nothing comes light and shade, dark and chaos, with mathematical precision.

In many ways, his strengths and his weaknesses are often confused, especially by his detractors. But one thing is certain - unlike many a composer, Glass is almost instantly recognisable. How many composers can you say that about? None, practically. A instantly definable and unique style, recognisable within seconds -melancholy, repetitive and haunting.

Passages of quiet mutate into frenzied arpeggios, underpinned by bass notes, like the calm before the storm erupts. So much so, he's even been ripped off by the Pixies and Nirvana. (You think thats crazy? it's not. he's got the loud/quiet/LOUD/quiet dynamic down pat). If we are talking contemporary rock n' roll, this man would be the Velvet Underground, the Beatles, and the Pistols all rolled up into one. And even within the pieces themselves, there is notable musical progression - 1988's WIchita Vortex Sutra' borrows much of the recognisably same musical palette of works such as 'New Cities in Ancient Lands' from 'Powaqqatsi' for example.

By comparison, imagine saying you managed to see Elgar or Bach performing his own work. Glass has many detractors - but one thing Philip Glass is is defiantly unqiue.  Now beyond pensionable age - he's 70 this year - it's going to be increasingly rare to get a chance to see a legendary innovator at work. In fact I can't remember the last time he played in the UK - and if he did, it wouldn't have been outside London. Tonight, there were people flown over from italy and all over europe just for the event. I feel privileged to have got the chance to see him; he's as unique and legendary and influential a composer as someone like Strauss or Reich. Imagine saying to people that one day you got to see people of that stature? Or got to hear Bach himself perform?

The work of Glass is up there with such names. Unlike many a composer, what Glass has done is create a new musical syntax, having been the most revolutionary and influential composer in at least a century, using the same building blocks in a completely different way to create something instantly unique, recognisably his own, and yet in a completely different musical language by comparison to a multitutde of slavish imitators.

And tonight, just a man and a piano shows why. And the music builds and builds, then fades away in like a rippling wave....building up a cathedral of sound. Almost as one with the cathedral itself, the surroundings and performance merge. Not exactly as installation, but certainly symbiotic.

As a composer, he is legendarily influential.Tonight showed why. Unmissable.

pieces performed:-
01. Dance (1979)
02. Wichita Vortex Sutra (From Hydrogen Jukebox with Allen Ginsberg, 1988)
03. Metamorphosis (parts 1-4) (1988)
04. Etudes (Parts 1-2,4,6,9-10) (1995)
05. Night on the Balcony (1989)
06. Closing (From Glassworks, 1981)

Encore #1: 07.Einstein On the Beach (part 4) (1976)
Encore #2: 08.The Thin Blue Line (1988)

(The Lichfield festival continues throughout July, with future performances by The Brodsky Quartet, new works by Sir John Taberner and others. More information here)

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