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Octaves in contrary motion smoked with ferocity in the Hindemith, and sforzandos in the Beethoven reintroduced audiences to the elemental wildness of a composer of repertory standards.

That program showcased similarly exhilarating performances of Glass’ early “Music in Similar Motion” and “Music in Contrary Motion.”

The first song from it, “Dreams,” begins with multiple, echoed cello lines, some of them moving in contrary motion, continuing until halfway through a seven-and-a-half-minute song, when a steady pulse begins, made by finger on cello string.

In “Stairway to Heaven,” also in A minor, the lower voice descends by half-steps while the upper voice ascends—up an octave to an A and then further up to B and C. Such contrary motion against a falling chromatic line itself has many precedents, from Dido’s Lament to “My Funny Valentine”—and a YouTube user points out a resemblance to a seventeenth-century sonata by Giovanni Battista Granata. For a moment, “Taurus” and “Stairway to Heaven” do sound the same, but they quickly go their separate ways.

In the reprise, a bass line moves in contrary motion, further tweaking the chords above.