Joan Tower’s 1991 Concerto
for Orchestra is by some measure the most impressive work
on this disc as well as the major one. It truly gives the orchestra
a work-out, as far as both solo instruments and the whole ensemble
are concerned. There are particularly impressive solos for flute,
horn, cello and tuba. The beginning of the work is rather Bartókian,
while later in the movement Stravinsky-like passages abound.
I also detect influences of Frank Martin in the string harmonies.
Yet the work sounds wholly American and individual enough to absorb
the sounds of other composers and say something new. For comparison’s
sake, I listened again to Jennifer Higdon’s Concerto for Orchestra,
which has gotten a great deal of attention, and can say with certainty
that I much prefer Tower’s work. It somehow seems more genuine
and from the heart. It does not impress one as being as “clever”
in its use of the orchestra as Higdon’s, but is nonetheless brilliantly
orchestrated. It just doesn’t call attention to itself in the
same way, but seems to me to have more depth and staying power.
When it makes a forceful statement, you take notice. However,
it is the many quiet passages that really stay with you. Although
written in two sections of similar length, the work is performed
continuously and makes sense as a whole. I haven’t heard Marin
Alsop’s recording with the Colorado Symphony on Koch International,
but it would take some beating to surpass Slatkin and his Nashville forces here. The orchestra as
a whole performs superbly, even if I could imagine a bit more
refinement in some of the solos. The sound is terrific, as is
typical of Naxos. The disc is part of Naxos’s valuable
‘American Classics’ collection, where the record label has done
a great service in bringing new and unfamiliar works to the public
at a very affordable cost.
The
other works on this CD are also worth hearing, if not quite at
the level of the Concerto. The disc opens with the most
recent work, Made in America, the result of a project sponsored
by the American Symphony Orchestra League and Meet the Composer.
The funding is from the Ford Motor Company Fund and the National
Endowment for the Arts. Sixty-five smaller budget American orchestras
have taken part in this project and the work itself has been performed
in all fifty states. It is a nicely written piece of Americana, based on America the Beautiful that never quotes more than
fragments of the tune. Again, the quiet sections of the piece
are probably the most memorable, but the composition holds together
well and does not outstay its welcome. It would make a good concert-opener,
I should think. It receives a vital performance here in its world
premiere recording.
The
disc’s second premiere is the percussion work, Tambor,
which I found the least interesting. Influenced by Tower’s upbringing
in South America
with its history of percussion-based music, Tambor (the
Spanish word for drum) is a showcase for the percussion section
of the orchestra. Nonetheless, it is this section’s interaction
with the rest of the orchestra that makes the piece succeed.
The performance here, as with the other works, is all one could
ask for.
Thus,
I would highly recommend this CD especially for the Concerto
for Orchestra, a piece that deserves to be performed and heard
more frequently, and also for Made in America, which has
received considerable exposure across the USA.
Leslie Wright
see
also Review by Julie Williams
