June 10, 2015

  • A "Tower-ing" Release

     

    Tower: Violin Concerto; Stroke; Chamber Dance
    Cho-Liang Lin, violin. Nashville Symphony/Giancarlo Guerrero
    Naxos 8.559775
    Total Time:  57:30
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    Joan Tower’s music has always been among the more unique and fascinating examples of contemporary American art.  Her unique style comes from an innate sense of performing music and creating interesting work that engages both players and audiences.  It tends to fall outside the more popular stylistic art genres of the latter 21st Century, but in truth can be considered a natural progression from the post-Romantic, or postmodern styles of other non-minimalist composers in this period.  She studied with Chou Wen-Chung, Jack Beeson, Wallingford Riegger, and Darius Milhaud—a rather eclectic compositional group in and of themselves!  The music tends to be rather striking in its use of color with an added emotional intensity that draws listeners in as well.

    The present release sandwiches her Violin Concerto (1991)—which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize; between two more contemporary pieces receiving their world premiere recordings here.  It was one of a couple larger-scale pieces (the other being the Concerto for Orchestra).  Originally composed for Elmar Oliviera, this single-movement work was created to help highlight his style and technique.  Though in a single movement, a common fast-slow-fast structure underlies the work which also features two cadenza sections.  The solo line captures the singing, lyrical quality of Oliveira’s playing (something that is equally shared by Lin here!) and also elaborates on a rhythmic motif that is part of the opening bars of the music.  The music moves between these interesting solo ideas and some larger scale harmonic structures with brass adding extra power.  The central section features an Impressionistic fluttering of winds as the soloist plays against these rather beautiful sounds with a warmer, reflective quality (not quite Dutilleux).  The music begins to whirl about for the final section where the colors reflect a bit of that post-minimalist flair that was appearing also in the work of John Adams.  It is still fairly unique the way Tower handles it here as it grows more organically out of those opening rhythmic ideas at the beginning of the concerto, in a way bringing us full circle musically to tie things up quite well.

    The first work on the CD is also the most recent.  Stroke (2010), commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and premiered by them in 2011, is a deeply personal work for Tower.  The piece was begun shortly after her brother had a stroke leaving him partially paralyzed.  The beating, and somewhat intensely struggling, of a heart is certainly part of the opening bars of the work with a pounding rhythmic unison.  It will recur interspersed with moments of calm highlighting different soloists.  Sometimes the rhythmic ideas have a more jazz-like quality to them while the music itself feels like it could follow an action sequence with tropes and sounds from the cinema.  The piece is quite dramatic, almost balletic, in its quality as a somewhat inner turmoil plays out over the course of the piece which ends with a bit of tranquility and hope in an E-major resolution arrived at by a sliding string glissando as the heart beats on.  What is also most striking about the piece is the way these ideas are clearly communicated and help provide a more formal overlay for listeners to connect to even upon their first experience of the work.

    The final piece is Chamber Dance from 2006.  Commissioned by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the piece is somewhat like a concerto grosso in its use of blocks of sound interspersed with solos and duets to help show off that orchestra’s players and musical philosophy.  The “dance” is achieved through the way these different combinations must play off one another.  The music’s soundworld has a lot of similarities with the concerto that shares this program.  The highlight is really in the way the solo ideas come and go in the texture and would be visually interesting to connect as much as it is to hear.  However, it feels like the least interesting work of the three—which perhaps only highlights the intensity of those earlier pieces.  On its own it is a well-crafted piece and quite engaging otherwise.

    A previous release of Tower’s music, Made in America, featured Leonard Slatkin with these players and would go on to win three Grammy awards.  The conductor has had a longer relationship with Tower’s music going back to some of the first orchestral recordings made in St. Louis earlier in her career.  Giancarlo Guerrero steps to the podium here after many fine releases of contemporary American music.  As one would expect, the orchestra responds well to his direction.  The Nashville Symphony is, at least on recordings, continuously demonstrating some great musicianship and an affinity for contemporary music reminiscent of what used to happen in Louisville several decades ago.  The sound here is equally marvelous allowing for crisp detail (also due in part to the acoustics of Schermerhorn Symphony Center) and well-captured orchestral balance.  There may be more Grammy’s in the orchestra’s future!