Joan Tower’s Made in America resulted from a commissioning project involving 65 smaller-budget American orchestras; it was designed to challenge without intimidation, and to be accessible as opposed to simplistic. The work typifies Tower’s splendid ear for sonority and her subtle harmonic sense, not to mention her ease and authority operating within the American symphonic syntax as defined by Copland and his circle. And like a good American, Tower proves an equal opportunity employer in that each orchestral section gets its fair share, so to speak. She uses America the Beautiful not so much as a main theme but rather as a jumping off point.
More virtuosic demands permeate Tower’s 1991 Concerto for Orchestra, where soloists and smaller instrumental groups assert both their individual profile and facility to engage in chamber-like combat with their neighbors. I’m especially taken with the lengthy yet riveting tuba solo and the wild brass/percussion sparring near the end. Although Leonard Slatkin’s interpretation may not always match the playful, somewhat lighter bearings of the composition’s earlier recording on Koch with Marin Alsop and the Colorado Symphony, the Nashville Symphony boasts lustier strings, heftier brass, and stronger, more decisive percussion players. The latter, in fact, brilliantly dominate throughout Tambor, and will prove hard to beat (pun intended) should another maestro dare to challenge this premiere recorded version. Naxos’ first-rate engineering mirrors the music’s excitement and immediacy. Enthusiastically recommended! [6/12/2007]
