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Product Description
Product Description Joan Tower' bold and energetic music, with it's striking imagery and novel structural forms, has won her large, enthusiastic audiences. Made in America is a fantasy on the theme of the unofficial national anthem, America the Beau. Amazon.com Two of the works recorded here are world premiere recordings: "Made in America" and "Tambor." The first uses "America the Beautiful" as its first melodic theme, and bits of it appear throughout the work. Tower interweaves the melodic fragments with many other original tunes, and she colors the work in what could be called the American idiom, with wide-open spaces. There is a central section of a darker nature, but the work ends in glory. "Tambor" is dominated by percussion of all kinds drums, blocks, etc. and is an exciting, propulsive work. There are long periods of solos for percussion instruments that act almost as mini-cadenzas. The Concerto for Orchestra is a terrific work that uses the sections of the orchestra as solos, duets and in bunches. Standout moments are a remarkable tuba solo, a dueling duet for trumpets, and a part for the cellos alone. It's a flavorful, fascinating work. Leonard Slatkin leads the Nashville Symphony in excellent performances. --Robert Levine Review "Made in America" is the first composition produced as part of the groundbreaking Ford Made in America program, the largest orchestral commissioning consortium in the country's history -- Glens Falls Post-Star,Thursday, May 31st, 2007A strong and serious piece of vigorous, athletic 1940s-ish symphonic neoclassicism in the great American tradition of Walter Piston, William Schuman and Aaron Copland. -- Jeff SimonFull of color and drive, Tower's music can build to moments of monumental urgency. -- The Tennessean, JONATHAN MARXIt has all her hallmarks: strong rhythms; music based on scale passages; harmonic language that tends to be consonant rather than dissonant; and, like all of her pieces, energy dominates the work. -- Tennessean,Jonathan Marx, March 29, 2007The 13-minute symphonic piece is a meditation on "America the Beautiful" that takes the melody, breaks it apart and surrounds it with opposite moods of conflict and violence, before coming serenely home again. -- Raleigh-Durham News and Observer,David Perkins,June 3rd, 2007This outstanding contemporary classical piece is surely coming to a theatre near you. -- eMusic,Vivien Schweitzerit is a timely piece with arresting colors and ideas, not very far from the mainstream -- Raleigh-Durham News and Observer,David Perkins,June 3rd, 2007Joan Tower's Naxos CD (8.559328) won the Triple Crown -- Best Orchestral Performance, Best Classical Contemporary Composition, and Best Classical Album... It is a wonderful reward -- a challenging fantasy on America the Beautiful. You may not think anyone has anything new to say on this theme, but Tower does. It is a tour de force, a dizzying dynamo of a piece. The big Concerto for Orchestra that fills most of the CD is like listening to a spring being coiled. The tension keeps ratcheting up, with all the attendant suspense. It is a high-wire act. Huzzahs for the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, under Leonard Slatkin! -- Inside Catholic, Robert Reilly, June 2008Tower's 13-minute work receives a sumptuous performance by the Nashville Symphony under Leonard Slatkin. Tower keeps things interesting with superbly crafted orchestration and unpredictable tone colors. -- St. Petersburg Times, Sunday, July 15th, 2007, John Fleminga strong and serious piece of vigorous, athletic 1940s-ish symphonic neoclassicism in the great American tradition of Walter Piston, William Schuman and Aaron Copland. -- Buffalo News,Jeff Simon, Sunday, May 27th, 2007one of the few such compositions to live up to the level of Bartok's pinnacle work of the same name. -- All Music Guide, Mike D. Brownell See more
Customer Reviews
The is the most outstanding disc to date by the Nashville Symphony. It is the first to feature their new music advisor, Leonard Slatkin, their first in their outstanding new symphony hall in Nashville, and their first with American music from a living composer. And it all comes together perfectly.The music is first rate, the orchestra is at their best, and the sonics are some of the best heard on CD.Joan Tower's music is always rhythmically exciting, and she certainly is enjoying a well-deserved Renaissance as she approaches 70. Slatkin has been championing her music for years, and this return to her music is quitting fitting later in both their careers."Made in America" is quite a remarkable achievement--an outstanding composition written within the parameters of being playable by most community orchestras. "Tambor" is most definitely a much more demanding work for the musicians, with extraordinary percussion playing required (which Nashville delivers).But the truly outstanding work is Tower's "Concerto for Orchestra", a brilliant piece of music that not only displays virtuosity, but musicality. It deserves a permanent place in the repertoire.The Nashville Symphony may have once been a small regional orchestra--but no longer. Their rise in quality and stature is well-deserved, and this disc shows that they are more than capable in handling even the most difficult technically demanding repertoire. The fact that world-class conductor Leonard Slatkin has taken an interest in them speaks volumes.Most highly recommended.
