Flute Concerto (Tower)

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The Concerto for Flute is a composition for solo flute and orchestra by the American composer Joan Tower. The work was commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra and was composed in 1989. It was first performed at Carnegie Hall on January 28, 1990, by the flutist Carol Wincenc and the American Composers Orchestra under the conductor Hugh Wolff. The piece is dedicated to Carol Wincenc. [1] [2]

Contents

Composition

The Flute Concerto has a duration of roughly 15 minutes and is composed in one continuous movement. Tower briefly described the piece in the score program notes, writing, "The 15-minute work starts with the low register of the flute alone before the orchestra comes. As the flute gets more active, the chamber-size orchestra provides competitive tension which is matched phrase by phrase as the piece heads relentlessly towards to a finale where the "music blows wide open" (Wincenc) in a virtuosic display of flute scales and arpeggios." [1]

Instrumentation

The work is scored for solo flute and a small orchestra comprising an additional flute (doubling piccolo), oboe, clarinet (doubling bass clarinet), bassoon, trumpet, bass trombone, two percussionists, and strings. [1]

Reception

The Flute Concerto has been praised by music critics. Reviewing the world premiere, Bernard Holland of The New York Times wrote, "It is a one-movement work that makes a musical virtue of its technical cleverness. The flute's natural reticence in big formats is a problem met head on, not simply avoided by separating solo instrument from orchestra." He added:

Indeed, low registers set against finely separated ensemble colors give the flute a strong and intelligible identity. Voices from within the orchestra often double the solo line. Elsewhere, its racing, skittering passages explore and expand on the instrument's natural trilling character. There is an honest sentiment and energy here that Carol Wincenc, the afternoon's soloist (and the piece's dedicatee), presented forcefully. [2]

In a later review, Martin Bernheimer of the Financial Times similarly praised "the mad coloratura" of the piece. [3]

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Joan Tower is a Grammy-winning contemporary American composer, concert pianist and conductor. Lauded by The New Yorker as "one of the most successful woman composers of all time", her bold and energetic compositions have been performed in concert halls around the world. After gaining recognition for her first orchestral composition, Sequoia (1981), a tone poem which structurally depicts a giant tree from trunk to needles, she has gone on to compose a variety of instrumental works including Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman, which is something of a response to Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man, the Island Prelude, five string quartets, and an assortment of other tone poems. Tower was pianist and founding member of the Naumburg Award-winning Da Capo Chamber Players, which commissioned and premiered many of her early works, including her widely performed Petroushskates.

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The Clarinet Concerto is a composition for solo clarinet and orchestra by the Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg. It was written for the Finnish clarinetist Kari Kriikku. The piece was given its world premiere in Finlandia Hall, Helsinki, on September 14, 2002 by Kari Kriikku and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Jukka-Pekka Saraste. The composition is one of Lindberg's most frequently performed works.

The Pied Piper Fantasy is a concerto for flute and orchestra by the American composer John Corigliano. The work was commissioned by the flutist James Galway and it is based on the tale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. The piece was given its world premiere by Galway and the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the conductor Myung-whun Chung at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on February 4, 1982. In 1993, the critic Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times described it as "one of the best known of modern American concertos."

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Totentanz is a composition for baritone, mezzo-soprano, and orchestra by the British composer Thomas Adès. The work was commissioned by Robin Boyle in memory of the composer Witold Lutosławski and of his wife Danuta. Its world premiere was given in the Royal Albert Hall during The Proms on July 17, 2013 and was performed by the baritone Simon Keenlyside, the mezzo-soprano Christianne Stotijn, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Adès.

The Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra is a composition for oboe solo and orchestra by the American composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. The work was commissioned by the Cleveland Orchestra in honor of their principal oboist John Mack's 25th year with the orchestra. It was first performed by Mack and the Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of Christoph von Dohnányi on January 17, 1991. The piece is dedicated "with affection" to John Mack.

The Concerto for Piano is the first piano concerto by the American composer Joan Tower. The work was commissioned by the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Philharmonia Virtuosi with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Its world premiere was performed by the pianist Jacquelyn M. Helin and the Hudson Valley Philharmonic conducted by Imre Palló on January 31, 1986. The music contains numerous allusions to the music of Ludwig van Beethoven, in whose memory it is dedicated.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Tower, Joan (1989). "Concerto for Flute". G. Schirmer Inc. Retrieved February 2, 2016.
  2. 1 2 Holland, Bernard (January 31, 1990). "Review/Concert; 20th-Century American, and Nothing But". The New York Times . Retrieved February 2, 2016.
  3. ↑ Bernheimer, Martin (September 10, 2012). "Joan Tower Celebration, Symphony Space, New York". Financial Times . Retrieved February 2, 2016.
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