Track Listing

1. Made in America, for orchestra
2. Tambor, for orchestra
3. Concerto for orchestra: Part One
4. Concerto for orchestra: Part Two

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #108701 in Music
• Brand: Tower
• Released on: 2007-05-29
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds

Album Description
2008 GRAMMY Award Winner: Classical Album, Orchestral Performance and Classical Contemporary Composition.

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

Inside Catholic, Robert Reilly, June 2008
Joan 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!

Customer Reviews

Absolutely first class in every respect
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.

Congratulations to Ms. Tower, Mr. Slatkin and the Nashville Symph. For Best Classical Album Grammy Win!
And Congratulations to Naxos, that intrepid label that keeps bringing the public both premier contemporary works as well as new performances of canon works, both obscure and well-known. And at affordable prices! A marvelous win for all of you!

Very Entertaining and Accessible
I picked this up at the library on a whim; it's my introduction to Joan Tower. All three of the works here are colorful, dynamic, and readily accessible compositions which are sure to please those who love the orchestra. Made in America is described as a fantasy on the theme of the "unofficial" national anthem, America the Beautiful. While we hear the occasional allusion, it mostly invokes in me thoughts of Copland cum Shostakovich. Tambor, as the title suggests, is loaded with percussion of every stripe; it's also a whole lot of fun! Despite those two works being the main attraction as "world premieres", it's the two-part Concerto for Orchestra that provides the most substantive listening with a marvelously blended half-hour amalgam of solos and incredibly alert ensemble playing.

Perhaps it's the male chauvinist in me which led me to expect something a little more, uh, feminine in nature -- not so! This CD with Leonard Slatkin leading the Nashville Symphony is top-drawer for powerful, committed virtuoso symphonic performance and vivid sonic impact -- a most entertaining hour of music, if not necessarily the most original or profound.