Tower's Violin Concerto

Synopsis

“In an ideal musical world,” says composer Joan Tower, “a composer should have a friendly, creative, and ongoing working relationship with performers for whom she writes.”

For Tower, who has emerged as one of the most successful American composers of her generation, a friendly, creative, and ongoing relationship with chamber ensembles, symphony orchestras, and soloists has resulted in a number of musical works.

Tower’s Violin Concerto, for example, was written for the American violin virtuoso Elmar Oliveira, who gave its premiere performance on today’s date in 1992, at a Utah Symphony concert.

Tower wrote the piece with Oliveria in mind: “A lot of violinists are speed freaks,” she wrote, “but Elmar can play both virtuosically and with an innate singing ability.” The more lyrical and emotional heart of the work was written as memorial to Olivera’s older brother, also a violinist, who died of cancer during work on the new concerto. That’s not to say Tower didn’t supply some flashy, pyrotechnical passages for her star soloist, however.

As Oliviera put it: “It’s the kind of flashiness an audience can relate to. Joan doesn’t need avant-garde gimmicks, because now she’s completely comfortable speaking her own language, one that is expressive and natural to her.”

Or, as Tower herself put it: “Sometimes it’s a struggle to find out what you’re good at. It took me a number of years to decide how I wanted to write with my own voice.”

Music Played in Today's Program

Joan Tower (b. 1938) — Violin Concerto (Elmar Oliveira, violin; Louisville Orchestra; Joseph Silverstein, cond.) D'Note 1016

On This Day

Deaths

• 1921 - Dutch composer Alfons Diepenbrock, age 58, in Amsterdam;

• 1948 - Mexican composer Manuel Ponce, age 65, in Mexico City;

• 1998 - American composer Mel Powell, age 75, in Sherman Oaks, Calif.; He won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1990;

Premieres

• 1742 - Handel: oratorio, "Messiah" (Julian date: April 13);

• 1801 - Haydn: oratorio "The Seasons," in Vienna;

• 1950 - Bernstein: incidental music "Peter Pan" (play by J.M. Barrie) at the Imperial Theater in New York City, conducted by Ben Steinberg;

• 1957 - Ives: String Quartet No. 1, in New York City (This music was completed in 1896);

• 1988 - Anthony Davis: "Notes from the Underground" (dedicated to Ralph Ellison), at Carnegie Hall in New York by the American Composers Orchestra, Paul Lustig Dunkel conducting;

• 1990 - Bright Sheng: "Four Movemenets" for piano trio, at Alice Tully Hall in New York City , by The Peabody Trio;

• 1992 - Joan Tower: Violin Concerto, with soloist Elmar Oliveira and the Utah Symphony, Joseph Silverstein conducting;

• 1997 - Stephen Paulus: opera "The Three Hermits," at House of Hope Presbyterian Church in St. Paul, Minn., with Thomas Lancaster conducting;