Synopsis

Joan Tower is one of America’s most famous–and quotable–composers. She once asked audiences to imagine Beethoven as a composer-in-residence with a modern American orchestra: “If Beethoven walked in here right now,” said Tower, “I think we’d ALL be a bit shocked. He’d probably look very scruffy and be an obnoxious pain-in-the-butt. Orchestras would NEVER ask him back.”

Tower can be equally blunt about her own music. Among her most frequently performed works is the series pieces entitled “Fanfares for the Uncommon Woman.” Of these, Tower remarked, perhaps with tongue firmly in cheek: “Maybe the title is better than the music.”

On today’s date in 1991, Leonard Slatkin and the St. Louis Symphony gave the premiere performance of Joan Tower’s “Concerto for Orchestra.”

“It’s my WORST title,” Tower declared. “I really didn’t want people to think of Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra, but it IS a concerto in the sense that it features different parts of the orchestra.”

This work was a joint commission from the St. Louis Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, and the Chicago Symphony. Reviewing the Chicago performance, music critic John von Rhein wrote: “Tower's talent for flinging bold, dramatic sounds over a large orchestral palette is much on display.”

Music Played in Today's Program

Joan Tower (b. 1938) Concerto for Orchestra Colorado Symphony; Marin Alsop, cond. Koch 7469

On This Day

Births

• 1931 - American composer Donald James Martino, in Plainfield, N.J.;

Deaths

• 1910 - Russian composer Mily Balakirev (Gregorian date: May 29);

Premieres

• 1726 - Handel: opera "Alessandro" (Julian date: May 5);

• 1889 - Massenet: opera "Esclarmonde" at the Paris Opéra;

• 1948 - Quincy Porter: Viola Concerto, in New York City;

• 1948 - Wallingford Rieger: Symphony No. 3, in New York City;

• 1966 - Ralph Shapey: "Rituals," in Chicago;

• 1966 - Villa-Lobos: Sinfonia No. 9, by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy conducting;

• 1969 - Cage: "HPSCHD," for amplified harpsichord and 51 tapes, in Urbana, Ill.;

• 1971 - Britten: opera "Owen Wingrave," as a telecast on BBC-TV in England and NET (National Educational Television) in the United States;

• 1972 - Jaocb Druckman: "Windows" for orchestra, by the Chicago Symphony; This work was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1972;

• 1974 - Bernstein: ballet "Dybbuk," by the New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center, with choreography by Jerome Robbins and the composer conducting;

• 1991 - Joan Tower: "Concerto for Orchestra," by the St. Louis Symphony, Leonard Slatkin conducting;

Others

• 1792 - The Teatro la Fenice ("The Phoenix") opens in Venice;

• 1888 - Emile Berliner gives the first public display of his invention, the flat gramophone disk, at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.