“This [project] was pretty extraordinary…Kara made it come to life in a way that worked. She kept pushing the envelope in the right direction, it was unbelievable.”
-Joan Tower
Joan Tower is one of the most lauded composers of our time. Born in New Rochelle, NY in 1938, Tower’s accolades include a Guggenheim Fellowship, Grammy, Naumburg and Grawemeyer awards. Though Tower is perhaps best known for her orchestral works, Kara Huber’s recording of Joan Tower’s solo piano music presents an iconic American composer in a uniquely intimate setting: five pieces spanning 30 years, ranging from major multi movement works (No Longer Very Clear) to deeply personal miniatures (Love Letter). The piano was Tower’s first instrument, and these works not only represent Tower’s adroit approach to the piano’s expressive capacity, but also underscore Tower’s rare and unmistakable compositional mastery. A longtime champion of Tower’s work, Kara Huber’s performance marks a definitive and deeply compelling interpretation of Tower’s compositional voice.
PROGRAM NOTES
Sixth Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman (2014) was originally written for solo piano and commissioned by the Music Teachers’ Association of California. It was later transcribed for full orchestra in 2016. The fanfares are each tributed to a woman who takes risks and is adventurous in their musical career, with the Sixth dedicated to composer Tania Leon.
No Longer Very Clear is a four movement suite taken from lines of the John Ashbury poem called “No Longer Very Clear.” Holding a Daisy (1996) is based on the image of a Georgia O’Keefe flower painting, which Tower says is “not as innocent as it appears.” It was written for pianist Sarah Rothenberg. Dedicated to pianist Ursula Oppens, Or Like a … an Engine (1994) is a motoric piece and virtuosic like a Chopin etude. Vast Antique Cubes/Throbbing Still (2000) was written for pianist John Browning and is performed as a pair. Vast Antique Cubes creates a large sense of space ascending upwards, with suggestions of Debussy and impressionism. Powerful Latin Inca rhythms permeate Throbbing Still, showing Tower’s South American childhood roots.
Ivory and Ebony (2009) is a virtuosic challenge commissioned by the 2009 San Antonio International Piano Competition, and dedicated to pianist Blair McMillen. “It has two themes: white keys, and black keys. Sometimes they’re separate, sometimes they’re together which creates a whole narrative of consonants and dissonances.” It is a visually interesting piece because the black and white keys provide the thematic basis, providing different color combinations varying between consonant versus dissonant pitch collections.
Steps (2011) is an homage to Debussy, with a specific nod to his Prelude Des pas sur la neige (Footsteps in the snow). “Which is one of the most beautiful pieces I’ve ever played. I love Debussy, but that piece is like, the way it’s made, it’s just so perfect.” It is additionally in memory of Tower’s mentor, composer Milton Babbitt, and Tower hides 12-tone rows in the loud passages as a salute to Babbitt. “They’re in octaves, but the rest of it is not 12-tone. But what’s interesting about that as I hear it, is that it ups the ante in a pitch sense so the dissonance gets more focus, so when you come back to the consonance, it’s much more beautiful.”
Love Letter (2022) was written for Kara Huber and dedicated to Tower’s late husband. “My husband of fifty years passed away…Basically my life fell apart. It went into broken pieces. I felt unsafe in a landscape that was unpredictable, and I felt vulnerable. I ran to four havens… the second and third was my music, as a composer and as a performer/pianist.”
