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        • Joan Tower

        • Still/Rapids (1996)

        • Associated Music Publishers Inc (World)

        Revised 2013. Formerly known as 'Rapids.'

        • 2(pic).2.2.2/2.2.btbn.0/timp.perc/str
        • Piano
        • 18 min

        Programme Note

        Composer Note
        This piano concerto comes in two parts: “Still” (2013) and “Rapids” (1996).

        “Still” was written later as an introduction to “Rapids” because I felt that the fast-paced and busy “Rapids” might be helped by a short, slow and simpler soft piece. It is dedicated to my friend and colleague Blair McMillen.

        “Rapids” was commissioned by the University of Wisconsin for its 100th anniversary and is dedicated with admiration to Ursula Oppens. It is a quick-moving piece that only stops once for a trio of two flutes and a violin. It is like river rapids — constantly in motion with cascades of sound that hurl over each other with speed and force. Even the two piano cadenzas are running around with fast scales and trills.

        Where “Still” is like sitting in a rowboat on a quiet day on a lake where the water is completely still, “Rapids” is like being in a canoe going down a challenging river of speed and rapid waters and trying to stay afloat.

        — Joan Tower

        Media

        I. Still
        II. Rapids

        Scores

        Reviews

        Tower’s music has gotten louder and gnarlier over the years, so the new stuff, “Still,” was a surprise. Over a slow, soft pulse from the strings, pianist Blair McMillen played fluid, cascading lines. While never static, the writing was gentle and restrained, tender even. Immediately came the launch of “Rapids,” which was written in 1996. The water image was appropriate for the music’s bumpy and unpredictable course. Despite their difference in age and character, the two movements were cohesive and very satisfying.
        Joseph Dalton, Times Union
        1st March 2014
        The third piece was Rapids, composed by Joan Tower, professor of music at Bard, in response to a request by Ursula Oppens for a technically challenging piece. The pianist was another undergraduate — Shun-Yang Lee, who played with great virtuosity. The excellent program notes — written by another undergraduate, David Bloom — claim the intense forward motion of the piece comes from the soloist. But in this case the unstoppable beat that powers the piece came from Botstein. The piece was short, powerful, and fun.
        David Griesinger, The Boston Musical Intelligencer
        6th May 2011
        Ursula Oppens, piano soloist, was a powerhouse, bringing explosive sound to this colorful and very dramatic work… Cascading sound, rippling up the piano and down the strings, flew off into the other sections with musical material that grabbed this listener’s ear and didn’t let go. The piece was driven as much by linear movement as by the powerful rhythmic figures.
        Howard Vogel, Woodstock Times
        11th September 1997

        Discography

        American Classics

        American Classics
        • Label
          Naxos
        • Catalogue Number
          8.559902
        • Conductor
          David Alan Miller
        • Ensemble
          Albany Symphony Orchestra
        • Soloist
          Evelyn Glennie, percussion; Blair McMillen, piano
        • Released
          23rd July 2021