Review

Jennifer Higdon
Trombone Concerto:

Philadelphia, PA, United States
Publisher: Lawdon Press
Date of Publication: 2005

Score and parts, including piano reduction

Primary Genre: Solo Tenor Trombone - with orchestra
Secondary Genre: Solo Tenor Trombone - with piano

Jennifer Higdon (b. Brooklyn, NY, December 31, 1962) holds degrees from Bowling Green State University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Curtis Institute of Music, where she is currently on the composition faculty. Her teachers have included George Crumb and Ned Rorem. Higdon's list of commissioners is extensive and includes The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Chicago Symphony, The Atlanta Symphony, The National Symphony, The Minnesota Orchestra, pianists Gary Graffman, Lang Lang and the Tokyo String Quartet. Her Concerto for Orchestra, commissioned by The Philadelphia Orchestra, has received more than 19 performances since its June 2002 premiere. She has been honored with awards and grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy of Arts & Letters (two awards), the Pew Fellowship in the Arts, Meet-the-Composer, the National Endowment for the Arts, and ASCAP. Her orchestral work Shine was named Best Contemporary Piece of 1996 by USA Today in their year-end classical picks. In the summer of 2003, she was the first woman to be named a featured composer at the Tanglewood Contemporary Music Festival.

The Trombone Concerto was commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra for soloist Peter Sullivan and premiered in February 2006. Within its single movement, there are three clearly defined sections, which are reprised. The formal design is akin to ABC A’B’C’. The A section is slow (quarter note=52), B is faster (quarter note=96), and C is the quickest (quarter note=128). The transition from B to C is seamlessly accomplished by a metric modulation. The musical language is chromatic but tonal (concluding with a convincing f-major chord). The Concerto calls for no unusual sounds or extended techniques. It is also conservative rhythmically, with conventional meter signatures and no complex rhythms beyond some syncopation. The solo part is completely idiomatic, with no unusual demands made in terms of range, flexibility, endurance or technique. It shows off the trombone in its various traditional guises: lyric, powerful and agile. The work is symphonic in concept, demanding a trombonist with good control and high range, capable of competing sonically with an orchestra. There is marvelous contrapuntal interplay between the soloist and orchestra, with the latter rarely just “accompanying” the soloist. The orchestration is colorful and first rate, with virtuoso parts for percussion. There are also interesting passages for the two trombones in the accompanying orchestra! It is obviously written for a professional group, but could be managed by an excellent conservatory or university orchestra and soloist. There is a piano reduction available that looks to be quite difficult. This is an exciting and major work for this combination, by a first rate composer. Its artistic merits should ensure that it becomes standard repertoire for our instrument.

-Karl Hinterbichler
University of New Mexico