Holding a Daisy (1996)

Continuing in the contemporary music vein, Ms. Huber performed the work entitled No Longer Very Clear by Joan Tower, one of the pillars in the world of American composers today. Each of the four movements relates to a line from the John Ashbery poem, “No Longer Very Clear,” including Holding a Daisy (1996), Or Like a … an Engine (1994), Vast Antique Cubes (2000), and Throbbing Still (2000). It is a challenging and evocative work, thorny, and of great scope (and lasting close to 18 minutes in duration), and Ms. Huber was as persuasive in interpreting it as one could hope for from any pianist.

Joan Tower, composer in residence at Bard and arguably, the foremost female composer of symphonic repertoire in American music… played two of her own piano works—”Holding a Daisy” and “or Like A… An Engine,” revealing the wizardry she brought to the award-winning Da Capo Chamber Players…. Tower proceeded to mesmerize the house with an intangible resonance coming from way beyond the keyboard.