This is the fifth disc Naxos has released devoted wholly to ‘the Power of Tower’ – though Joan Tower’s music features on dozens of other discs (Naxos or otherwise) – and it might just be the best yet. That would be due in no small part to the exceptional playing of Evelyn Glennie in the opening two works, Strike Zones (2001) and Small (2018).

Strike Zones was written for Glennie to a commission from the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington DC (Leonard Slatkin conducted the premiere). A concentrated single span, the ‘strike zones’ of the title refer to the groups of percussion instruments of similar types arranged in front of the orchestra. The soloist moves between zones, from the quietly delicate vibraphone to the concluding, thrilling thunder of drums, by way of some virtuoso solos (not least for marimba) and at least one set-to with the orchestra. By contrast, the unaccompanied Small was conceived for an array of smaller percussion instruments that could be contained on a single table. It is no less vibrant and multicoloured than the concerto, and Glennie plays it for all its worth.

Still/Rapids, Tower’s second piano concerto, has a complicated history. Written as a short single movement – the turbulent, energetic ‘Rapids’ – for Ursula Oppens in 1996, Tower revised and refined it repeatedly until 2013 when she added the lyrical, rather nocturnal opening section, ‘Still’, dedicated to Blair McMillen, who premiered the extended whole. Diptychs can be difficult to balance but Tower judges the structure superbly. Ivory and Ebony, the test piece for the 2009 San Antonio International Piano Competition, is a true tour de force, built on the separation of the white notes and black. McMillen’s touch and rhythmic acuity are superb but all the performances are dazzling, not least from the Albany Symphony Orchestra. And all this virtuosity and incident is crammed into one action-packed disc lasting just 53 minutes: the Power of Tower, indeed. Recommended.