Higdon: All Things Majestic, Viola Concerto & Oboe Concerto (Live)

Jennifer Higdon has a very engaging musical voice and a wonderful way of writing for the orchestra. The Viola Concerto of 2014, superbly played by Roberto Díaz, sings and soars, and Higdon maintains the solo-orchestra balance with consummate skill. The Oboe Concerto, from 2005 and written in a single span, plays to the instrument’s dual abilities to weave lyrical lines while also chattering with great personality. James Button, the Nashville Symphony Orchestra’s principal, is in fine form. All Things Majestic is a four-movement landscape portrait of Wyoming’s Grand Tetons. It’s highly evocative and, again, orchestrally magnificent and beautifully played.