an Injury to One

American composer Jennifer Higdon (b. 1962) is known mostly for orchestral works that have bridged the divide between popular and academic composition: they are lyrical, accessible, and tonal, but they are quite economically constructed, and they refer themselves to the rigor of the grand tradition in a way that has appealed to prize boards including that of the Pulitzer. Colorful and idiomatic orchestration is her calling card, but chamber groups are finding that her talents also transferred well to that medium. The string quartet An Exaltation of Larks is probably her most popular chamber work. Like much of Higdon's music it builds into exotic textural realms from fairly straightforward beginnings, and it's not an easy work for the players. The Lark Quartet, appropriately enough, has made a specialty of this work and are both in command of its technical challenges and able to put across the essential lyricism that may bring Vaughan Williams to mind.