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• Joan Tower’s chamber music has much the same emotional intensity and gestural ferocity as her orchestral works. Her primarily angular harmonic language, with its predominantly dissonant cast, evokes a sense of agitation bordering on rage...In Memory (in a stunning rendition by the Tokyo String Quartet) begins quietly...then builds to a gripping climax. The music’s emotions are particularly raw and acute, as the composer was inspired by the death of a close friend, and then the 9/11 attacks that occurred shortly after.
  Victor Carr, Jr., ClassicToday.com, 01 February 2006
• Ever since my first encounter with the music of American composer Joan Tower...I have come to expect the cleverness of her compositions…This latest Naxos release in their "American Classics" series is a superb introduction to a woman who deserves, in my opinion, to be one of America's laureate composers...When is comes to [her] music itself, I am deeply awed by her enormous talent. She is, without question, one of the most significant American composers on the scene today. This is a wonderful CD, enhanced by outstanding playing and splendid recorded sound. If you have not already acquainted yourself with Tower's music, here's your chance. If you have, you will already be chomping at the bit to acquire this release.
  Jerry Dubins, Fanfare