Percussion Concerto

Joseph Schwantner's Percussion Concerto (1994) was composed for Evelyn Glennie and the National Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Slatkin, and won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1994 — making it the first percussion concerto to receive that honour. The soloist moves between marimba, xylophone, vibraphone, and pitched and unpitched drums across three movements of visceral rhythmic energy and lyrical reflection, demonstrating the full expressive range of modern percussion technique. Schwantner's characteristic sound — shimmering textures, wide dynamic range, and an instinctive feel for instrumental colour — reaches a peak in this work, which has become the central concerto of the modern percussion repertoire.