GLENS FALLS — The Glens Falls Symphony Orchestra opened its season Sunday afternoon in a celebration of Joan Tower’s music and her 70th birthday. The concert was also a reprise of the 2005 Musicbridge concert in which the orchestra gave the world premiere of Tower’s “Made in America,” which went on to more than 65 other orchestras and a recent Grammy Award.

The other two works on the program: Ginastera’s “Malambo” from his “Estancia” ballet and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8 had connections to Tower. During her childhood, Tower lived in South America and would have been familiar with the dance rhythms of Ginastera’s piece. As for Beethoven, Tower was the most played composer in the 2005-2006 season, except for Beethoven, who beat her out by a few performances, she said.

Throughout the afternoon, the orchestra under conductor Charles Peltz sounded terrific. The Ginastera had punch and vivacity and Peltz had the orchestra play up the many rhythms with strong accents and big sounds.

Challenging rhythms

For most of the crowd, this was only the second time it heard Tower’s “Made in America.” Because the song “America” had inspired Tower, who inserted pieces of it throughout her work, Peltz turned to the crowd and with the orchestra playing the famous song, sang it with the audience. Tower’s piece was not so lilting or sonorous. After a mystical beginning, Tower’s well known rhythmic writing punctuated in an ominous build-up supported by dark harmonies. There was a lot of bone crunching, teeth-grinding kind of repeated rhythm, which created percussive and dramatic effects. It was an ensemble workout with technical challenges shared by all.

Violist Paul Neubauer was the soloist in Tower’s “Purple Rhapsody.” Tower kept a light orchestration to allow Neubauer’s rich tones to shine. This piece, too, had mystical and sad but threatening and angry moments. The orchestra gave strong support. Neubauer played a solo encore, which he wrote, “Joan — Your Phone is Always Busy,” that was Hungarian schmaltz, with cantorish melodies and much humor.

Peltz, whose stick technique has tightened to great effect, set tempos in the Beethoven that heightened the music’s buoyancy, its rhythmic vitality and overall charm. The orchestra played with good detail, gave lilt to their phrases and made good dynamic contrasts.

The concert was given in the much improved, remodeled Glens Falls High School auditorium. The next concert is Nov. 16 with mezzo-soprano Justyna DiBiggio.