[TOP:
Florence
B. Price: Concerto in One Movement, Symphony in E Minor;
Albany Records Troy 1295 (2011) BOTTOM: Florence B. Price]
By Whet Moser
Posted Feb 28,
2012
“This was an unexpected pleasure: 'Classical Lost and Found: Florence B. Price Rediscovered,' from Bob McQuiston of NPR
Classical (via Robert Loerzel and the Chicago Philharmonic), a brief
piece about the Arkansas native and longtime Chicagoan who was the
first black woman to have a symphony performed by a major orchestra:
her Symphony in E Minor, which was premiered by the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra in 1933. McQuiston's writing on the occasion of the
symphony's late-2011 recording by the New Black Music Repertory
Ensemble of Columbia College.”
“I hear some Aaron
Copland (who was also doubly an outsider, and who led his fairly
conservative arrangements with catchy, hummable vernacular melodies).
That should triangulate it for you: 'lushly romantic' symphonic music
that uses folk rhythms and melodies to create a distinctively
American landscape. I'm both surprised and not that she's not better
known—her conservative sensibilities mean she's not as storied as
her near-contemporaries, but they also make her comparatively
accessible, and well worth a listen.”
[Florence B. Price (1887-1953)
[Florence B. Price (1887-1953)
is
profiled at AfriClassical.com, which features a comprehensive Works
List by Prof. Dominique-René de Lerma,
http://www.CasaMusicaledeLerma.com]
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