Florence B. Price (1887-1953)
John Jeter sends this review:
BBC Music
April 2019
Rebecca Franks
Rebecca Franks
Price
Symphony No. 1 in E minor; Symphony No. 4 in D minor
Fort Smith Symphony/John Jeter
Naxos 8.559827 69:04 mins
Interest from major US ensembles in the orchestral works of Florence Price (1887-1953) is flourishing, a mark of recognition that she sought, unsuccessfully apart from on one occasion, during her lifetime.
Price was a brilliantly gifted musician whose E minor Symphony became the first orchestral work by an African-American woman to be
performed by an international orchestra – the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra under Frederick Stock; but despite Price’s appeal ‘to be
judged on merit alone’, racism and sexism plagued her career. After her
death, her art songs stayed in the repertoire and scholars studied her
work, but it was only last year that a publisher, G Schirmer, acquired
her catalogue.
Price
wrote four mature symphonies, although one is thought to be lost; this
disc from the Fort Smith Symphony and conductor John Jeter is the first
part of the first ever complete recording of them. The E minor No. 1
starts on the same ground as Dvořák’s New World,
but soon charts different terrain. It’s Price’s own blend of experience
that speaks in the organ-like brass-band march and juba dance that
replaces the usual scherzo movement – all played with rhythmic élan, beguiling colour and evident joy.
***
If not every corner is neat, this is still the recording of the First Symphony to own.
If not every corner is neat, this is still the recording of the First Symphony to own.
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