American Quintets
Amy Beach - Florence Price - Samuel Barber
Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective
Chandos CHAN 20224 (2021)
Stephen Greenbank
Recording of the Month
American Quintets
Amy Marcy Cheney BEACH (1867-1944)
Piano Quintet in F sharp minor, Op. 67 (1907) [28:33]
Samuel BARBER (1910-1981)
Dover Beach, Op. 3 (1931) [7:25]
Florence Beatrice PRICE (1887-1953)
Piano Quintet in A minor (c. 1935?) [27:41]
Matthew Rose (bass)
Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective
rec. 2020, Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk, UK
Premiere Recording (Price)
CHANDOS CHAN20224 [63:58]
This newly released disc from Chandos features two female American
composers who had much in common. Both had their talents nurtured by
their mothers and went on to become gifted pianists and composers. Both
married professionally distinguished men, and went on to forge their
careers under their married names, as was the custom of the time.
Finally, both had to maintain their careers in a male-dominated
profession. That’s where the similarities end. Beach had the good
fortune to be promoted by her publisher during her lifetime, so
maintained something of a profile. Price, on the other hand, had another
hurdle to overcome being an African American. At the time of her death
she was virtually unknown, with many of her manuscripts lost. It was
only in 2009 that a cache of them were discovered in the attic of an
abandoned house in Illinois, and another ten years were to elapse before
they were actually published and disseminated. There’s very little of
her music on CD, but I had the good fortune to review the Naxos recording of her Symphonies 1 and 4 in 2019.
***
It’s a tragedy that Florence Price not only faced the barriers of race
and gender, but influential figures in the musical world at the time
underestimated her worth as a composer and turned down her requests for
performance opportunities. Thankfully the balance is now being
redressed, with her music attracting interest resulting in a growing
number of concert performances and recordings. The late Romantic Piano
Quintet in A minor, one of the works discovered in the Illinois
abandoned home, is here receiving its Premiere Recording. The
date of its composition isn’t known exactly. It’s in four movements. The
work is steeped in African American culture, with spirituals and hymns
providing much of the groundwork. I hear flavours of Chausson and
Franck in the Andante second movement. The delightful Juba movement
comes third, mimicking the stomping dances of the slave plantations of
the Deep South. An aggressive high-powered scherzo-like finale, played
with gusto and panache brings this captivating work to a brilliant
close.
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