MusicWeb-International.com: Piano Quintet of Florence Price: "An aggressive high-powered scherzo-like finale...brings this captivating work to a brilliant close."

American Quintets

Amy Beach - Florence Price - Samuel Barber

Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective

Chandos CHAN 20224 (2021)

MusicWeb International

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.