Florence Price VCs 1 & 2

[Alan Howe]

Thanks to Alex Ross' article (see excerpt, below), we are now alerted to the release on Albany of Florence Price's VCs 1 & 2:
http://www.albanyrecords.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Session_ID=1da73766c190fa0bc78a1676128f1f7a&Screen=PROD&Store_Code=AR&Product_Code=TROY1706&Category_Code=a-Orch

Here is Ross' assessment of these concertos:

Kahng's new recording of the Violin Concertos, with Ryan Cockerham conducting the Janáček Philharmonic, is Price's best outing on disk to date. Kahng plays the solo parts with lustrous tone and glistening facility. A few passages are so obviously indebted to famous Romantic concertos that one suspects Price of putting us on. The accompaniment keeps dancing around the expected, sidestepping into a bluesy progression here, a sultry dissonance there. The second concerto, which Price wrote in 1952, shortly before her death, begins with jarring chords of D major and F minor, establishing unstable harmonic terrain. The hyper-Romantic solo part now seems like a visitor from another world. This terse, beguiling piece has an autumnal quality reminiscent of the final works of Richard Strauss. It deserves to be widely heard.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/02/05/the-rediscovery-of-florence-price?mc_cid=f57beebbd2&mc_eid=9d71772906

[sdtom]

Strong recommendation
Tom

[Jimfin]

Thanks for letting me know. I really enjoyed her third symphony, so will be ordering this!

[Christopher]

I bet that Chineke! (the orchestra established in the UK in 2015 to provide career opportunities to young Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) classical musicians in the UK and Europe) will be having a close look at Florence Price's music.  I see that they already performed the 1st movement from her Symphony in E minor last year at South Bank.  (They had a Late Night Prom last August, I was there and they are very good.)

[Alan Howe]

VC1's a really lovely piece. More anon...

[Alan Howe]

...very much with its feet in the 19th century, VC1 is gloriously anachronistic. Anyone who enjoys, say, the Glazunov VC will certainly find this to their taste.

No, it's not great music: I somehow doubt whether Price was capable of that, but, taken on its own terms, this is a rare treat.

[Alan Howe]

The briefer VC2 seems to me a much more personal utterance - it's very beguiling in its whole-hearted romanticism.

[raffite33]

In 2011, Albany also released a CD of her Symphony in E (mentioned above) along with a one movement piano concerto. Very enjoyable.  Be warned though, Albany is another label who sometimes supply CD-Rs when the real CDs are sold out. 

As for the 3rd Symphony, also mentioned above, it was on the Koch label.  I've been looking for a while, and have been unable to find a clean copy for anything less than an arm and two legs.

[eschiss1]

btw some of her chamber and vocal music is recorded including at least 2 cds that contain her piano sonata in e (on Albany and Cambria.)

[Richard Moss]

If you are interested, the 3rd (C min) symphony, and other works, is still available as a download on Amazon (i.e. ignoring their silly prices for an actual CD!!). 

Cheers

Richard

[Richard Moss]

Folks,

Whilst researching some background notes to accompany my download of her recently released VCs from e-music (which unfortunately didn't include the official booklet), I came across an extended NY times article:

(https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/09/arts/music/florence-price-arkansas-symphony-concerto.html   ). 

It includes the following reference!
"The Fort Smith Symphony in Arkansas is beginning a project to record her four symphonies for the Naxos label, based on editions prepared by the composer James Greeson, and in May will perform her First Symphony and (in a world premiere) the Fourth, another of the works unearthed in her summer house.[/i]

Since I've enjoyed her PC and her other orchestral works currently (or previously) available on ALBANY and KOCH releases, I'm hoping NAXOS bring this to market while I'm still here to listen! (2-3 years gestation seems to be sort of typical of NAXOS & CPO?).

Anyway, for those who like a touch of american spiritual tunes influencing with lush orchestral works, this is a tidbit to make your mouth water!

Best wishes

Richard

[eschiss1]

Looking forward to the symphonies.

Naxos has also I see just made the violin concertos available over their streaming service. Listening to #2 just now- say, this does sound very good- thanks.

NML also streams that piano concerto CD raffite mentioned.

[ken]

Anyone who might be interested in purchasing Florence Price 3rd sympnony on Koch can purchase this from ArchivMusic.  They reissue out of print CDs on CDR and the quality is excellent.  The price is $16.99 US plus shipping.
The link to the CD is:
https://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=9153

[scarpia]

I got to hear her tone poem The Oak performed live at the Cambridge Symphony last week. Started out like Dvorak then got a bit darker like Rachmaninoff. Several Boston area orchestras played some of her works this year but I was not able to catch them. Maybe there will be a Price revival.

[eschiss1]

Belatedly, there are _perusal-only_ scores online (in a document reader) of her violin concertos here and here, might be interesting for those who bought the CD and want to read along...

(And I see at least some of the first concerto was on BBC CotW on March 6.)