Florence Price - the darling of BBC Radio 3

[Alan Howe]

I'd certainly go in to bat for Louise Farrenc, Clara Schumann, Emilie Mayer, Dora Pejačević, Amy Beach and Ethel Smyth. And probably for others too.

[pcc]

I would certainly say that Amy Beach was as good an American composer as any of her day. She certainly was versatile, and unlike many of her contemporaries (like Chadwick, whom I am very fond of as well) she experimented with style as she got older. Her works from the 1930s are nothing like most of her earlier music, which is people are familiar with, if they're familiar with her at all.

I have to say that her Symphony has always been a little problematic for me; much of the instrumentation is very heavy and it's a very hard work to balance as a conductor. The best performance of it I've ever heard was here in Rochester by the Rochester Philharmonic under Arild Remmereit in 2012; he really was able to get orchestral detail and colour out of it, and the finale was stunningly fiery.  The Piano Concerto is much more nuanced in its orchestration, in my opinion, and easier to get to "sound".

[Mark Thomas]

The Florence Price bandwagon continues to roll: now DGG has issued a recording of the First and Third Symphonies, with Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra no less. I really don't begrudge her getting this recognition, but it's galling that so much music which is more deserving of mainstream exposure continues to be ignored. Very much a case of being in the right place at the right time, I fear.

[Alan Howe]

Download only at Presto, I notice. And everywhere else.

What I would give to hear any one of a dozen or more (many more!) deserving symphonies given this treatment!

[Rainolf]

Well said, John, Alan and Mark!

The Philadelphia Inquirer has published an article about Nezet-Seguin's Price Project in 2020:

https://www.inquirer.com/arts/philadelphia-orchestra-florence-price-yannick-nezet-seguin-review-20201125.html

In this text pianist Michelle Cann is quoted with the following sentence:

"Florence Price is actually a symbol for so many lost voices."

There is an unintentional double meaning in this words.

[Alan Howe]

Sorry, I'm being thick! Please explain the unintentional double meaning...

[Mark Thomas]

Butting in, I know, but what's being implied is that Price is a symbol, something which may not have much intrinsic value in and of itself, but which represents other things which do.

[Alan Howe]

I must be exceptionally thick this morning.

As far as I can tell, Price is a (very) minor composer whose music has attracted attention not because of its breezy insouciance, but because she was a woman, and a black woman at that. Problem is, the operative word here is MINOR. Her music simply doesn't deserve this exalted level of treatment ahead of countless others that we all could name.

The world's gone mad.

[Mark Thomas]

As you say, but then my wokeness coefficient is as near zero as makes no odds.

[terry martyn]

I have a confession to make.
Her music is too Dvorak meets Joplin for me

[Alan Howe]

Dvorak meets Joplin

Brilliant! Expressed mathematically: Price = Dvorak + Joplin

[Rainolf]

Florence Price is a symbol for so many "lost voices" which remain lost to the concert repertory because they do not fit as well to political "Isms" as she does.

As the sound examples show, the new Deutsche Grammophon CD will present Price's symphonies very well recorded, played by a major orchestra under the baton of a famous conductor. Deutsche Grammophon has shown in the past that it is occasionally interested in non-standart repertory if a famous musician plays it, e.g. when Neeme Järvi recorded some symphonies by Maximilian Steinberg or Myaskovsky. In this way the Price recording of Nezet-Seguin fits to DG's (unfortunately too seldom) repertory excursions. - And it will be interesting to see if DG will continue the "Price Project" with other works, or if they will abandon it like Järvi's Steinberg and Myaskovsky projects.

But while in the case of Steinberg and Myaskovsky DG, for a short time, became a champion of really high quality unsung symphonies, the question can not be suppressed if Price's music does reach this level of quality. Is is interesting to read between the lines in the texts, written by her supporters. You feel that they are full of doubts which they want to suppress. So Alex Ross, in his article "The Rediscovery of Florence Price" invested nearly the half of space to question the question after musical greatness - he knows that Price's symphonies are not great music, but he does not want to concede this openly.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/02/05/the-rediscovery-of-florence-price

[semloh]

Yes, Florence Price could be a symbol for so many "lost voices", and as a symbol I suppose the quality of her music really doesn't matter. If her music remained 'lost', she could still be a symbol (and a more potent one in my view). But in this case, it is the music that counts, and the quality does matter. Her music is enjoying top rate performances and recordings, and must stand as music in its own right, not enhanced by any symbolic associations. Apologies if that's a bit opaque. In short, I agree with the views expressed by my colleagues!

[Alan Howe]

Apparently DG plan to release the full set of Price's symphonies on CD at a later date (info from Record Review this morning [2nd October], BBC Radio 3).

[Jonathan]

I heard the Andante of the 3rd symphony on "Record Review" this morning on BBC Radio 3 and I have to agree - the music struck me as generally pleasant and my next thought (before I looked at the display on the radio) was "this sounds Dvorakian".

I shall give the whole work a listen at some point but I'm not going to rush out and buy the CD.