Florence Price Piano Quintet

[Mark Thomas]

I have been partially impressed by the new recording on Chandos of Florence Price's A minor Piano Quintet (there is another, supposedly "better known" one in E minor according to the booklet notes, but I can find no recording or anything much about it online). I say partially, because the weighty first movement is a strong piece of writing, very much in the full romantic mould, and the following slow movement is really lovely, with a subtle American tinge to its melody. Together they last over 21 minutes and both are quite anachronistic for the 1930s, of course, but that's a point in their favour in my book. The trouble is that Price then rather throws the work away with the final two brief movements which barely last six minutes between them. One of her characteristic, slightly jazzy Jubas is the third; it jars a little after the full-on romanticism of the previous movements, but that's OK as one expects Price to throw in a Juba. An attractive and very fast Scherzo, reminiscent of a jig, serves as the finale, and again the music itself is exciting and not out of keeping stylistically with the rest of the work, but way, way too brief, so the whole piece is left quite unbalanced. One does wonder if there's a substantial fifth movement waiting to be discovered. I do recommend the piece, there is some excellent, romantic music in it and it gets a really fine performance from the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, but be warned that at the end you might be left thinking "is that it?"

I can't comment on the Beach or Barber couplings as I didn't download them.

[Alan Howe]

I find this is a recurring problem with her music - the mix of styles, I mean, and the lack of balance. I've somewhat given up on her music as a result.

[Mark Thomas]

I know what you mean, and I do approach anything "new" by Price with scepticism, but there is good music in the Quintet, even if the whole work fails to satisfy, not because of the inevitable Juba, but because of the let down of it just petering out.

[eschiss1]

"the better known..." they might have this confused with some other pair of works of hers? I don't know. The authors Tom Poster or Elena Urioste might be accessible online for questions?? Also, this from 1939 only mentions -a- piano quintet among her unpublished works, a fact that seems to have passed as unnoticed as the absence of evidence for an E minor quintet. Ah well. (Because of my thing, this sort of possible error interests me often well before I've heard the music of the composer.)