Florence Price Piano Concerto

[chriss]

There was back in April a release of the newly discovered original orchestration of her Piano Concerto. Previous live performances used a reconstruction of the orchestration.

https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/works-by-price-coleman-montgomery/hnum/10887279

The Piano Concerto will possibly also be recorded by Naxos. Perhaps it's even a candidate for Hyperion's  Romantic Piano Concerto series? 

[semloh]

... and already released on the Albany label?

[Gareth Vaughan]

I thought the Albany release was with orchestration by someone else,the original full score not having come to light at the time that recording was made. Please correct me if I am wrong.

[pianoconcerto]

That's correct Gareth.  Here's the info. from my discography:
Concerto [in d] in One Movement (1934; 2010 reconstruction of the score (then thought to be lost) by Trevor Weston from the two- and three-piano versions by the composer)
Albany 1295:  Karen Walwyn/New Black Music Repertory Ens./Leslie Dunner

[Gareth Vaughan]

Thank you very much. That makes the new recording of particular interest - at least, to me.

[semloh]

Ah, right. Thanks for clarifying that, Gareth.

[chriss]

Decca announced another recording of her Piano Concerto and yet another version of the first Symphony.

The Chineke! Orchestra with Jeneba Kanneh-Mason

https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/florence-price/hnum/11475994

[raffite33]

From a review I saw on www.classicalmusicdaily.com, I believe the Chineke! Orchestra CD also uses the Trevor Weston reconstruction, but am unable to confirm that because Decca doesn't seem to have posted a photo of the inlay card or mentioned it in their promotional blurb.

Now that Nézet-Séguin's Price project appears to have moved from DG to Decca with the second installment, I wonder if they'll take a pass on the piano concerto, there being such a new one already in Decca's catalog.  Naxos, please take note!

Scott

[Mark Thomas]

Surely we have enough Price now??

[John Boyer]

Surely we have enough Price now??

Until the fad subsides, Mark, these releases are the Price we all must pay.

[Mark Thomas]

Ouch!

[pianoconcerto]

The Chineke! CD appears to follow the rediscovered orig. score, not the Weston reconstruction.  The orig. score is at https://issuu.com/scoresondemand/docs/piano_concerto_58911.  A quick way to identify the versions is to check m.236; in the Weston, the oboe re-enters with piano and orchestra whereas in the orig. score there is just oboe and piano.

[Alan Howe]

Thanks for that information.

I actually find Price's PC one of her better pieces. OK, it's a mixture of Dvorak, Gershwin and Juba music, but - in the Chineke! recording - it's less pretentious than her longer works and more fun. And it's less than 18 minutes long.