Support us financially by purchasing from

Florence Beatrice PRICE (1887-1953)
Symphony No 3 in C minor (1940) [27:32]
The Mississippi River (1934) [26:20]
Ethiopia’s Shadow in America (1932) [12:49]
ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra/John Jeter
Rec. 2020/21 Studio 6, ORF Funkhaus, Vienna, Austria
NAXOS 8.559897 [66:48]

The music of Florence Beatrice Price is undergoing a major re-evaluation and indeed exposure. Whereas once her name on a concert programme or CD cover would have been a notable rarity, it is now verging on the commonplace with orchestras, groups and soloists around the world keen to play her music. Price’s story and her triumph against oppression and adversity is an uplifting one and for that alone her musical legacy – especially as an educator and tireless advocate for equality - should be appreciated and valued. This disc, part of the Naxos American Classics series, is the second symphonic release by this label of her orchestral music and follows hard on the heels of a well-received disc from Deutsche Gramophon featuring the Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin. The DG disc – which I have not heard – includes the Symphony No.3 also present on the Naxos disc.

When reviewing unfamiliar music, I prefer to listen first with as innocent ear as possible – I avoid reading the liner notes or consulting any other material, biographical or contextual so that the music is heard on its merits alone. By that measure, I have to say I find this to be unexceptional music across all three works. The Symphony No.3 in C minor was written in 1940 and the Naxos liner succinctly summarises Price’s approach as “Express[ing] Price’s cultural heritage in a symphonic framework [whilst] avoiding direct references to existing folk songs and dances”. The DG webpage dedicated to their release further says; “Although Price continued to compose and teach until her death in 1953, her music was routinely dismissed as conservative by ultra-modernists”. That latter phrase is slightly disingenuous – by any objective yardstick, for a work written in 1940 this symphony is deeply – to my ear disappointingly – conservative.

Composers in America have been wrestling with the concept of “The Great American Symphony” for the last hundred and more years. But even a cursory glance at the repertoire show a richly diverse range of symphonic expression in the decade or so around 1940. From William Grant Still’s Afro-American Symphony of 1930 or William Levi Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony of 1934 to the more familiar Hanson Romantic of 1930 or Harris No 3 in 1939, Diamond No 1 in 1940, Schuman No 3 & No 4 both in 1941 or Bernstein Jeremiah and Antheil No 4 both in 1942 or Piston No 2 and Gould No 1 in 1943. If you are seeking a female symphonic composer go right back to Amy Beach’s Gaelic of 1894 which is every bit as imaginative and well-written as Price’s - just fifty years earlier...

By choosing a folk-influenced melodic idiom Price sets herself several problems. Folk-melodies are notoriously short-breathed and difficult to ‘develop’ in traditional symphonic form. This is especially true of the Symphony’s first movement. The work begins promisingly with some richly voiced brass writing warmly played here by the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. But Price’s first subject theme is disappointingly mundane and she struggles to develop it effectively. The result often resorts to Constant Lambert’s assessment of folk-music in the classical idiom; “The whole trouble with a folk song is that once you have played it through there is nothing much you can do except play it over again and play it rather louder”. Likewise Price’s handling of the orchestra lacks imagination here. For a mid 20^th Century work she orchestrates in a late 19^th Century manner (the third movement is markedly different and better). By no means is it badly orchestrated just surprisingly unadventurous. Much the same could be said for her harmonic sense as well. The melodic shapes she uses do favour bluesy flattened note harmonies and occasional hints of pentatonicism. But these are – quite literally – moments of passing harmonic frisson. At no time does Price operate on a heightened level of dissonance and indeed her harmonies are resolutely tonal.

The exception is the Symphony’s third movement – Juba. A juba dance originated with African slaves. By the late 19^th Century it was a popular feature of Minstrel Shows and the sound of it as represented in the symphony is reminiscent of Scott Joplin’s Ragtime Dance and in general the syncopated music of the pre-jazz era. Curiously, Price’s orchestration is suddenly more interesting and more colourful. Freed of the ‘requirements’ of symphonic form this is a pleasing self-contained movement as long as one accepts that neither rhythmically or harmonically is this anything like as sophisticated as the scores Duke Ellington was producing at much the same time – Black, Brown & Beige of 1943 is the most obvious example. The finale proves to be a rather serious return to academic symphonic procedure with a sense of dutiful working out of musical material rather than anything touched by inspiration.

Following on from the Symphony is the four section orchestral portrait The Mississippi River. This is written on a very similar scale to the symphony with its total length just a minute shorter. Overall I would say this is more successful than the symphony because Price is able to be illustrative rather than abstract. Indeed, the opening section [track 5 around 4:25] suddenly develops an intriguing and effective rhythmic ostinato with a low marimba(?) over a gentle drum figure and swaying melody. Clearly the river is used as an enduring symbol and embodiment of the struggles of African-Americans with quotations from well-known spirituals underlining their trials. But once Price tries to develop these melodies the musical interest wanes. Price aims for a fusion of the narrative and emotional in a way which, say, Ferde Grofé in his own Mississippi Suite of 1926 did not. Grofé was content to produce a series of musical picture postcards which are as attractive as they are slight. Grofé’s trump card was his skill as an orchestrator and in this field he is certainly more imaginative than Price. The result with Price’s score is a piece that has the characteristics of a light orchestral suite but the aspiration of something altogether more serious and as such it ultimately falls between those two stools.

Much the same can be said of the disc’s final work, the world premiere recording of Ethiopia’s Shadow in America which aims to be a musical representation of the African diaspora in America. Unusually Price provided a relatively detailed written narrative for this score charting the gradual integration of the African slaves into American life. I have no doubt that for listeners who can share and relate to the experience illustrated here this is a moving and indeed powerful score. For others, judging the music on purely abstract musical merits, less so. The various sections are clearly defined and easy to follow but again I hear little in Price’s musical voice that is of particular interest let alone originality.

Conductor John Jeter was also on the podium for the first Naxos disc of Price Symphonies although in that instance it was the Forth Smith Symphony Orchestra. Certainly the ever excellent ORF Vienna Symphony Orchestra are a notch up on the American ensemble. Jeter is an energetic and committed interpreter – there does not appear to be much subtlety in the music – perhaps the Philadelphia orchestra find greater nuance and finesse than here. The Naxos series of “American Classics” has been a triumphant combination of the familiar and the very obscure and as such has revealed the rich diversity of American music over the last hundred and more years. Florence Price’s music definitely deserves to be a valued part of that remarkable patchwork quilt of styles and techniques. By definition, not all the music presented in that series can be of equal merit. My sense is that viewed objectively, Price’s music lies within the second tier, proficient but too rarely inspired and curiously bound by the very conservative tradition that you might expect it to challenge.

Nick Barnard