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]
A fairly notorious British music writer once proclaimed that the classical music industry was dying. That this pronouncement was made some 30 years ago and, the last time I checked, the patient was still alive and kicking (if slightly bruised due to Covid), proves my opinion that this particular writer’s conclusions, whilst undoubtedly headline-grabbing, are nearly always wrong. The classical music industry in the 1990’s wasn’t dying – however, it was changing.
One of the consequences of these changes was that multiple recordings of symphonies by Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Mahler etc. were abandoned and replaced by recordings of works by previously neglected composers such as Bax, Malipiero, Myaskovsky, Braunfels and others. And, as is so typical, sometimes rival recording companies appeared to be recording the same previously neglected composer at the same time; ten years ago, for example, both Chandos and Naxos were busy virtually simultaneously recording and releasing works by the marvellous Italian symphonist, Alfredo Casella. Fast forward and a decade later much the same thing appears to be happening with the works of Florence Price, with near-simultaneous releases of her symphonies on Deutsche Grammophon and Naxos once again.
The daughter of a dentist and a musician, Florence Price had a comfortable upbringing and received her formal music training at the prestigious New England Conservatory, after which she became a full-time composer, writing more than 300 works including symphonies, organ works, piano concertos, art songs and arrangements of solo spirituals. There is no doubting the skill with which she brings to her craft as a result of her education, plus some considerable talent, which was enough for her First Symphony to be premiered by Friedrich Stock and the Chicago Symphony, no less. My own first encounter with her music was when BBC Radio broadcast her Third Symphony in 2019 in a performance given by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Valentina Peleggi, a recording that UK listeners can still hear on the BBC Radio 3 sound archive. I have to confess that the music didn’t leave a significant impression upon me that time around, but I was keen to revisit it in this new recording, not least since the music has received some significantly positive reviews elsewhere – and there were additional works, too.
That said, the main work on this disc is once again the Third Symphony, the finest of the four Price wrote (although the Second is lost) and purportedly her masterpiece. Like many of this composer’s works, the music was inspired by and incorporates many African-American spirituals, which in turn leads to many stylistic similarities between not only the symphony, but the two other works on this disc – to be frank, listening blind you would be hard-pressed to notice when one work ends and the next starts (my MWI colleague Nick Barnard has written his own review of this disc, which perceptively explains the difficulties involved with incorporating folk song and spirituals within a classical structure, which I would urge the reader to investigate). However, to give you an idea of what it all sounds like, it reminded me very much of the Porgy and Bess Symphonic Picture, where Gershwin’s melodies were skilfully strung together to make a 23-minute symphonic poem by Robert Russell Bennett. I appreciate that Gershwin has not entirely escaped criticism for using African-American melodies in his own work, on many levels and, perhaps, this is a clumsy comparison, but it is the closest comparison I know to Price’s soundworld. The problem is that none of Price’s music is ever as memorable as Gershwin’s, nor does her orchestration match the sparkle and panache of a clearly inspired Bennett.
That said, Price’s music is melodic, nicely crafted, neatly orchestrated, and does have its moments. In the second work on the disc, a symphonic poem named The Mississippi River, there is just one of these moments towards the end of the first section, when suddenly the music broadens grandly, suggesting the full majesty of the mighty river in full flood (7:20, in this recording). It brought to my mind the moment in Siegfried’s Rhine Journey during the prologue of Götterdämmerung, when the Rhine motive blazes throughout the full orchestra, but here it’s only a fleeting moment in Price’s hands and is over almost as soon as it starts. The third work on the disc, entitled Ethiopia’s Shadow in America attempts to musically depict the journey of African slaves to the US and may be more impressive in what it attempts to do, than the rather lightweight results it obtains. More impressively, in the symphony, the third movement is marked Juba (this is an African-American style of dance that involves stomping as well as slapping and patting the arms, legs, chest, and cheeks), which is certainly different from anything else I have encountered in symphonic literature and is pleasant enough. In this performance on Naxos by the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra under John Jeter, I did feel that the orchestra sounded a little stiff and careful in their navigation of the music at this point and indeed, one only needs to compare the rival recording on Deutsche Grammophon with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, to hear how an orchestra which is perhaps more familiar with African-American dance rhythms can bring greater elan and swagger to the music-making. It is somewhat unfortunate for the Vienna ensemble to be up against such heavyweight opposition at the same time in music that hardly ever gets a recording, but one does have to say that YNS and his players do try to make “something” with Price’s music, not only in the greater dash and brio they bring to the Juba, but also by bringing their trademark sumptuous strings to the lyrical second movement andante, taken a full minute and a half longer than in Vienna, as well as finding greater grandeur in the outer movements too. Of the two performances under consideration, the one from Philadelphia is indisputably the finer and is probably the best performance the work is ever going to receive. On the DG release, the coupling is the same composer’s First Symphony, whereas on the Naxos you get the two symphonic poems – both discs have similar playing times, plus both are finely recorded and come with decent background essays in their respective booklets. Whether you will want either, neither, or both, I’m not so sure.
To conclude, much has been made of the suggestion that the neglect of Florence Price has been due to both her gender, as well as her African ancestry, something which I do not wish to deny and can only condemn in the strongest possible terms. However, having now had the chance to audition her music once again, I can judge it only on its own merits, irrespective of its social context. To put it into its proper context, its musical context (which is surely the one Ms Price would have wanted), the 12 months either side of the premiere of Price’s Third Symphony also witnessed first performances of Shostakovich’s Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, Bartok’s Music for Strings Percussion and Celeste and Second Violin Concerto, Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet and his cantata Alexander Nevsky, William Walton’s Violin Concerto, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Berg’s Lulu, Copland’s El Salón México, Vaughan Williams’ Job ….. to be frank, comparing what is supposed to be Price’s finest work with any of these does not do her any favours whatsoever. Moreover, George Gershwin also tragically died just months before the premiere too, so if a listener is curious to hear music influenced by African-American folk melodies within a symphonic context, then the aforementioned Robert Russell Bennett Symphonic Picture of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess has all the requisite snap, crackle ‘n pop that I feel Price strives to achieve in her own works, but just doesn’t quite succeed in producing.
As always with these new ‘discoveries’ (remember the long-lost Violin Concerto by Ignatz Waghalter found in someone’s loft only a few years ago? The music disappeared almost as fast as it had shot to short-lived prominence), prospective purchasers should try before they buy. For the Third Symphony, the rival recording from Philadelphia is noticeably better than otherwise fine Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra performances under John Jeter, but I would be urging readers to sample the recording on the BBC Radio sound archive, or on YouTube, before parting with their hard-earned cash.
It’s good that we are at last able to hear recordings of another long-forgotten composer, particularly one who, through virtue of their gender and ancestry, would have faced significant barriers to not just being accepted in her chosen profession, but to life in general. However, I’m not sure if the music of Florence Price is quite good enough to be part of the wider repertoire going forward, even if others may beg to differ.
Lee Denham
Previous review:
Nick Barnard
