Classical Music

This music is intriguing – rich and strange indeed.

The American composer Deon Nielsen Price studied with Leslie Bassett and Samuel Adler. She has been active in various academic bodies in West Coast universities. She has written extensively and with distinction in relation to her instrument, the piano. Her catalogue of compositions is substantial.

The pieces featured here are recorded at a higher level than usual and every detail emerges close-up and vivid.

Yellow Jade Banquet sports super-clear textures and lines. Impressions flood in: an excited squeal, an enchanting undulation, an Oriental swerve, a hint of chant and seductively inspirational pulses suggestive of minimalism - which this writing is not. Hovhaness, McPhee, Cowell and Lou Harrison are perhaps influences on this composer.

The macabre Epitaphs for Fallen Heroes induces awe. There is something of the ceremony in this piece with its stonily resonant and hieratically assertive piano part. The Dies Irae and angular dissonance are confidently mixed. Take this as a sort of Bergian-surreal successor to Liszt’s Totentanz.

America Themes is a phantasmagoria of American traditional tunes with Johnny comes marching home melting into Taps and thence to Copland and so on. The composer affectionately continues a tradition made resilient by Ives and keeps the ear constantly beguiled by each transition.

Gateways is a gritty, rhetorical and tough work for wind band. It is inspired by life’s paths that step off the way or onward through gateways. It is as much about the paths as the gateways themselves, we are told.

States of Mind is a work in four movements: Meditation, Troubled Thoughts, Mysterious Dream, Transformation. The first is a tender essay redolent of Barber at his most gentle. Troubled Thoughts thrusts thorny angles into the pottage and its stinging poignancy sears and scars in a way suggestive of Schnittke. Mysterious Dream moves from dank meditation to free-wheeling surreal visions. Transformation has a serrated Shostakovich-like determination and some stunning headlong pizzicato passages. The fugal flavour of some of the writing was irritating - a very personal prejudice.

Dancing on the Brink of the World is much in the same exotic vein - a sort of time-travelling fantasy from the Yelamu autochthons of Crissy Field to Hispanic incursion and onwards from the internment of Japanese Americans to a tribute in retrospect to the ancient cultures. It’s a rich brew of whooping energy, bristling and chirruping, ratchet and rattle, groaning brass redolent of Hovhaness and dancing vitality. A smoochy soft shoe dance is made the more intriguing by a high and anxiously buzzing repeated figure from the violins. Fragments and musical units are in constant motion like an inspirational kaleidoscope of the emotions and of inventive imagery. The effect in this work’s dazzle of consciousness is something like a pellucid version of Grainger’s Warriors. The work ends with the foghorn in the Bay.

This disc is a successor to Cambria’s first Deon Nielsen Price CD (CD-1170) which included To the Children of War, song-cycle for voice and piano; Diversions; Crossroads for trio; L'Alma Jubilo (The Jubilant Soul), for solo guitar; Big Sur Triptych, for soprano saxophone and piano: (Sea Otters; Redwoods; Crags); Hexachord: View from Malibu; and Three Faces of Kim, the Napalm Girl, for alto and soprano saxophones and piano.

The notes are quite full but fail to tell me things like the composer’s year of birth and exactly where Crissy Field is.

This music is intriguing - rich and strange indeed. Very Californian in the freewheeling accommodation it strikes with the Pacific Rim and with history.

-- Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International 

Here we have a musical remembrance of life in Los Angeles as experienced by composer Deon Nielsen Price during a 35 year residency. Like electricity created by the impact of the sun's rays as they dance and intersect in the city, this music is meant to be at times graceful and at times energetic; it is also reflective of the cultural diversity of the City of Angels at the beginning of the new century. Deon Nielsen Price studied at Brigham Young University, the University of Michigan and the University of Southern California. She has made her career as a music educator in various colleges and schools in and around Los Angeles.

Oneness

Piano Recital: Waites, Althea - PRICE, F.B. / STILL, W.G. /

Cambria Master Recordings is pleased to announce Radiance In Motion – the title of a new album by Deon Nielsen Price. The album takes its name from David C. Roy’s kaleidoscopic kinetic wooden wall sculpture, Radiance, whose image is featured in the album artwork. Following a devastating fire that destroyed the original manuscripts, several of the works on this recording are renditions from copies that fortunately surfaced in private libraries throughout the United States and Europe. Like that piece of mechanical art, the music propels us to experience splendorous musical sounds with varied colors and timbre. The musical works invite our thoughts and feelings to past, present and future events. Earlier Cambria albums featuring music by Deon Nielsen Price include Oneness, (Violin Concerto for Oneness and Angel Trio); New Friends, Old Friends, (folk ballet: Toads and Diamonds); Dancing on the Brink of the World (orchestral, National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine); Clariphonia: Music of the 20th Century on Clarinet; SunRays II (chamber music); and SunRays (To the Children of War, poetry by Maya Angelou).

Britain is in crisis. Alienated, insular and on the brink of disaster. Can it be saved? An ineffectual Queen Cymbeline rules over a divided dystopian Britain. Consumed with grief at the death of two of her children, Cymbeline's judgement is clouded. When Innogen, the only living heir, marries her sweetheart Posthumus in secret, an enraged Cymbeline banishes him. Behind the throne, a power-hungry figure plots to seize power by murdering them both. In exile, Innogen's husband is tricked into believing she has been unfaithful to him and, in an act of impulsive jealousy, begins a scheme to have her murdered. Warned of the danger, Innogen runs away from court in disguise and begins a journey fraught with danger that will eventually reunite Cymbeline with a longlost heir and reconcile the young lovers. "Still handles the comedy very well, though, and draws some lovely performances from her cast. Bethan Cullinane makes a brave, determined, sweetly funny Innogen: moving in her silent shock at her husband's accusation of infidelity. Marcus Griffiths is a wonderfully bombastic and ridiculous Cloten and his attempts to woo Innogen through song are hilarious." (The Financial Times) "It's the strength of the performances that really make this production, and the cast's ability to draw out the underlying humour in every situation goes a long way to negating the flaws in the original text. Oliver Johnstone is brilliant as the suave, silver-tongued Iachimo, strutting about the stage and wearing all of his sexual potency on his sleeve. Some of the best scenes come when he focuses his scheming charm on the faithful Innogen, skilfully played by Bethan Cullinane. Marcus Griffith also manages to find much comic absurdity in the overblown ego of the otherwise contemptible Cloten. But these are compelling performances among many. It may not be one of the best-loved of the Bard's canon, but this production is full of passion and humour, and is riotous fun." (The Radio Times) "Comes straight from the heart... It's unafraid of emotion and boasts fine performances... This is an evening that belongs to the Director... Shakespeare's derided experimental romance has the capacity to touch the heart... Bethan Cullinane's Innogen moved me deeply..." (The Guardian

With an ever-increasing awareness of the excellence that defined her career, Florence Price is finally receiving the recognition that she deserves. Price won the Wanamaker Prize in 1932, and she was the first Black woman to have a symphony premiered by a major American orchestra. Price was a gifted student, pianist, and organist. She graduated from high school in Little Rock, AR, at age 14. At age 16, she graduated from the New England Conservatory (as the only double major in her class) with degrees in organ performance and piano pedagogy. Price wrote music for everyone– across a range of styles and abilities, and for a variety of forces. Beyond the Years hones in on Florence Price the composer of songs. ONEcomposer has cataloged nearly 150 of her songs (to date), only about half of which have been published.

Beyond the Years highlights Price’s affinity for themes of faith, nature, love, and loss. Amongst Price’s treasures in the archives at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, is her well worn copy of Vaccai: Practical Method of Italian Singing, a symbol of her fastidious commitment to writing idiomatically for the voice.

As performed by Karen Slack and Michelle Cann, these songs are receiving new life in the hands of two of the greatest artists of our generation.

"Merit[s] hearty recommendation." -- Textura

Learn more about this recording on the Naxos Classical Spotlight podcast!

Naxos’s exploration of the works of Florence Price continues with this album of music for string quartet. Price and Leo Sowerby were contemporaries in the Chicago music community of the 1930s and 1940s, and they are known to have respected each other’s works. Sowerby’s String Quartet in G minor is a world premiere recording. Performed by the Avalon String Quartet – one of America’s leading chamber music ensembles.

The rediscovery of Florence Price’s music has revealed one of the most significant bodies of work by an African American composer in the 20th century. The variety of genres represented on this release place Price’s immense artistic imagination on full display. The two Concert Overtures explore her engagement with spirituals, both episodically and coloristically, in music that embraces the somber, the poignant and the ebullient. Songs of the Oak is a tour de force of Hollywood-influenced storytelling while The Oak offers amore anxious, ultimately tragic portrait. Price’s best-known work is the Suite of Dances–originally for piano it is heard here in the composer’s full, sumptuous orchestration.

REVIEW:

The rediscovery of Florence Price’s music has revealed one of the most significant bodies of work by an African American composer in the 20th century. The variety of genres represented on this release place Price’s immense artistic imagination on full display. The two Concert Overtures explore her engagement with spirituals, both episodically and coloristically, in music that embraces the somber, the poignant, and the ebullient. Songs of the Oak is a tour de force of Hollywood-influenced storytelling while The Oak offers a more anxious, ultimately tragic portrait. Price’s best-known work is the Suite of Dances — originally for piano, it is heard here in the composer’s full, sumptuous orchestration.

-- WFMT 98.7FM Chicago, IL (Lisa Flynn)

Britain is in crisis. Alienated, insular and on the brink of disaster. Can it be saved? An ineffectual Queen Cymbeline rules over a divided dystopian Britain. Consumed with grief at the death of two of her children, Cymbeline's judgement is clouded. When Innogen, the only living heir, marries her sweetheart Posthumus in secret, an enraged Cymbeline banishes him. Behind the throne, a power-hungry figure plots to seize power by murdering them both. In exile, Innogen's husband is tricked into believing she has been unfaithful to him and, in an act of impulsive jealousy, begins a scheme to have her murdered. Warned of the danger, Innogen runs away from court in disguise and begins a journey fraught with danger that will eventually reunite Cymbeline with a longlost heir and reconcile the young lovers. "Still handles the comedy very well, though, and draws some lovely performances from her cast. Bethan Cullinane makes a brave, determined, sweetly funny Innogen: moving in her silent shock at her husband's accusation of infidelity. Marcus Griffiths is a wonderfully bombastic and ridiculous Cloten and his attempts to woo Innogen through song are hilarious." (The Financial Times) "It's the strength of the performances that really make this production, and the cast's ability to draw out the underlying humour in every situation goes a long way to negating the flaws in the original text. Oliver Johnstone is brilliant as the suave, silver-tongued Iachimo, strutting about the stage and wearing all of his sexual potency on his sleeve. Some of the best scenes come when he focuses his scheming charm on the faithful Innogen, skilfully played by Bethan Cullinane. Marcus Griffith also manages to find much comic absurdity in the overblown ego of the otherwise contemptible Cloten. But these are compelling performances among many. It may not be one of the best-loved of the Bard's canon, but this production is full of passion and humour, and is riotous fun." (The Radio Times) "Comes straight from the heart... It's unafraid of emotion and boasts fine performances... This is an evening that belongs to the Director... Shakespeare's derided experimental romance has the capacity to touch the heart... Bethan Cullinane's Innogen moved me deeply..." (The Guardian)

A New York Times 25 Best Classical Track Selection for 2019

A WQXR-FM Best Classical Recording of 2019

Florence Price was born in Little Rock, Arkansas and studied at the New England Conservatory, but it was in Chicago that her composing career accelerated. The concert in 1933 at which her Symphony No. 1 in E minor was premiered was the first time a major American orchestra had performed a piece written by an African American woman. Influenced by Dvorak and Coleridge-Taylor, she drew on the wellspring of Negro spirituals and vernacular dances, full of lyricism and syncopation. The Symphony No. 4 in D minor demonstrates her tight ensemble writing, her distinct sense of orchestral color, her Ellingtonian ‘jungle style’ language and her penchant for the ‘juba’ dance. Founded in 1923, the Fort Smith Symphony is the oldest orchestra in the state of Arkansas. The orchestra is a per-service professional ensemble drawn from musicians throughout the region. The orchestra performs classics, pops and educational concerts in the ArcBest Performing Arts Center in downtown Fort Smith.

REVIEWS:

Both works bear trace influences of folk forms—including, as the musicologist Douglas W. Shadle writes in the liner notes, a reference to “Wade in the Water” during the Fourth’s opening movement. But there are as many sections that seem like a composer channeling her own individual muse. Among the most compelling moments is the close of the Fourth—a scherzo full of slaloming melody (and, in the final minutes, some pleasingly potent tutti chords).

– New York Times

Price’s First Symphony has already been recorded. So it was the Fort Smith orchestra’s premiere recording of her 1945 Fourth, in D Minor, that made news among fans of this long-snubbed composer. The brio of the best Americana is present throughout the work, particularly in its rousing climax.

– New York Times (Seth Colter Walls)

Naxos continues its exploration of Florence Price’s unjustly neglected orchestral works with this latest album, which includes Symphony No. 3. The ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra is conducted by Price advocate, John Jeter, who received widespread praise for his album of Symphonies Nos. 1 and 4 (8.559827), released in January 2019.

REVIEW:

Florence Price’s Symphony No. 3 (1940) may be her finest. Written in four well-proportioned movements, it begins with music of high seriousness—a slow introduction that sounds like the Adagio of Bruckner’s Seventh meets the Blues—and never looks back. The ensuring Andante is extremely beautiful, and in place of the usual scherzo Price gives us her customary “Juba,” a dance-like fantasy full of captivating sonorities, sultry melodies, and gently offbeat rhythms. As in the Fourth Symphony, Price calls the finale the actual Scherzo, offering her own imaginative slant on traditional symphonic form. It’s worth pointing out that as a graguate (with honors) from the New England Conservatory, Price was about as well trained as any American composer of her day, and entirely apart from the music’s characteristically personal expressive elements, her technical sophistication as a writer for the orchestra really shows. This is good stuff.

The Mississippi River, sometimes called a “suite,” is actually a tone poem containing nearly half an hour of continuous music. Price quotes American folk tunes and Negro spirituals (Get Along Little Doggies, Deep River, etc) as the river wends its way from north to south, but what impresses most is how well sustained the musical argument is, and how effectively this lengthy and colorful piece cheats the clock. Really, there’s no excuse for this music not being programmed regularly in American orchestra concerts. Finally, Ethiopia’s Shadow in America is a brief triptych tracing the arrival of the Black man to American as a slave, his resignation and faith, and finally, hopefully, his ultimate assimilation into American society in a fusion of African and “acquired impulses.” The work offers a useful commentary on the role of the individual in society in these racially polarized times.

John Jeter has already turned in very good performances of Price’s First and Fourth Symphonies with his own orchestra in Arkansas, but these recordings with the full-time ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra are both better played and better recorded. Price was an important and worthy voice in American classical music, quite apart from the challenges she faced as an African-American woman. Getting to know her is a genuine treat.

-- ClassicsToday.com (David Hurwitz)