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Price: Symphony No. 3 - The Mississippi River - Ethiopia's Shadow in America / Jeter, ORF VRSO
Naxos

Price: Symphony No. 3 - The Mississippi River - Ethiopia's Shadow in America / Jeter, ORF VRSO

$19.99

Details

Composer
Price, Florence
Artist
Jeter
Format
CD
Label
Naxos
Released
Nov 19, 2021
Catalog #
8559897
UPC
636943989722

About

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)

Tracklist 11 tracks

  1. 1 I. Andante - Allegro 09:26
    Track
    1
    Title
    I. Andante - Allegro
    Duration
    09:26
    Composer
    Florence Beatrice Price
    Ensemble
    Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien
    Conductor
    John Jeter
  2. 2 II. Andante ma non troppo 07:54
    Track
    2
    Title
    II. Andante ma non troppo
    Duration
    07:54
    Composer
    Florence Beatrice Price
    Ensemble
    Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien
    Conductor
    John Jeter
  3. 3 III. Juba 04:57
    Track
    3
    Title
    III. Juba
    Duration
    04:57
    Composer
    Florence Beatrice Price
    Ensemble
    Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien
    Conductor
    John Jeter
  4. 4 IV. Scherzo. Finale 05:07
    Track
    4
    Title
    IV. Scherzo. Finale
    Duration
    05:07
    Composer
    Florence Beatrice Price
    Ensemble
    Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien
    Conductor
    John Jeter
  5. 5 Andante (bars 1-239) - 08:37
    Track
    5
    Title
    Andante (bars 1-239) -
    Duration
    08:37
    Composer
    Florence Beatrice Price
    Ensemble
    Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien
    Conductor
    John Jeter
  6. 6 Andante con moto - Allegretto (bars 240-337) - 03:56
    Track
    6
    Title
    Andante con moto - Allegretto (bars 240-337) -
    Duration
    03:56
    Composer
    Florence Beatrice Price
    Ensemble
    Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien
    Conductor
    John Jeter
  7. 7 Allegro - Andante - Adagio - Allegretto (bars 338-475) - 06:09
    Track
    7
    Title
    Allegro - Andante - Adagio - Allegretto (bars 338-475) -
    Duration
    06:09
    Composer
    Florence Beatrice Price
    Ensemble
    Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien
    Conductor
    John Jeter
  8. 8 Andante - Allegretto - Allegro (bars 476-682) 07:38
    Track
    8
    Title
    Andante - Allegretto - Allegro (bars 476-682)
    Duration
    07:38
    Composer
    Florence Beatrice Price
    Ensemble
    Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien
    Conductor
    John Jeter
  9. 9 I. The Arrival of the Negro in America when first brought here as a slave: Introduction and Allegretto 06:46
    Track
    9
    Title
    I. The Arrival of the Negro in America when first brought here as a slave: Introduction and Allegretto
    Duration
    06:46
    Composer
    Florence Beatrice Price
    Ensemble
    Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien
    Conductor
    John Jeter
  10. 10 II. His Resignation and Faith: Andante 02:51
    Track
    10
    Title
    II. His Resignation and Faith: Andante
    Duration
    02:51
    Composer
    Florence Beatrice Price
    Ensemble
    Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien
    Conductor
    John Jeter
  11. 11 III. His Adaptation, A fusion of his native and acquired impulses: Allegro 03:12
    Track
    11
    Title
    III. His Adaptation, A fusion of his native and acquired impulses: Allegro
    Duration
    03:12
    Composer
    Florence Beatrice Price
    Ensemble
    Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien
    Conductor
    John Jeter