Both young-phenom violinist
Randall Goosby and conductor
Yannick Nezet-Seguin have championed the music of
Florence Beatrice Price, and this
Decca release seems a major effort to bring her music into the concert mainstream, juxtaposing it with one of the warhorses of the repertory, the
Violin Concerto in G minor, Op. 26, of
Max Bruch. It works well, with a broadly appealing program that hangs together.
Goosby has a recognizable brilliant tone, sometimes compared with that of
Itzhak Perlman, that is generally well suited to this music. Other violinists have offered more sentiment in the
Bruch concerto, but his reading is fully thought out and fits with
Nezet-Seguin's restrained, somewhat hushed tone (sample the Adagio). It works well in the
Violin Concerto No. 1 (1939) of
Price, a work with elements of
Dvorak and
Tchaikovsky mixed with a lightly African-American idiom that is mostly given to the soloist. The later
Violin Concerto No. 2, written shortly before
Price's death, is more compact although not necessarily more effective;
Goosby's clean, neutral playing displays it at its best here, and once again, his coordination with
Nezet-Seguin's
Philadelphia Orchestra bodes well for a substantial future. Another bonus is the presence of
Adoration, an organ work that has been recorded several times in this violin-and-orchestra version, and a work that seems to fill the need for a crowd-pleaser, encore-type work from this composer; it too showcases
Goosby's talent. Those wanting to sample the music of
Price, rapidly rising in the concert hall, would do well to choose this release, which landed on classical best-seller lists in the spring of 2023. ~ James Manheim
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