Violin Concertos by Black Composers Through the Centuries [25th Anniversary Edition]

by Rachel Barton Pine, Daniel Hege, Jonathon Heyward

Overview

As the subtitle indicates, this 2022 release is a reissue of a 1997 album by violinist Rachel Barton Pine. At the time, the idea of an album of music by Black composers was more unusual than it is in 2022, but what strikes the listener is how fresh the music here remains. One major change has been made: the deletion of the Violin Concerto No. 4 in D major of the Chevalier Meude-Monpas, who, it turned out, was not of African descent at all (his appellation "Le Noir," believe it or not, referred to his horse). However, everything else is still vital. A good deal of music by Joseph Bologne (or Boulogne), Chevalier de Saint-Georges, has surfaced since 1997, but little of it is as effective as the Violin Concerto in A major, Op. 5, No. 2. Sample the sizable first movement, whose violin part is both elegant and virtuosic. This work could easily be programmed with Mozart's violin concertos and not suffer by comparison. Still rarer is the Violin Concerto in F sharp minor by Jose White Lafitte, a Cuba-to-France transplant whose mother was Afro-Cuban. This is a fine, colorful score, written for the use of the composer-violinist himself, in the vein of Sarasate. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor is represented by a deeply soulful Romance for violin and orchestra in G major, and the Meude-Monpas work is replaced by a concerto that was unknown when Barton Pine made her earlier recording and was discovered only in 2009: Florence Beatrice Price's Violin Concerto No. 2. This work, from late in Price's life, is ingeniously structured, with multiple themes varied across its four sections; it contains the African American vernacular influences that marked Price's earlier work, but they are somewhat muted. This work has not often been played or recorded. Barton Pine's performances have a mood of commitment, and she is a capable stylist in Romantic idioms. The album remains essential for collections of music by composers of African descent. ~ James Manheim

Product Details

Release Date:	09/09/2022
Label:	Cedille Records
UPC:	0735131921428
Rank:	99941

Tracks

1. Violin Concerto in A major, Op. 5, No. 2~Allegro moderato
2. Violin Concerto in A major, Op. 5, No. 2~Largo
3. Violin Concerto in A major, Op. 5, No. 2~Rondeau
4. Violin Concerto in F-sharp minor~Allegro
5. Violin Concerto in F-sharp minor~Adagio ma non troppo
6. Violin Concerto in F-sharp minor~Allegro moderato
7. Romance in G major for Violin and Orchestra, Op 39
8. Violin Concerto No. 2

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Rachel Barton Pine   Primary Artist,Violin
Jonathon Heyward   Primary Artist,Conductor
Daniel Hege   Primary Artist,Conductor
Encore Chamber Orchestra   Orchestra
Royal Scottish National Orchestra   Orchestra

Technical Credits

Joseph Lafitte   Composer
Florence Price   Composer
Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges   Composer
Lisa-Marie Mazzucco   Cover Photo
Lawrence Rock   Engineer
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor   Composer
Bill Maylone   Editing,Mixing Engineer
Mark Clague   Liner Notes
Victor Fetique   Instrument Design
Sally Jubb   Photography
James Ginsburg   Producer
Hedd Peter Morfett-Jones   Engineer
David Dieckmann   Editing