Florence Price: Symphony No. 4 – William Dawson: Negro Folk Symphony

Album review

African American composer Florence Price has found her champion in Philadelphia Orchestra conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, whose affinity for broad, melodic music fits her style well. In this live release, Nézet-Séguin's cycle of Price's four symphonies comes to a close, and like the others, it is a pleasing recording. This symphony contains the most effective of Price's "Juba" movements based on African American folk music, introducing cross rhythms that generate a good deal of tension with the basic dance, and here and elsewhere, Nézet-Séguin and his Philadelphians do the work justice. The orchestra is especially effective in the subtle colors of the slow movement. Perhaps the real news here is the inclusion of William Dawson's Negro Folk Symphony, which the Philadelphia Orchestra itself premiered in the 1930s under no less than Leopold Stokowski. The Dawson work is entirely worth rediscovery. Price often wrote her own African American folk material. Dawson, by contrast, quotes liberally from the spiritual tradition, yet his quotations are woven into the ongoing texture rather than standing by themselves. It is hard to think of a comparable piece in the classical tradition, constantly filtering the source material through new lenses. The two live performances on the album were not recorded together (the Price was from a 2021 concert, the Dawson from 2023), but in a way, that is a shame; the two works together would make a powerful concert indeed; audiences for this album are lucky. Both works draw from Dvořák's example, but they diverge in their treatment of his legacy. One of the stronger items in Nézet-Séguin's series, reasonably well recorded at Philadelphia's Verizon Hall, with no applause and seemingly no audience noise.

© James Manheim /TiVo