Catalyst to Conclude “Uncovered” Series

courtesy of Primo Artists

This Friday will see the release of the final volume in the UNCOVERED series of albums on the Azica Records label. All of the performances on these albums are by the Catalyst Quartet, whose members are violinists Karla Donehew Perez and Abi Fayette, violist Paul Laraia, and cellist Karlos Rodriguez. This series was conceived to bring more attention to historically important Black composers; and it will conclude with an album devoted entirely to the eighteenth-century French violinist, conductor and composer, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Joseph Bologne.

This will be the first-ever commercial recording of all of the eighteen string quartets that Bologne composed. As was the case for most of the quartets composed by Joseph Haydn, these were organized into three sets of six quartets. These were published as Opus 1, Opus 14, and a set given the title Six Concertante Quartets. The advance material from Primo Artists describes them as “representative of early Parisian renditions of the 18th-century string quartet style most associated with Haydn.” It may be worth noting that Joseph Haydn composed his six “Paris” symphonies, written on a commission by the Count D'Ogny, Grandmaster of the Masonic Loge Olympique; but they were composed about six years after Saint-Georges’ earliest quartets.

While this is an engaging account of a significant Black composer, it is probably worth noting that the Chevalier is not a stranger to many San Francisco music lovers. A little over a year ago, violinist Randall Goosby performed the last in a set of Saint-Georges’ three violin sonatas for his debut recital with San Francisco Performances. The “uncovering” of the Chevalier is likely to be a discovery for many collectors of recorded music; but, here in San Francisco, many of us have enjoyed the luxury of listening to that music in performance!