Late and Uninformed: Florence Price on DG

courtesy of Crossover Media

One week from today Deutsche Grammophon (DG) will release its first album of music composed by Florence Price. The selections are two symphonies, the first in E minor and the third in C minor. The performances are by the Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of its Music Director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin. As can be expected, Amazon.com has created a Web page for processing pre-orders.

Those that have been following this site for some time have probably become familiar, at least through reading if not through listening, with Price’s life and works. As a result, those wishing to become acquainted with her symphonies have probably already done so by virtue of the Naxos American Classics series, which has released one album of the first and fourth symphonies, followed by a second devoted primarily to the third symphony. The conductor on both of these albums is John Jeter, leading the Fort Smith Symphony on the first release and the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra on the second.

Some may argue that the new DG release will provide Price’s first exposure through a “prestige” ensemble. To be fair, however, the first symphony could not have had a better premiere occasion, since it was performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in June of 1933 under the baton of its Music Director, Frederick Stock. The third symphony was first performed in November of 1940 by the Detroit Civic Orchestra led by Valter Poole. While this may not sound quite as prestigious as the Chicago ensemble, the circumstances were significantly different. The symphony had been commissioned by the Works Progress Administration's Federal Music Project, the primary institution for supporting the performing arts during the Great Depression.

The fact is that, where these symphonies are concerned, prestige is not necessarily the key factor. Beyond the basic nuts and bolts of technique and balance, Jeter’s recordings reveal a solid foundation of what might be called “rhetorical understanding;” and I, for one, hope that a third album is in the works to document his insights in performing Price’s second symphony in G minor. I am not holding my breath, however, since I encountered the following comment on Jordan Randall Smith’s “field guide” Web site for Price’s symphonic works:

Florence Price's second symphony is incomplete and/or lost. However, there are some signs that the Fort Smith Symphony, the University of Arkansas Libraries Special Collections, and Naxos International are working together to restore, perform, and record this Symphony.

Presumably the DG album was the result of Philadelphia Orchestra subscription concerts that Nézet-Séguin prepared. Where the first symphony is concerned, one has to wonder whether or not he decided to present it as if it were an undiscovered symphony by Antonín Dvořák. However, as I previously observed, Jeter knew how to present this symphony as “music ‘from the new world’ by someone that lived in that world.” With his roots in Quebec, Nézet-Séguin is more of an “outsider;” and his detachment from the spirit behind Price’s music is most evident in the “Juba” movements (the third in both the first and third symphonies) on this recording.

As usual, the Amazon Web page for this new release has its “Customers who view this item also viewed” section. That section includes hyperlinks to both of the Jeter albums, both of which are given a rating of 4.5 stars (out of five). It is no surprise that customers interested in Price recordings should visit the Web pages for those two Naxos releases, but the ratings may suggest that there are better criteria for evaluation than the “historical prestige” of the Philadelphia Orchestra.