Catalyst Surveys Three Black Composers

Catalyst Quartet members Paul Laraia, Karlos Rodriguez, Abi Fayette, and Karla Donehew Perez (courtesy of San Francisco Performances)

Last night the Catalyst Quartet, whose members are violinists Karla Donehew and Abi Fayette, violist Paul Laraia, and cellist Karlos Rodriguez, returned to Herbst Theatre to present the third of the four programs prepared for the Uncovered concert series presented by San Francisco Performances. This series is co-curated by bass-baritone Dashon Burton, who interviewed the quartet members after the conclusion of the program to explore insights into both the composers and the musicians’ approaches to interpretation. Burton also served as guest artist during the second half of the program.

The overall program provided an imaginative blend of three composers, one from eighteenth-century France and the other two from the first half of the twentieth century in the United States. The French composer, who would come to be known as the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, has one of the more fascinating biographies in music history. His mother was a black woman from Guadeloupe, and his father was one of the French administrators on that island. He was about ten years old when his family returned to Paris.

He quickly emerged as a prodigious polymath. As he matured he became more known for his swordsmanship, but he also built up an impressive catalog of compositions. His first published music was a collection of six string quartets (the “magic number” for most eighteenth-century composers). Unlike the works of the Viennese composers, Saint-Georges’ quartets all consisted of only two movements, an Allegro followed by a Rondo. Catalyst opened their program with two of these quartets, the fourth in C minor and the sixth in D major. These offerings were probably “first contact” experiences for most of the audience. Nevertheless, even in the minor key, the music offered an affable rhetoric that readily engaged and sustained the attention of the serious listener.

The first half of the program concluded with William Grant Still’s “Lyric String Quartette.” This also departed from the usual conventions of a string quartet. Subtitled “Musical Portraits of Three Friends,” the composition amounts to a collection of three tone poems, each reflecting the dispositions of three dedicatees. These individuals are not named, but those dispositions are described in the movement titles: “The Sentimental One,” “The Quiet One,” and “The Jovial One.” Chamber music does not often serve as a vehicle for program music, but each of these brief movements definitely unfolds as an engaging character study.

The second half of the program was devoted entirely to the music of Florence Price. Readers may recall that she is the subject of the second volume in the UNCOVERED series of albums recorded by the Catalyst Quartet. This two-CD collection accounts for all of Price’s currently known chamber music compositions. However, given the recent discoveries of previously unknown scores, “currently known” is a caveat to be respected!

Burton began this portion with a set of Price’s songs. Accompanied at the piano by Robert Mollicone, he sang Price’s arrangement of the spiritual “My Soul’s Been Anchored in the Lord.” This arrangement was recorded by Marian Anderson, probably serving as the first recording of any of Price’s music. This was followed by two of Price’s “original” songs, “Sunset” and “The Poet and His Song.” Burton concluded his set with “Night,” scored for string quartet accompaniment and bringing Catalyst back to the stage.

Catalyst then concluded the program with Price’s A minor string quartet. This was given its world premiere recording on their UNCOVERED album and was the second of only two quartets in the collection. (The first, in G major, consists of two movements and was probably unfinished.) Like many of Price’s four-movement compositions, the structure is familiar but her scherzo movement draws upon her own familiarity with the juba.

In many ways this quartet complements her symphonic writing. (It was composed after she completed her first symphony.) There is clearly much for the attentive listener to mine from Price’s writing for string quartet, and Catalyst should be recognized for providing a recording through which one can become better acquainted with this music.