Catalyst Quartet “Uncovers” its Third Album

Many readers probably know by now that the Catalyst Quartet will be curating the 2023 PIVOT Festival presented by San Francisco Performances. This will take place at 7:30 p.m. on three successive evenings: Tuesday, February 21, Wednesday, February 22, and Thursday, February 23. The occasion will provide a platform for the Uncovered series, which Catalyst curated last season. The members of the quartet are violinists Karla Donehew Perez and Abi Fayette, violist Paul Laraia, and cellist Karlos Rodriguez; and they will perform with a visiting guest artist during the first two Festival concerts.

courtesy of Crossover Media

This occasion will mark the release of the third volume in Catalyst’s UNCOVERED series of albums on the Azica Records label. For those that do not already know, the first volume was devoted entirely to the music of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor; and the “beneficiary” of the second volume was Florence Price. The third volume, which was released at the beginning of this month, presents three compositions, each written by a different composer. As of this writing, the album is only available through Amazon.com as an MP3 download.

The opening selection is the first string quartet composed by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, given the title “Calvary.” It is followed by William Grant Still’s “Lyric Quartet,” consisting of three movements each portraying a different character type. The final selection reflects on both of its predecessors. It presents another first string quartet, this one by George Walker, who assigned the title “Lyric” to it.

All three of these pieces will be familiar to those that followed last season’s Uncovered series. Each was included as part of a different recital program. Walker’s quartet was performed in October of 2021. Perkinson’s quartet was presented about a month later. Still’s quartet was performed almost exactly a year ago from today.

Presumably, the selections that Catalyst has prepared for the PIVOT Festival will find their way to their next UNCOVERED album. Readers probably know by now that the music of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, will be performed on each of the three programs. If that is not a harbinger of a new recording, I do not know what is!