Price: Violin concerto no 2

Day 327

Florence Price: Violin concerto no 2

Randall Goosby

Philadelphia Orchestra

Yaniick Nézet-Séguin

I played in a performance of Price’s first symphony a couple of years ago. I enjoyed it a lot though I didn’t regarded it as the masterpiece that some commentators have suggested it is - a touch of special pleading there I think. Since then I have heard the other symphonies and the first violin concerto but this second concerto was new to me.

It is a fairly short piece in one movement. Stylistically it is rather all over the place. Some of the more lyrical music could easily have passed for minor Brahms but the more extrovert music was in places quite close to the bandstand!  I think that Price struggled to find a consistent voice - the same thing can be said of the symphonies.  Having said that the music itself was attractive and lyrical and there were some interesting orchestral effects - I didn’t have a score but what sounded like a prominent part for celesta at the beginning added a certain piquancy to the texture.  So well worth listening to but much as I admire Price’s personal narrative and the struggle she had for recognition this is not much more than a curiosity.