Revival Bonds: Spiritual Suite; Price: Piano Sonata in E minor; Fantasie nègre Nos 1, 2 & 4 Michelle Cann (piano) Curtis Studio (digital only) 63:18 mins
Acclaimed pianist Michelle Cann has long been a champion of African-American composer Florence Price, and this fine new recording brings together two substantial works by Price for solo piano alongside Margaret Bonds’s glorious Spiritual Suite.
Born in Arkansas in 1887 in the midst of the Jim Crow segregation laws, Florence Price showed early talent at the piano and went on to forge a remarkable path as a composer. Her series of Fantasie nègre for solo piano (the first of which was premiered by a young Margaret Bonds), were composed across the 1930s and ’40s: they present a new musical genre which fused elements of European classical music with African-American spirituals. Each of the Fantasie nègre included here is intricately constructed, and Cann’s vivid performances bring out a terrific depth of emotion – among many such fine moments, the final rendition of the spiritual ‘Sinner, Please Don’t Let This Harvest Pass’ in No. 1 is breathtakingly powerful. Price’s Piano Sonata in E minor is every bit as accomplished and Cann’s reading is poised yet vital, drawing out the work’s vibrant polyrhythms and creating a wonderful sense of line in the luscious slow movement.
The selection is completed by Margaret Bonds’s Spiritual Suite. Written as a showstopper to close her own solo recitals, the work incorporates gospel, jazz and blues into its often virtuosic score. Only the final movement of the suite was published in Bonds’s lifetime so it is gladdening to see the work championed here in a performance from Cann that is as subtle as it is exuberant.
Kate Wakeling
