F Price Songs of the Oak; Concert Overtures Nos 1 & 2; The Oak; Colonial Dance; Suite of Dances Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen/John Jeter Naxos 8.559920 59:07 mins
Having already conducted Florence Price albums in his native Arkansas and Vienna, the indefatigable enthusiast John Jeter has now arrived in Reutlingen in south-west Germany, home of the Württenbergische Philharmonie. The players expend lots of energy interpreting her often bumptiously vibrant music, much of it seemingly unperformed when she was alive, though it’s a pity that Jeter’s suitcase didn’t contain a stronger selection of pieces.
The brief dances that close the album (the four-minute Suite of Dances is an orchestration of the Three Little Negro Dances for piano) delight in clear-cut forms, melodic charm and the dancing African-American swagger that is one of Price’s most pleasing trademarks. The other works, alas, point more to her flaws, especially her fidgety way with larger structures. The Concert Overture No. 2 subjects three spirituals to so many chops and changes that any hope of momentum is lost. With the symphonies’ attractive quirks of colouring mostly missing, Price’s textures can quickly get heavy and blousy: a notable feature of Songs of the Oak, an overblown tone poem laden with rather too many sonorous brass oak trees standing tall while birds and chipmunks twitter and scamper, and heavy gusts blow through, always knocking over the percussion section. The Oak, cut from similar cloth the same year (1943), is shorter, gloomier and with fewer chipmunks.
The German musicians are not devoid of flair and manage a nice trombone slide when required. But with Price on this album awkwardly handling much of her material, success comes with strict limits.
Geoff Brown