Page 510 - Liverpool Philharmonic 22-23 Season Coverage Book

Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1, Florence Price: Violin Concertos 1 and 2, Adoration Randall
Goosby (violin), Philadelphia Orchestra/Yannick Nézet-Séguin (Decca)

There’s much to enjoy here, but how frustrating that this disc’s sleeve notes reveal
next to nothing about the main reason for listening to it. Thank goodness for
Wikipedia, which tells us that Florence Price’s two violin concertos date from 1939
and 1952 and were rediscovered in 2009 as part of a stash of papers and
manuscripts found in her abandoned Illinois summerhouse. In Alex Ross’s words, “a
large quantity of Price’s music came perilously close to obliteration”, pointing out that

her abandoned home was “a potent symbol of how a country can forget its cultural
history.” Was she a major talent? I’m new to her music, so unqualified to comment
as yet. That said, Concerto No. 1 is discursive but irresistibly melodic, a three-
movement work which sounds in places like a mixture of Dvořák and Gershwin. The
bluesy trumpet solo at the beginning of the slow movement is a case in point,