The 2010s and 2020s have seen a considerable revival of concert music by African American composers, but it is mostly those who emphasize African American roots, none more than
Florence Beatrice Price
, who have benefited from this impulse. The two composers represented on this release by the
Experiential Orchestra
,
Julia Perry
and
Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson
, remain little performed, and one reason may be that their music is more oriented toward European styles. Both composers were capable of working in an African American idiom (hear
Perkinson
's opening
Louisiana Blues Strut: A Cakewalk
), and the neglect is hardly fair; a different composer, when questioned about European models, liked to say, "I wrote this music. I'm Black. Therefore it's Black music." The present release is, therefore, most welcome. The program is short, but one hears a substantial work from each composer.
's
Sinfonietta No. 1
is a contrapuntally dense but sprightly orchestral work that bespeaks its young composer's study of
Hindemith
.
Perry
Violin Concerto
, featuring the capable
Curtis Stewart
on the solo part, is less easily situated in regard to models but holds the listener's attention with its six contrasting sections (it is all in one movement), each of which is subdivided into smaller bits.
Stewart
contributes a kind of encore, a violin-and-electronics piece called
We Who Seek
that makes a rather jarring transition from the rest of the music but is intriguing on its own. Conductor
James Blachly
keeps this independent orchestra on an even keel rhythmically, and the performances are uniformly satisfying. Collections of music by African Americans will find valuable new material here. ~ James Manheim