Both young-phenom violinist
Randall Goosby
and conductor
Yannick Nezet-Seguin
have championed the music of
Florence Beatrice Price
, and this
Decca
release seems a major effort to bring her music into the concert mainstream, juxtaposing it with one of the warhorses of the repertory, the
Violin Concerto in G minor, Op. 26
, of
Max Bruch
. It works well, with a broadly appealing program that hangs together.
Goosby
has a recognizable brilliant tone, sometimes compared with that of
Itzhak Perlman
, that is generally well suited to this music. Other violinists have offered more sentiment in the
Bruch
concerto, but his reading is fully thought out and fits with
Nezet-Seguin
's restrained, somewhat hushed tone (sample the Adagio). It works well in the
Violin Concerto No. 1
(1939) of
Price
, a work with elements of
Dvorak
and
Tchaikovsky
mixed with a lightly African-American idiom that is mostly given to the soloist. The later
Violin Concerto No. 2
, written shortly before
's death, is more compact although not necessarily more effective;
's clean, neutral playing displays it at its best here, and once again, his coordination with
's
Philadelphia Orchestra
bodes well for a substantial future. Another bonus is the presence of
Adoration
, an organ work that has been recorded several times in this violin-and-orchestra version, and a work that seems to fill the need for a crowd-pleaser, encore-type work from this composer; it too showcases
's talent. Those wanting to sample the music of
, rapidly rising in the concert hall, would do well to choose this release, which landed on classical best-seller lists in the spring of 2023. ~ James Manheim