Saturday, February 3, 2018

Albany TimesUnion: Sweet Power concerts to highlight work of Florence Price

Florence B. Price


New York State


Friday, February 2, 2018
The Musicians of Ma'alwyck and the Capital Trio are joining forces for a program that's being performed twice this week, Wednesday at the University at Albany, and Friday at Schenectady County Community College. The major work on the program, titled Sweet Power, is Dvorak's lyric Piano Quintet. In an intriguing nod to Black History Month, the concert opens with Florence Price's Five Folksongs in Counterpoint.
Price was a respected and productive composer whose music has been mostly overlooked. Born in 1887 in Little Rock, she trained in Boston and spent the last decades of her life in Chicago. 
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As for Price's work, the folk songs should be easily recognized: "Calvary," "Clementine," "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes," "Shortnin' Bread" and "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot."
"The pieces are not mere restatements or instrumental arrangements of the songs. They are much more developed, unique and artistic than that," says Barker Schwartz. "The writing is complex and thick and contrapuntally sophisticated within a 20th-century idiom, incorporating many jazzy elements while adhering to the rules of counterpoint. Every time that we rehearse, I hear something new and surprising and delightful or satisfying."
Performances will be at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the University at Albany Performing Arts Center (Tickets, $4-8. Info: 518-442-3995) and 7 p.m. Friday at Schenectady County Community College Taylor Auditorium. (Tickets, $10-$25. Info: 814- 441-0852.) 

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I really like Price's Folk Songs in Counterpoint. They are complex in a good way and very exciting.