Concerto No. 1 in D Major for Violin and Piano; Florence Price (Schirmer)
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Florence Price (1887-1953) was an American composer and an influential figure in Chicago's Black Renaissance. Born and raised in Arkansas, she enrolled at Boston's New England Conservatory at age 15 and showed incredible promise. She eventually moved to Chicago, where she wrote most of her works and became the first African-American woman to be programmed by a major orchestra.
In 2009, a substantial catalogue of her compositions was rescued from an abandoned Illinois house slated for demolition. Since then, her music has rapidly re-entered the wider classical canon. Beautifully romantic and infused with the rich cultural heritage of African-American idioms, her music represents an integral part of America's musical history and, as Alex Ross of the New Yorker asserts, ''deserves to be widely heard.''
Price's Violin Concerto No. 1 (1939) was one of the pieces saved from oblivion in 2009 and was first performed and recorded in 2017. It is in three movements and takes about 24 minutes to perform. It takes cues from traditional romantic concertos by Tchaikovsky and Dvorak, while incorporating blues harmonies and call-and-response forms from sprituals. Her challenging, idiomatic, and rewarding violin writing has contributed to the popularity of her two concertos. This reduction for piano and violin is a necessary addition to any serious violinist's collection.
