Florence Price Symphony #3, Mississippi River & Ethiopia's Shadow in America

[Sharkkb8]

For those who said they were searching for Florence Price's Symphony #3 in the recent "Florence Price VC's 1 & 2" thread (and were describing understandable price-resistance to the Koch recording), Naxos has recently released, on its "American Classics" sub-label, that symphony plus The Mississippi River & Ethiopia's Shadow in America. 


Presto:  https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9254732--florence-beatrice-price-symphony-no-3-in-c-minor

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Price-Symphony-Vienna-Orchestra-8559897/dp/B09FSCKLHB/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=florence+price+symphony+3&qid=1638052222&qsid=260-9465882-0764903&s=music&sr=1-2&sres=B09KZ5RXQ9%2CB09FSCKLHB%2CB07KM16SDP%2CB0000069CT%2CB00000AEOG&srpt=ABIS_MUSIC

Amazon USA:  https://smile.amazon.com/Symphony-3-Vienna-Radio-Orchestra/dp/B09FSCKLHB/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=Florence+Price+Symphony+%233&qid=1638051843&s=music&sr=1-2

Apple: https://music.apple.com/us/album/price-symphony-no-3-the-mississippi-river-ethiopias/1592152081

[Sharkkb8]

.....and in the "when it rains, it pours" category, another recording of Price's Symphony #3 (along with the 1st) is due out from DGG in mid-January 2022. 

Gramophone: "Nézet-Séguin and his Philadelphia Orchestra are body and soul into the joy and resolve of this music. Price can only have dreamt of performances like these."

Presto shows it here:

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9252023--florence-price-symphonies-nos-1-3

[eschiss1]

If we take it as read and written that many people here are unenthusiastic about new Price releases much time and angst can be saved by all.

[Sharkkb8]

If we take it as read and written that many people here are unenthusiastic about new Price releases much time and angst can be saved by all.

Understood, but the Price VC thread below included several observations which were anything but "unenthusiastic", including one member who said "As for the 3rd Symphony...[snip]... I've been looking for a while, and have been unable to find a clean copy for anything less than an arm and two legs.", so that's why I posted this release. 

http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,6743.msg71717.html#msg71717

[edurban]

It's easy enough to skip over the topics people are 'unenthusiastic' about, I do it all the time.  I for one am grateful for this information...

[Gareth Vaughan]

Dave Hurwitz discusses Florence Price's music here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7x5XyJ8w7Q and is very complimentary about the works on the recently released Naxos disk containing her 3rd Symphony.

[Mark Thomas]

Although I don't share in the praise he heaps on the Symphony itself,  I must say he otherwise talks a lot of sense about what might be called the politics of gaining entry to the accepted repertoire. Very interesting.

[Gareth Vaughan]

I must say he otherwise talks a lot of sense about what might be called the politics of gaining entry to the accepted repertoire.

Doesn't he just!

I actually think the other works on that CD are better than the 3rd symphony, however.

[Alan Howe]

Yes, the problem is DH's over-estimate of Price's music. I'm afraid he's climbed on the bandwagon in this case.

[Ilja]

Or he's just genuinely convinced it's that good. There are no absolute truths in this matter, and DH, for all his foibles, doesn't come across to me as the bandwagon type.

[Alan Howe]

DH is the usually the creator of his own bandwagons, but not in this case.

Here's his published opinion of Symphonies 1 and 4 on Naxos:
That said, she wasn't much of a symphonist. Price sounds most comfortable when she gets away from the strictures of sonata form–that is, her first movements. These are an uncomfortable patchwork of disconnected ideas, repetitiously restated, especially in the Fourth Symphony. Her slow movements, though, are lovely, and while the First Symphony follows the conventional order of movements, with a "Juba Dance" replacing the third movement scherzo, in the Fourth Symphony the finale actually is a scherzo, preceded by another "Juba Dance." All of this is to say that there's both thought and originality here despite her discomfort with symphonic form, and you will have to decide if it's enough to compensate for those long, stiff opening movements.
https://www.classicstoday.com/review/florence-price-two-symphonies/

Not much of a symphonist - quite! An uncomfortable patchwork of disconnected ideas, repetitiously stated - that's more like it, Dave!

[MartinH]

Having followed comments on UC and then seeing the Hurwitz love-fest, I just had to hear the 3rd. I thought that BBC Music magazine had a recording some time ago, and I located it eventually. Never bothered listening to it. I had heard the 1st live in concert a couple of years ago - not impressed at all. Then came the Naxos recording; neither the 1st or 4th seemed worth all the trouble. The 3rd is no masterpiece, either. What does Hurwitz hear that I don't? Of course in the USA today, saying that it's not great music will instantly make you subject to claims of "racist" or misogynist. There is pressure on even small, amateur orchestras to play music other than Dead White European Males. One local orchestra I am involved with has been informed by civic leaders that our future funding will be dependent on us playing music by women, minorities, LGBTQ and other "missing" groups. Price's music would check off a couple of boxes.

[Ilja]

Not much of a symphonist - quite! An uncomfortable patchwork of disconnected ideas, repetitiously stated - that's more like it, Dave!

But he's a) entitled to change his opinion, and b) to have a different one about the Third Symphony - as, since he's calling it "completely successful", he obviously does. There is no eternal truth here, and tastes evolve.

The 3rd is no masterpiece, either.

Nor does it need to be. I thought the whole point of this forum was to leave the thought behind us that a work needs to be a masterpiece (whatever that means) to deserve attention.

[Alan Howe]

The point, though, Ilja, is that Price's music has been extensively and ridiculously over-hyped. Everyone needs to calm down and reflect with as much objectivity as possible upon her admittedly attractive, but minor talent. 

The 3rd is no masterpiece, either.

Don't take that comment too literally, Ilja. When we say that something's no masterpiece, we just mean that it's not up to all the hype which suggests that it is. 

The objective reality is that Price's music is, generally speaking, of mixed quality. To suggest anything more is just silly and does a grave disservice to the many composers whose music deserves rather more than a fraction of the attention currently being given to hers.

[Double-A]

I do observe quite a bit of "overhyping of minor talents" on this forum though--generally this is not discussed much.  The question then becomes:  Why does it cause a big debate (in two threads) in this case?'