Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Kazuki Yamada, Pablo Ferrández

Awarded a prize in the Rodman-Wanamaker Competition in 1932, her work was performed shortly thereafter by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra—the first work by a Black composer to be performed by a major U.S. orchestra.

In the symphony, Price blends classical traditions with African American soundscapes and deliberately contrasts Dvořák’s Ninth with a juba dance. In doing so, she expands the possibilities of the genre and connects European symphonic music with her own cultural roots.

Antonín Dvořák, too, engaged intensively with local musical traditions during his time in America. His famous Cello Concerto, however, follows his Bohemian idiom more closely. The work also bears a personal touch: he dedicated the heartfelt Adagio to his seriously ill sister-in-law, Josefína. After her death, he revised the finale, which ends with a fading cello solo.

Instrumentation

• German Symphony Orchestra Berlin
• Kazuki Yamada, conductor
• Pablo Ferrández, cello

Program

Antonín Dvořák

Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in B minor, Op. 104

Pablo Ferrández, cello

Florence Price

Symphony No. 1 in E minor