Samuel Coleridge-Taylor - Uncovered, Vol. 1 (Catalyst Quartet; etc.)

Information

Composer: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

• (01) Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 1
• (05) 5 Fantasiestücke for String Quartet, Op. 5
• (10) Clarinet Quintet in F sharp minor, Op. 10

Catalyst Quartet

Stewart Goodyear, piano

Anthony McGill, clarinet

Date: 2021

Label: Azica

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Review

The Catalyst Quartet certainly live up to their name. The musicians are devoted to changing the way audiences perceive classical music. They embrace a spectrum of composers, including many of colour who deserve far greater attention in performance and on recordings than they’ve received. The first volume of their newest recording project, ‘Uncovered’, is an illuminating programme of music for string quartet, piano and clarinet by the Afro-British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912), who was a teenage student at the Royal College of Music in London when he wrote these works.

Like Mozart and Mendelssohn, Coleridge-Taylor showed artistic maturity at an extraordinarily young age. Before moving on to write such large works as The Song of Hiawatha and A Tale of Old Japan, he penned beguiling chamber music suffused with Central European Romanticism. The influence of Brahms and especially Dvořák can be discerned in the robust and lyrical pieces the Catalyst Quartet play with gleaming commitment. But Coleridge-Taylor, who was admired by Elgar, was no mimic: these works show a musical mind of fervent imagination.

The earliest piece, the Quintet in G minor for piano and strings (c1893), immediately introduces the composer’s heightened abilities in the first movement’s bold opening thrusts. Strings and piano go on to share material of intense feeling and often folk-like personality. The album’s two other works, from 1895, are equally vibrant in inventiveness and poetic warmth. In the five Fantasiestücke, the string quartet engages in charming and pensive musings full of Bohemian inspiration, while the Clarinet Quintet is perhaps the richest of the three, with a slow movement that reaches the sublime.

The performances, captured with intimate clarity, couldn’t be more loving. The Catalyst Quartet – whose second violinist on this recording, Jessie Montgomery, is developing an important career as a composer – play with sophistication and animation, and they collaborate with two exceptional musicians, pianist Stewart Goodyear and clarinettist Anthony McGill. Next up in the series is an album of works by Florence Price, to be followed, the booklet notes promise, by volumes devoted to Joseph Boulogne Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, William Grant Still and George Walker.

-- Donald Rosenberg, Gramophone

More reviews:
https://www.classical-music.com/reviews/chamber/coleridge-taylor-fantasiestucke-quintets/

https://limelightmagazine.com.au/reviews/uncovered-vol-1-samuel-coleridge-taylor/

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Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (15 August 1875 – 1 September 1912) was an English composer of Sierra Leone Creole descent who achieved such success that he was once called the "African Mahler" by New York musicians. He was particularly known for his three cantatas based on the epic poem, Song of Hiawatha. Coleridge-Taylor also composed chamber music, anthems, and the African Dances for violin, among other works. The Petite Suite de Concert is still regularly played. Coleridge-Taylor was greatly admired by African Americans, with public schools were named after him in Louisville and Baltimore.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Coleridge-Taylor

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The Grammy Award-winning Catalyst Quartet was founded by the internationally acclaimed Sphinx Organization in 2010. The ensemble includes Karla Donehew Perez (violin), Abi Fayette (violin), Paul Laraia (viola), and Karlos Rodriguez (cello). The quartet has toured widely throughout the United States and abroad; recent seasons have brought international engagements in Russia, South Korea, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, and Puerto Rico, and expanded tours throughout the United States. The Catalyst Quartet’s recordings can be found on Azica, Progressive Sounds, and Mack Avenue Records.

https://catalystquartet.com/

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