Prom 27 (24.08.21) - Chineke! Orchestra

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30 Tuesday 24 August 2021 ON TV
Royal Albert Hall

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast – overture
Feel Sowande: African Suite
Florence Price: Piano Concerto in One Movement
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Symphony in A minor


Jeneba Kanneh-Mason piano
Chineke! Orchestra
Kalena Bovell conductor

The Chineke! Orchestra returns for its fourth visit to the Proms, celebrating diversity in composers as well as performers. Black British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s overture to his popular cantata based on the tale of a Native American leader quotes the spiritual ‘Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen’. There are further meetings of African and European musical styles in Nigerian composer Fela Sowande’s African Suite and the piano concerto by Florence Price, the first female African-American composer to win renown in America. By contrast, Coleridge-Taylor’s Symphony, written as a 20-year old student of Stanford at London’s Royal College of Music, reveals the influence of his hero, Dvořák.

[jayne lee wilson]

Another intriguing adventure tonight.....

Shilling Life of Fela Sowande ....

https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/fela-sowande-nigerian-composer-music-life-career-african-suite/

Florence Price...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-56322440

[edashtav]

Another intriguing adventure tonight.....

Shilling Life of Fela Sowande ....

https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/fela-sowande-nigerian-composer-music-life-career-african-suite/

Florence Price...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-56322440

Will Coleridge-Taylor’s student effort at a symphony sustain the audience’s interest without the presence of Holst on trombone and RVW playing the triangle as at the work’s premiere? I doubt it.

By the way, Samuel, had so much difficulty with getting the work’s finale past his tutor, Stanford, that , at the premiere, only the first three movements were played. Pre-echoes of Walton?

[John Wright]

The promslist.pdf says
>19:30 Tuesday 24 August 2021 ON TV
Royal Albert Hall
<

but it is not on my TV :(

[LHC]

The promslist.pdf says
>19:30 Tuesday 24 August 2021 ON TV
Royal Albert Hall
<

but it is not on my TV :(

It’s on BBC FOUR on Thursday evening at 8:00 pm

[Alison]

Delighted to hear a live performance of the Symphony.

[King_Ouf_I]

On the train home after the concert. C-T very acceptable, Price a bit disappointing as I liked the recent recording of the Piano Quintet on Chandos quite a lot. Sowande intermittently interesting when he let his roots show, otherwise sounded very English (not a criticism as such, but a disappointment)

[edashtav]

On the train home after the concert. C-T very acceptable, Price a bit disappointing as I liked the recent recording of the Piano Quintet on Chandos quite a lot. Sowande intermittently interesting when he let his roots show, otherwise sounded very English (not a criticism as such, but a disappointment)

I enjoyed Florence Price’s Piano Concerto for its exuberance and freshness of invention. It was inconsistent in idiom but no more, perhaps, than Gershwin’s Piano Concerto. Lisztian in scale, it did not outstay its welcome and the scoring was colourful and transparent. A welcome discovery. The Coleridge-Taylor Impromptu was an excellent choice as encore which Jeneba Kanneh-Mason played with affection.

Fela Sowande’s African Suite for strings was insufficiently Yorubian, as King_Ouf_I indicated. Fela seemed to be able to embrace many styles of music and was clearly a very bright, witty man, but he was probably overkeen to fit in.
I rather like the tale one Eastbourne reporter told against himself. Lacking sufficient knowledge to fill his allotted column introducing an appearance by Sowande in the town’s Winter Gardens, he tastelessly wrote words to the effect that he had just realised that the artiste’s name, when reversed, became ‘Edna Wos Alef’. In the next edition, the reporter admitted that he’d been phoned by Fela and given a light-hearted, amusing, but pointed lecture on the structure, derivation and meaning of Yorubian names.

As for Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s symphony, I have to say that the Chineke! Orchestra with Kalena Bovell as conductor made a surprisingly good case for this apprentice piece, so much so that I need to withdraw some of the dismissive remarks that I made earlier.

[gradus]

Heard about 20 mins of the Coleridge-Taylor and enjoyed it, another candidate for more regular programming. A beautiful sound made by the orchestra too.

[John Wright]

>> It’s on BBC FOUR on Thursday evening at 8:00 pm<>

Thank you LHC

[BBMmk2]

A very good, enterprising Prom. Most enjoyable.

[Barbirollians]

I have enjoyed this Prom a great deal Perhaps one of Florence Price’s symphonies and CT ‘s violin concerto would be good for a future Chineke Prom

[Barbirollians]

I have enjoyed this Prom a great deal Perhaps one of Florence Price’s symphonies and CT ‘s violin concerto would be good for a future Chineke Prom

Frankly, amazed that CT’s symphony has not been recorded - immensely charming work.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Price's symphonies 3 & 4 are on Naxos, just ordered Nothing else is, so their American Music series has a bit of work to do still! Including the piano concerto we heard, which doesn't show at all on UK or US Amazon. In fact I'm amazed how little of her stuff seems to be on the latter.

[Barbirollians]

Yes - perhaps an enterprising record company might think they would make a good coupling with today’s forces.