The three composers on this digital-only album are Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, William Grant Still and George Walker. Ten years ago they were as good as unknown outside the US and hardly household names even in the country of their birth.
The rediscovery of African-American composers spurred by cultural changes since the death of George Floyd three years ago continues apace. The Catalyst Quartet’s chamber music series Uncovered has already produced some desirable finds and this third volume suggests there are plenty more where those came from.
The three quartets included this time date from roughly 1940 to 1956. While leading postwar European composers were committing themselves to hardline serialism, each of these three Americans was exploring more appealing styles closer to home.
Perkinson’s String Quartet No 1, “Calvary”, is inspired by the spiritual of the same name. The music offers an attractive blend of the romantic and the modern, which admits echoes of jazz in its later stages. The movements of Still’s Lyric Quartette represent a plantation, the mountains of Peru and a pioneer settlement, and the musical style embraces a strain of each, while remaining heartfelt and lyrical in the Dvořák style.
The weightiest is Walker’s tautly argued String Quartet No 1, “Lyric”, best known today for its rich slow movement, often performed separately as the Lyric for Strings. All three get persuasive performances from the Catalyst Quartet. Each deserves its renewed turn in the spotlight.
★★★★☆
‘Uncovered Vol 3’ is released by Azica Records
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