Price & Sowerby: Music for String Quartet Avalon String Quartet

• Florence Beatrice Price (1887 - 1953): String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor:
• 1 Price: String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor: I. Moderato 10:00
• 2 Price: String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor: II. Andante cantabile 05:50
• 3 Price: String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor: III. Juba. Allegro 04:02
• 4 Price: String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor: IV. Finale. Allegro 05:53
• String Quartet in G Minor, H. 226:
• 5 Price: String Quartet in G Minor, H. 226: I. Languidly, darkly - Fast, with dash 13:47
• 6 Price: String Quartet in G Minor, H. 226: II. Very fast 06:03
• 7 Price: String Quartet in G Minor, H. 226: III. Slowly, rhapsodically 05:43
• 8 Price: String Quartet in G Minor, H. 226: IV. Broadly - Moderately fast, yet with broad sweep 05:55
• 5 Folksongs in Counterpoint for String Quartet:
• 9 Price: 5 Folksongs in Counterpoint for String Quartet: No. 1, Calvary. Adagio vigoroso 03:54
• 10 Price: 5 Folksongs in Counterpoint for String Quartet: No. 2, Clementine. Andantino 02:47
• 11 Price: 5 Folksongs in Counterpoint for String Quartet: No. 3, Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes. Andantino cantabile 04:03
• 12 Price: 5 Folksongs in Counterpoint for String Quartet: No. 4, Shortnin' Bread. Allegro 01:17
• 13 Price: 5 Folksongs in Counterpoint for String Quartet: No. 5, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. Andantino 05:00
• Total Runtime 01:14:14

Info for Price & Sowerby: Music for String Quartet

Florence Price and Leo Sowerby were both prominent members of the Chicago music community in the 1930s and 1940s, and they are known to have respected each other’s work. Most of Florence Price’s compositions remained unpublished at her death, and her String Quartet in A minor was not performed in her lifetime. Its African American vernacular idioms and colorful harmonic language are characteristics shared in the famous melodies woven into the later Five Folksongs in Counterpoint. From its brooding opening through propulsive rhythms, expressive lyrical melodies and fugal finale, this premiere recording of Sowerby’s String Quartet in G minor reveals a work undeserving of its decades of obscurity.

Florence Price and Leo Sowerby spent most of their careers in Chicago and became prominent members of its musical community in the 1930s and 1940s.

Although the extent of their interaction is unclear, the two respected and corresponded with each other. This recording features two of their string quartets, both from 1935, which have languished in undeserved obscurity, and it closes with a later and slightly better-known Price quartet.

Avalon String Quartet

Avalon String Quartet
Described by the Chicago Tribune as an ensemble that invites you ears, mind, and spirit into its music, the Avalon String Quartet has established itself as one of the country's leading chamber music ensembles.

The Avalon has performed in major venues including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the 92nd St Y, Merkin Hall, and Bargemusic in New York; the Library of Congress and National Gallery of Art in Washington DC; Wigmore Hall in London; and Herculessaal in Munich. Other performances include appearances at the Bath International Music Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, Caramoor, La Jolla Chamber Music Society, NPR's St. Paul Sunday, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Dame Myra Hess Concerts, Los Angeles Music Guild, and the Ravinia Festival. The quartet performs an annual concert series in historic Fullerton Hall at the Art Institute of Chicago, where it has presented the complete quartet cycles of Beethoven, Bartok, and Brahms in recent seasons.

The Avalon is quartet-in-residence at the Northern Illinois University School of Music, a position formerly held by the Vermeer Quartet. Additional teaching activities have included the Icicle Creek Chamber Music Institute, Interlochen Advanced Quartet Program, Madeline Island Music Camp, and the Britten-Pears School in England, as well as masterclasses at universities and conservatories throughout the United States. Additionally, they have given numerous performances and presentations to young audiences in under-resourced schools and communities.

In summer 2015, the quartet will be releasing Illuminations, it's first recording for Cedille Records. This follows a critically acclaimed CD of contemporary American works on the Albany label in 2010. The Avalon String Quartet's debut CD, Dawn to Dusk, featuring quartets by Ravel and Janacek, was honored with the 2002 Chamber Music America/WQXR Record Award for best chamber music recording.

The quartet's live performances and conversations are frequently featured on Chicago fine arts radio station WFMT. They have also been heard on New York's WQXR and WNYC, National Public Radio's Performance Today, Canada's CBC, Australia's ABC, the ARD of Germany, and France Musique.

The Avalon captured the top prize at the ARD Competition in Munich (2000) and First Prize at the Concert Artists Guild Competition in New York (1999). In its early years, the ensemble trained intensively with the Juilliard Quartet at The Juilliard School, the Emerson Quartet at the Hartt School of Music, and the Vermeer Quartet at Northern Illinois University.

Booklet for Price & Sowerby: Music for String Quartet