DAVID MELLOR

Rachel Barton Pine Violin Concertos By Black Composers Through The Centuries Cedille, out now )))))

For more than 25 years the American virtuoso Rachel Barton Pine (right), who is white, has collected over 700 works by more than 450 black composers. This fascinating album is in part a reissue of her first CD of such music, recorded in 1997, with the addition of the Second Violin Concerto of Florence Price (18871953), well recorded in Glasgow last year with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

Price composed more than 300 pieces, most of which have never been performed by professional musicians.

The 15-minute concerto is a joy, lyrical and accessible in equal measure, and composed with great fluency and sophistication. In recent times I have listened to as much of the music of Price as I can lay my hands on. It’s a tragedy that such a talent was never promoted, firstly because she was a woman, and secondly because she was black.

Time to do her justice.

The concerto by Joseph Bologne, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745-1799) is a contrast because he, unlike Price, was not the victim of prejudice.

The son of a white French Caribbean aristocrat and one of his slaves, his father encouraged him to become not only a highly regarded musician, but also one of the finest swordsmen in France. In recent times some have compared him to Mozart. That’s overdone, but he is a real talent, as this concerto establishes.

It was also good to encounter our own Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Romance (1899), though his subsequent violin concerto is more accomplished.

The only disappointment here is a concerto by José White Lafitte (18361918). Lafitte was a talented violinist, heard all over Europe and elsewhere. This concerto, however, is full of clever tricks, but little in the way of musical substance. Entertaining though. You won’t regret hearing it.