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 Most of Florence Price’s compositions remained unpublished at her death, and her String Quartet in A minor was not performed in her lifetime.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 colourful 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.

This recording is very much part of an encouraging rediscovery of Florence Price, the first African American female to have a symphonic work performed in Chicago back in 1933, coupled with Leo Sowerby’s unpublished String Quartet in G minor. This is the kind of release that adds significantly to our knowledge of American classical music in the 1930s, topped off with the attraction of Price’s better-known Five Folksongs in Counterpoint from 1951.

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 America’s leading chamber music ensembles. In 2018 they released an acclaimed recording of the complete quartets of Matthew Quayle for Naxos (8559851): ‘Vividly recorded and thoughtfully annotated (by Quayle himself), this is a welcome introduction to a composer from whom one looks forward to hearing more’ (Gramophone). In 2018 they have also recorded Aqua by Harold Meltzer for Bridge Records, a recording which received a Grammy nomination for Best Classical Compendium.