Coleridge-Taylor - Toussaint L’Ouverture, Ballade, Suites from ‘24 Negro Melodies’
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Label: Avie
Cat No: AV2763
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 1
Genre: Orchestral
Release Date: 1st August 2025
Contents
Works
Ballade in D minor, op.4Negro Melodies (24), op.59: Suite (ed. P Meadows, L Harrison)
Negro Melodies (24), op.59
» no.4 They Will Not Lend Me a Child (arr. Curtis Stewart, Andrew Roitstein)
» no.9 The Angels Changed My Name (arr. Curtis Stewart)
» no.10 Deep River (arr. Curtis Stewart, Hamilton Berry)
Toussaint L'OuvertureArtists
Curtis Stewart (violin)National Philharmonic
Conductor
Michael RepperWorks
Ballade in D minor, op.4Negro Melodies (24), op.59: Suite (ed. P Meadows, L Harrison)
Negro Melodies (24), op.59
» no.4 They Will Not Lend Me a Child (arr. Curtis Stewart, Andrew Roitstein)
» no.9 The Angels Changed My Name (arr. Curtis Stewart)
» no.10 Deep River (arr. Curtis Stewart, Hamilton Berry)
Toussaint L'OuvertureArtists
Curtis Stewart (violin)National Philharmonic
Conductor
Michael RepperAbout
Grammy Award-winning conductor Michael Repper and the Washington D.C.-based National Philharmonic celebrate Samuel Coleridge-Taylor with an album of world-premiere recordings commemorating the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth, featuring Grammy-nominated violinist Curtis Stewart who contributes his own arrangements of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's works.
Coleridge-Taylor was a highly prolific and successful composer, yet much of his music remains unknown. Here, Curtis, Michael and the National Philharmonic present the first commercial studio recordings of a selection of works recently recovered by Coleridge-Taylor authorities Lionel Harrison and the late Patrick Meadows, in modern performance editions created using the composer's original manuscripts.
For the Ballade in D minor, composed in 1895, Coleridge-Taylor turned to his own instrument, the violin. Rhapsodic and passionate, the young composer's early promise is on full display. The orchestral version on this recording, featuring soloist Curtis Stewart, is based on the autograph manuscript that was located by Patrick Meadows in the Library of Congress.
British-born Coleridge-Taylor drew inspiration from his African heritage. He was also influenced by the African American spirituals he encountered on a visit to the United States in 1904. On that occasion, he accepted a commission that resulted in 24 Negro Melodies, a collection of which he described, "What Brahms has done for Hungarian folk-music, Dvořák for the Bohemian and Grieg for the Norwegian, I have tried to do for these Negro Melodies." Originally for solo piano and based on African and American melodies, Coleridge-Taylor later orchestrated a five-movement suite which was not performed during his lifetime. The version heard on this recording is based on original manuscripts discovered by Patrick Meadows in the British Library.
Curtis Stewart contributes his own re-imaginings of three of the Negro Melodies. He elaborates: "I was drawn to a 'rebranded' approach of dealing with the history of slavery within one's family, the ownership of a name and its 'rebranding' - reflecting on the American Slave and how Black Americans deal with creating a sense of pride, familial storytelling and lineage in contemporary America. This notion of 'rebranding' extends to the 'Negro Melody'. Coleridge-Taylor originally wrote 24 solo piano works based on spirituals and songs from many parts of the world including Africa and the Americas. My intent with these arrangements is to acknowledge the impact of those melodies on current popular culture and reflect that influence onto the orchestral stage - to create moments where listeners may participate vocally, with movement, or rhythmically clapping along; to maintain a sense of belonging and recognition; to create community around this music in the classical concert hall - an embrace of the source that all contemporary American Concert music extends from, in my belief, America's mother-music: the Blues."
Toussaint L'Ouverture, a former slave and self- proclaimed Creole, was a Haitian general and prominent leader of the Haitian Revolution. Fusing African musical elements with European form, the romantic concert overture is evocative of the symphonic tone poems of Antonín Dvořák, one of Coleridge-Taylor's favourite composers. AVIE Records was at the forefront of resurrecting the music of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, releasing the world-premiere recording of his Violin Concerto in 2004. This new album continues the mission to preserve and promote the great composer's legacy.
Coleridge-Taylor was a highly prolific and successful composer, yet much of his music remains unknown. Here, Curtis, Michael and the National Philharmonic present the first commercial studio recordings of a selection of works recently recovered by Coleridge-Taylor authorities Lionel Harrison and the late Patrick Meadows, in modern performance editions created using the composer's original manuscripts.
For the Ballade in D minor, composed in 1895, Coleridge-Taylor turned to his own instrument, the violin. Rhapsodic and passionate, the young composer's early promise is on full display. The orchestral version on this recording, featuring soloist Curtis Stewart, is based on the autograph manuscript that was located by Patrick Meadows in the Library of Congress.
British-born Coleridge-Taylor drew inspiration from his African heritage. He was also influenced by the African American spirituals he encountered on a visit to the United States in 1904. On that occasion, he accepted a commission that resulted in 24 Negro Melodies, a collection of which he described, "What Brahms has done for Hungarian folk-music, Dvořák for the Bohemian and Grieg for the Norwegian, I have tried to do for these Negro Melodies." Originally for solo piano and based on African and American melodies, Coleridge-Taylor later orchestrated a five-movement suite which was not performed during his lifetime. The version heard on this recording is based on original manuscripts discovered by Patrick Meadows in the British Library.
Curtis Stewart contributes his own re-imaginings of three of the Negro Melodies. He elaborates: "I was drawn to a 'rebranded' approach of dealing with the history of slavery within one's family, the ownership of a name and its 'rebranding' - reflecting on the American Slave and how Black Americans deal with creating a sense of pride, familial storytelling and lineage in contemporary America. This notion of 'rebranding' extends to the 'Negro Melody'. Coleridge-Taylor originally wrote 24 solo piano works based on spirituals and songs from many parts of the world including Africa and the Americas. My intent with these arrangements is to acknowledge the impact of those melodies on current popular culture and reflect that influence onto the orchestral stage - to create moments where listeners may participate vocally, with movement, or rhythmically clapping along; to maintain a sense of belonging and recognition; to create community around this music in the classical concert hall - an embrace of the source that all contemporary American Concert music extends from, in my belief, America's mother-music: the Blues."
Toussaint L'Ouverture, a former slave and self- proclaimed Creole, was a Haitian general and prominent leader of the Haitian Revolution. Fusing African musical elements with European form, the romantic concert overture is evocative of the symphonic tone poems of Antonín Dvořák, one of Coleridge-Taylor's favourite composers. AVIE Records was at the forefront of resurrecting the music of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, releasing the world-premiere recording of his Violin Concerto in 2004. This new album continues the mission to preserve and promote the great composer's legacy.
Sound/Video
Paused
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1Toussaint L’Ouverture, Op. 46
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2Ballade in D Minor for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 4
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33 Selections from “24 Negro Melodies”: I. Deep River (America) [Arr. for Violin and Orchestra by Curtis Stewart and Hamilton Berry]
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43 Selections from “24 Negro Melodies”: II. They Will Not Lend Me a Child (Southeast Africa) [Arr. for Violin and Orchestra by Curtis Stewart and Andrew Roitstein]
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53 Selections from “24 Negro Melodies”: III. The Angels Changed My Name (America) [Arr. for Violin and Orchestra by Curtis Stewart]
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6Suite from “24 Negro Melodies”: I. I’m Troubled in Mind (America) Op. 59 No. 14 [Orchestration by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor; ed. Patrick Meadows, Lionel Harrison, 2012]
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7Suite from “24 Negro Melodies”: II. Intermezzo – Don’t Be Weary, Traveler (America) Op. 59 No. 12 [Orchestration by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor; ed. Patrick Meadows, Lionel Harrison, 2012]
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8Suite from “24 Negro Melodies”: III. Scherzo – Ringendjé: Song of Conquest (South Africa) Op. 59 No. 5 [Orchestration by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor; ed. Patrick Meadows, Lionel Harrison, 2012]
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9Suite from “24 Negro Melodies”: IV. Lament – They Will Not Lend Me a Child (Southeast Africa) Op. 59 No. 4 [Orchestration by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor; ed. Patrick Meadows, Lionel Harrison, 2012]
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10Suite from “24 Negro Melodies”: V. Finale – Alla Marcia – Oloba (West Africa) Op. 59 No. 7 [Orchestration by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor; ed. Patrick Meadows, Lionel Harrison, 2012]
Europadisc Review
The name Samuel Coleridge-Taylor is still indelibly linked with the once hugely popular cantata Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast (1898), the first of a trilogy of cantatas collectively titled The Song of Hiawatha, setting the words of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. In choral circles, its fame was at one time rivalled only by Handel’s Messiah and Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and the annual stagings at the Royal Albert Hall under Malcolm Sargent were a firm fixture of London concert life in the 1920s and 30s. There is much more to Coleridge-Taylor’s output, however, than this famed cantata, and recent years have seen an increase in recordings of his vocal works and orchestral music (the latter most notably from the Chineke! Orchestra on a 2022 Decca release).
Now, to mark the sesquicentenary of Coleridge-Taylor’s birth (on 15 August 1875 in Holborn, London), the National Philharmonic at Strathmore, Maryland, together with violinist Curtis Stewart and conductor Michael Repper, have teamed up with the Avie label to present three premiere recordings of long-neglected works, reflecting the composer’s keen awareness of and pride in his Black heritage.
The concert overture Toussaint L’Ouverture, op.46, was premiered at London’s Queen’s Hall on 26 October 1901. It is actually more of a tone poem (in the tradition of the late symphonic poems by Coleridge-Taylor’s musical idol, Dvořák), a musical reflection on the life of the eponymous Toussaint Louverture, a Haitian general who led the Haitian Revolution in the 1790s. Although not closely charting events in Louverture’s life, the piece is luxuriantly scored and structurally adventurous, with an opening theme whose distinctive rhythm and scoring, while suggesting the influence of Elgar and Dvořák, point to a highly individual and assured musical style. With abundant contrast and engaging ideas, this performance by the National Philharmonic under Repper is an important addition to the discography, and the interest never flags across the work’s 17 minutes, with sweet-toned strings and characterful woodwind among its many strengths.
The orchestra is joined by Stewart in the Ballade in D minor, op.4, for violin and orchestra. Composed in 1895 while Coleridge-Taylor was still a student at the Royal College, where he studied composition with Stanford and his contemporaries included Vaughan Williams, Holst, Ireland and Bridge, it is as confident as one would expect from one writing for their own instrument. (Coleridge-Taylor’s musical talents were awakened at the age of five by the gift of a quarter-size violin from his maternal grandfather.) It also has a profoundly soulful character which again reflects the influence of Dvořák as well as the composer’s own natural thoughtfulness. Previously familiar only from the published version for violin and piano, this edition by Repper and the late Patrick Meadows was prepared from the autograph manuscript in the Library of Congress, and it is done handsome justice by Stewart’s vibrantly idiomatic solo playing, beautifully supported by the National Philharmonic players.
Another piece of musical detective work Repper and Meadows (together with Lionel Harrison) is the five-movement orchestral Suite that Coleridge-Taylor made from his own solo piano arrangements of 24 Negro Melodies (1905), which were among the early fruits of his huge popularity in the United States. They collect together melodies from the tradition of American spirituals as well as from western and southern Africa. The five songs selected by Coleridge-Taylor for this Suite are carefully organised to incorporate an Intermezzo, Scherzo and Lament, culminating in a Finale (‘Oloba’ from West Africa) which also quotes the opening spiritual (‘I’m Troubled in Mind’), giving the work a satisfying unity and something of the formal design of a sinfonietta. As such, it should appeal to orchestral concert programmers, and an added bonus is that the score and parts of this (as well as Toussaint L’Ouverture and the Ballade) are accessible for free via a QR code in the booklet.
To complete the disc, Curtis Stewart presents his own reimagining (or, using his term, ‘rebranding’) of three of the 24 Negro Melodies, including the justly popular ‘Deep River’ and ‘They Will Not Lend Me a Child’ (the latter also included in the Suite), bringing them up to date in a very compelling manner with bluesy inflections, percussive effects and even vocalisations. These engaging arrangements, together with the access to the scores and parts of the other three works, really are the icing on the cake for a splendidly absorbing album. It’s a handsome anniversary tribute to an important, underrated and sadly short-lived musical figure from the turn of the last century, well recorded and beautifully presented. Do try it!
Reviews
excels in violinistic fantasy … Stewart’s violin playing throughout is passionately committed … a sterling effortBBC Music Magazine
Three cheers for this most enjoyable collection … spruce and infectiously committed advocacy from the Maryland-based National Philharmonic at Strathmore under Michael Repper … Curtis Stewart is the stylish soloist … Boasting eminently truthful sound, this enterprising release is certainly worth seeking out.Gramophone
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