Classical Music CD Review: Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson - A Celebration

With great pieces like Perkinson's Sinfonietta No. 1 for Strings and Grass: Poem for Piano, Strings & Percussion, the album would be worth owning. However, these two works only make up 40% of the album. Intriguing works like Blue/s Forms for Solo Violin and Lamentations: Black/Folk Song Suite for Solo Cello, although performed remarkably well, are definitely an acquired taste, and may not be what you are looking for in a classical album.

Colridge-Taylor Perkinson, born in New York City in 1932, earned his bachelor's and master's degree in music from the Manhattan School of Music. Throughout his career, Perkinson held many positions as music director or composer-in-residence for the Negro Ensemble Company, the Denver Center for Performing Arts, and other theaters and companies. Perkinson was diagnosed with cancer and died on March 9, 2004.

This classical album features seven works by Perkinson, spanning in time nearly 50 years. The opening piece, composed in 1954, Sinfonietta No. 1 for Strings, is my favorite piece of the album. Its structure, melodies, and orchestration resemble Dvorak, Barber, and Bach. In the middle of the third movement, the unison between the first violins and cellos instantly reminds me of a piece in the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon soundtrack. Could it be that Tan Dun knew of this piece long before? Perhaps. As the album progresses, solo blues works for violin and Lamentations for solo cello are original and intriguing in design, yet don't deliver the aesthetic quality I tend to desire in music.

The Chicago Sinfonietta, the New Black Music Repertory Ensemble Quartet, violinist, Sanford Allen, pianist, Joseph Joubert, cellist, Tahirah Whittington, violinist, Ashley Horne, and conductor, Paul Freeman, deserve a great round of applause. Their musicianship is among the best in the world. There's no doubt, that each piece was performed the way Perkinson intended it to be.