In their fifth album together on Hyperion records, the extraordinary virtuoso pianist Marc-André Hamelin and the superb Takács Quartet explore two piano quintets linked by American heritage; one by Florence Price, the first African American woman to have a composition played by a major orchestra, and the other by Antonín Dvorák, whose residency in America during the 1890s made a profound impact in a country whose classical music life was developing rapidly. While Dvořák’s Piano Quintet No. 2 in A major (1887) has long been a chamber music staple, Price’s Piano Quintet in A minor is a relatively recent find — the manuscript was only discovered in 2009, about 70 years after Price wrote it and more than 50 years after her death. Composed around 1936, the Piano Quintet in A minor was one of the unpublished manuscripts found in the attic of Price’s summer house in St. Anne, Illinois.

These two quintets are separated by half a century, but they pair together wonderfully. Both composers were deeply connected to folk music: Price to African American traditions, and Dvořák to the melodies and dances of his Czech homeland. Pianist Marc-André Hamelin and the Takács Quartet give vibrant performances of these distinctive and innovative voices.
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