Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912)
Toussaint L’Ouverture
Ballade Op. 4
Selections from 24 Negro Melodies
Suite from 24 Negro Melodies
Curtis Stewart (violin)
National Philharmonic/Michael Repper
rec. 2025, Schlesinger Concert Hall & Arts Center, NOVA Alexandria Campus, USA
Avie AV2763 [67]

This new release on Avie comprises of works written by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor marking the sesquicentennial of the composer’s birth. These are the first commercial studio recordings of the Toussaint L’Ouverture (or Toussaint Louverture) and Ballade, Op. 4 and world premieres of works from 24 Negro Melodies. 

Here, the National Philharmonic is conducted by Californian born Michael Repper who in 2023 won a Grammy award with the New York Youth Symphony for Best Orchestral Performance. Based at the Music Center at Strathmore, Montgomery County, Maryland, the National Philharmonic, is a joint orchestra and chorus.

Once a household name, London born Coleridge-Taylor was illegitimate and of mixed race and had to battle against significant racism throughout his life. Displaying an early talent for music, when aged fifteen he enrolled at the Royal College of Music, studying there from 1890 to 1897 chiefly with his composition teacher Professor Charles Villiers Stanford. A big break came in 1898 relatively early in Coleridge-Taylor’s career with the premiere of his cantata Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast, based on Longfellow’s epic poem The Song of Hiawatha (1855). Hoping to enjoy similar worldwide success were his sequels The Death of Minnehaha and Hiawatha’s Departure; the cantatas as a trilogy is named The Song of Hiawatha. He died aged only thirty-seven and was subsequently neglected; much of his music lay forgotten for decades but is currently experiencing something of a renaissance. 

In the booklet notes to this release Michael Repper talks fondly about promoting the legacy of Coleridge-Taylor. For example, I notice that in September and October 2025 Repper is due to conduct orchestras in a series of concerts containing works by Coleridge-Taylor which, as Repper says, “deserve to be heard because they’re exceptional music.’

Repper acknowledges the roles of Lionel Harrison and Patrick Meadows in preparing performing editions of several Coleridge-Taylor works from the original manuscripts. Notably, Harrison and Meadows recovered the Ballade from archives at the British Library, London and the Suite from Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 

Opening this album is the Toussaint L’Ouverture from 1901,bwritten after Coleridge-Taylor had attended the inaugural Pan-African Congress in London the previous year. The title refers to François-Dominique Toussaint, a former slave who became a Haitian general and famously led the revolt of enslaved people that defeated French control in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti). It recalls the great symphonic poems of say Liszt and Dvořák, and I was often reminded of the lighter disposition of a musical theatre overture. It is a work exuding confidence with no shortage of ebullience. Brass and percussion are prominent and there is some first-class writing for strings and woodwind sections. The calm, rather mediative section that changes at 15:43 (track 1) to a character of conviction and jubilation is most enjoyable. Each section of the orchestra has its time centre-stage and Repper holds everything together tellingly, expressing the drama of the writing with delight and ensuring that the climax is sufficiently emphatic in resolve. 

The violin was Coleridge-Taylor’s own instrument and a violin soloist features in four works:  the Ballade in D minor, Op. 4; the Legende, Op. 14 (1893); the Romance in G major, Op. 39 (1899) and the Violin Concerto in G minor, Op. 80. Still a student at the RCM, Coleridge-Taylor was aged around twenty when writing his Ballade in D minor for violin and orchestra, Op. 4. 

Violin soloist Curtis Stewart displays his proclivity for the long melodic lines and the richly scored writing of a tender quality that might easily represent love. I admire the way the violin lies comfortably on a bed of plush orchestral sound.   

During Coleridge-Taylor’s 1904 trip to America to conduct his trilogy of Hiawatha cantatas, he was commissioned to transcribe a number of Negro folk songs for solo piano. The result was a set of 24 Negro Melodies published as his Op. 59, the tunes originating from Africa, America and the Caribbean. The composer drew upon Negro songs from both the Fisk Jubilee Singers, an African/American a-cappella ensemble, at Fisk University, Nashville and also traditional African songs collected by Henri Alexandre Junod, a Swiss Protestant missionary who worked extensively in Africa. Coleridge-Taylor viewed his arrangements in the manner of the much-loved works Brahms’ Hungarian Dances and Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances. In 1906 Coleridge-Taylor wrote Five Negro Melodies for Piano Trio using five of the Negro Melodies. Violin soloist Maud Powell made and recorded transcriptions for violin and piano from the Negro Melodies, most notably Deep River (America) and the set of Negro Melodies have also inspired a number of other arrangements in various forms. Here are three of the 24 Negro Melodies for solo piano reimagined by Curtis Stewart in arrangements for violin and orchestra.

The first orchestration is Deep River (America), Op. 59/10 prepared by Curtis Stewart in collaboration with Hamilton Berry. It has a rather jazzy and virtuosic solo violin part, the big traditional tune coming across effectively. Included is a very short section for voice and as with the other two works there are ad-lib hand claps and foot tapping. Curtis Stewart and Andrew Roitstein have created the secondorchestration They Will Not Lend Me a Child (Southeast Africa), Op. 59/4. A pizzicato opening for the soloist leads to a stylish violin theme with a middle section of an unashamedly jazzy tone. Here the traditional melody presented is decidedly appealing. The third orchestration The Angels Changed My Name (America) Op. 59/9 is by Curtis Stewart alone. Its opening sounds rather like the traditional Indian sitar;  as the writing feels crammed this is my least favourite orchestration.

Stewart plays his own arrangements of the original piano part, creating unusual and unexpected groupings, expressing the drama with delight and often of a distinct improvisatory feel. Clearly believing in this melodious and colourful music, Repper and his orchestra provide a performance with an abundance of buoyancy and brio. Most of the melodies were familiar to me, especially the glorious Deep River, yet with these new arrangements for violin and orchestra, repeated listening served to increase the enjoyment.  

The final work on the album is the suite of five of the 24 Negro Melodies that Coleridge-Taylor transcribed for orchestra. Some of the chosen five survive in what Lionel Harrison describes as a ‘sketchy nature’, including missing parts, requiring increased editorial intervention including revisiting the original piano transcriptions. The numbering of the manuscripts, and the first and last movements sharing a quotation, suggest that Coleridge-Taylor planned these five orchestral works as a suite. This recording of the five-movement suite uses the edition by Patrick Meadows and Lionel Harrison from 2012. 

With I’m Troubled in Mind (America) Op. 59/14 the orchestration makes repetitive use of the big theme, leading to a joyous conclusion. Adopting a quite serious tone the Intermezzo: Don’t Be Weary, Traveler (America) Op. 59/12 could easily have come from an early Dvořák symphony. An appealing Scherzo: Ringendjé: Song of Conquest (South Africa) Op. 59/5 has a positive and upbeat tendency. As its melody is included with the Three Negro Melodies in the Lament: They Will Not Lend Me a Child (Southeast Africa) Op. 59/4, one can easily imagine the pain of loss or parting. Reminding me of music from a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, the Finale (Alla Marcia): Oloba (West Africa) Op. 59/7 gives me a sense of hope for a better life to come.

As Coleridge-Taylor employs conventional orchestration for the Suite, Repper and his players are on more familiar ground. These are lovely performances; Repper keeps the music flowing and the Suite is revealed in bright, glowing colours.

The National Philharmonic plays with assurance and no shortage of character, hardly putting a foot wrong. The sound is excellent.   

Of both orchestrations of the 24 Negro Melodies, the Three Selections for violin and orchestra is the most rewarding work here. Relatively early works, the Toussaint L’Ouverture (or Toussaint Louverture) and Ballade in D minor for violin and orchestra are less attractive. This is an interesting album but not perhaps the best introduction to the composer’s works. The Song of Hiawatha aside, those new to Coleridge-Taylor might start with the Violin Concerto, Op. 80; Scenes from Symphonic Variations on an African Air (1899); Nonet, Op. 2, Clarinet Quintet, Op. 10 and the Petite Suite de Concert, Op. 77.

Michael Cookson

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