Coleridge-Taylor, Dvorak, Stewart
Gil Shaham, violin
Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Eric Jacobsen conducting
This album brings together Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Violin Concerto in G minor, Op. 80, Antonín Dvorák’s Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 53, and the world-premiere recording of “F. Harper,” from The Famous People by composer and violinist Curtis Stewart. Spanning more than a century of musical thought, the program explores the violin concerto as a medium for cultural identity, historical reflection, and expressive continuity. Though emerging from distinct backgrounds, Coleridge-Taylor and Dvorák shared a commitment to integrating folk traditions and national character into large-scale concert works. Stewart’s contemporary work carries this lineage forward, reflecting on naming, ancestry, and the reclamation of history. BELOW: the third movement “Allegro molto – Moderato” from Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Violin Concerto in G minor, Op.80.
