The album, which also features the Virginia Symphony Orchestra (VSO) and conductor and VSO Music Director Eric Jacobsen, highlights Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Violin Concerto in G minor, Op. 80, Antonín Dvořák’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. The program spans over a century of music and explores the violin concerto as a medium for cultural identity and historical reflection.
Coleridge-Taylor composed his concerto in 1912 as a commission for the Norfolk Music Festival. The work, which was one of Coleridge-Taylor’s last major compositions, blends Romantic sensibilities with melodic gestures inspired by African and African-American folk traditions.
“People who know the Coleridge-Taylor Violin Concerto invariably love the piece, and for me, it was a solo part I wanted to learn for some thirty-odd years based on various recommendations,” said Shaham. “Studying it was discovering an absolute masterpiece. The initial perfect settings of the various melodies, often African in character, are just the beginning as these undergo remarkable transformations throughout. The beautiful harmonies and orchestrations to my ear sound almost Elgarian and the solo part is a joy to play. Coleridge-Taylor evidently admired the writings of Beethoven, Brahms, and Dvorak and those influences are clearly in the DNA of this concerto.”
Stewart’s F. Harper comes from the composer’s work The Famous People, a series of re-compositions based on Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances and infused with traditional African-American dance forms. The piece, which serves as an encore to the album’s two concerti, was commissioned in 2023 by the VSO.
“Dvořák and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor each turned toward their own roots to discover a new musical voice, and more than a century later Curtis Stewart carries that spirit forward through his own reimagining of Dvořák,” said Jacobsen. “In Stewart’s piece, that lineage becomes active and present, transforming Dvořák’s materials through his own compositional voice and perspective. Making this music with Curtis and Gil feels like being part of a living lineage—where tradition is honored and joy is shared—and Stewart’s work sits at the heart of that conversation.”
