Luke Welch: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Piano Works
Luke Welch

Canadian pianist Luke Welch is currently promoting Northern Magnolias, a self-released collection of works by Robert Nathaniel Dett, but the one that preceded it, featuring material by African-British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912), is as satisfying and a natural complement to the new one. Like Dett, Coleridge-Taylor was a melodist extraordinaire, and the so-called “African Mahler” was one of the key figures responsible for establishing the legacy of Black classical music, with fellow composers Florence Price and Harry Burleigh other members of that august group.

It's another feather in the cap for the Toronto-born and Mississauga-raised Welch, who delivered his first public performance at the age of seven and eventually studied at London's University of Western Ontario and Rotterdam's Codarts University for the Arts. Welch was appointed to the Faculty of Piano at York University in 2024 and two years before that the Royal Conservatory of Music Oscar Peterson Program. His command of the keyboard and interpretive artistry are on full display in these five Coleridge-Taylor pieces, three of them multi-part and all given sterling readings. As an introduction to Coleridge-Taylor, the fifty-five-minute recording offers a terrific portal. Time and again, we witness how brilliantly he imposed his personal stamp on the musical heritage of African and African-American cultures.

Recorded over two November days in 2022 at a Toronto church, the recording presents a sampling of Coleridge-Taylor's oeuvre, which includes orchestral pieces, choral works, a violin concerto, and solo piano material. Born to a Black African father and white English mother, Coleridge-Taylor showed early musical promise and at the age of fifteen began studies at the Royal College of Music, where he studied composition with Charles Villiers Stanford. In 1896, he assumed conducting duties for the Croydon Conservatoire Orchestra and taught at the Crystal Palace School of Music and, of course, composed too, his efforts in that regard reflecting the impact of both Negro spirituals and African rhythms on his developing voice as well as the influence of composers such as Brahms and Dvorák.

Written in 1910, Scenes From An Imaginary Ballet, Op. 74 inaugurates the recording with the infectious radiance of its vivacious first movement, one of five miniatures that captivate with melodic ideas and concise expression. Whereas the opening part engages for its lively spirit, the second does the same but with a gentle lyricism that in moments turns aggressive and authoritative. The third, marked “Tempo di Minuetto,” reinstates a mood of rapturous joy, after which the fourth exudes lyricism of an intensely tender and solemn kind before the fifth “scene,” aptly marked “Vivacissimo,” ushers the work out on an exuberant note.

Three Humoresques, Op. 31 follows, its opening “Presto” movement instantly tickling the ear with a charming six-note phrase. In contrast to the bite-sized movements of the opening work, the three in the second are elaborately probed and examined in durations ranging from five to seven minutes. As the brooding “Molto vivace” advances, its moderate tempo invites the listener to appreciate the care with which Welch articulates its evolving patterns and moods; the pianist's deep connection to the material is evident throughout the album, including during the ruminative and at times playful movement that concludes Three Humoresques. Welch's performances are technically sound, naturally, but they're also elevated by an emotional rapport with the material. Two succinct settings, the dignified, rather Wagner-esque Intermezzo and joyful, free-spirited Papillon precede the final work, 1909's Valse Suite, Three Fours, Op. 71. As melodically rich as the other pieces, the suite engages with rhapsodic gestures and graceful phrasing as it progresses through six contrasting statements, including an overture-like opener, heartfelt “Andante,” rousing “Vivace,” and romantic, swoon-inducing “Andante molto.”

March 2025