Dreams of a New Day: Songs by Black Composers (Cedille)

★★★★☆

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In a year when every US institution is trying to fly multicultural credentials, the unanswered question is whether classical music has anything positive to contribute. No major orchestra has gone beyond the token overture or intermezzo by a minority composer, and no work by an unsung artist has yet captured the spirit of these times. For all its hiring of diversity VPs and woke PRs, the music establishment has not changed its ways, nor the audience its tastes.

The present recital is something of a breakthrough. Will Liverman, a baritone much seen at the Met, has chosen songs by Black composers of two or three generations, songs that undermine the whiter-than-white settings of bygone years. “Pale Hands I Love Thee” by Henry Burleigh (1866-1949) sounds richly, transgressively vivid beside the wispy orations of Rudolph Valentino and Richard Tauber.

An alternative “Amazing Grace”, set by Leslie Adams (b.1932), replaces humble faith with raw aspiration, unstoppable in its vigour. Two songs by Shawn E Okpebholo (b. 1981) remember racial attacks in Southern states, while Richard Farina’s “Birmingham Sunday” leaves us with a glint of hope in an all-American narrative idiom.

Liverman summons up a gamut of emotions and colours, delicately supported by pianist Paul Sanchez. I listened to this album with pleasure and affirmation. There is a wealth of diverse talent out there, and it has a variety of messages for our present confusions. All we have to do is listen.

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Norman Lebrecht

Norman Lebrecht is one of the most widely-read commentators on music, culture and cultural politics. He is a regular presenter on BBC Radio 3 and a contributor to the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Standpoint, Sinfini and other publications. His blog, Slipped Disc, is among the most widely read cultural sites online, breaking exclusive stories and campaigning against human abuse and acts of injustice in the cultural industries.

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