Trifecta

One of America’s most eminent black composers of the early twentieth century, H. T. Burleigh wrote hundreds of art songs and introduced Antonin Dvořák to the spiritual. Southland Sketches, his suite for violin and piano, illustrates the American style that Burleigh did much to promulgate. By contrast, Dohnányi’s C minor Piano Quintet radiates high drama from first note to last. Britten’s second String Quartet, commissioned in commemoration of the...