In Bach Festival’s Black-composer program, pain and joy equal power | Review (Orlando Sentinel)

By Matthew J. Palm
ORLANDO SENTINEL ARTS WRITER

The Bach Festival Society’s “Elation and Dissent” program this weekend proved both thrilling and chilling. The thrills came in the musicality of works such as Florence Price’s “Ethiopia’s Shadow in America” and the vocal fireworks in John Legend’s “Glory” and R. Nathaniel Dett’s “The Ordering of Moses.”

But other pieces provided chilling reminders of injustice, unfairness, hatred and violence. “A Ukrainian Prayer,” written in the past weeks, opened the evening on a somber note. “The Seven Last Words of the Unarmed” offered a reflection on the lives of Black men cut short by people in authority.

Yes, there were plenty of moments to enjoy — but just as many moments spent in contemplation.