Randall Goosby - Roots review | Erica Jeal's classical album of the week

The Guardian 0

Goosby/Wang/Foley
(Decca)
The American violinist’s debut album unearths the jewels of black US classical music

Roots is the debut solo disc from the young American violinist Randall Goosby. It takes a brief but affirmative glance at black US classical music, turning up a few slender but worthwhile gems.

What it’s not is a programme dedicated to composers of colour. Instead, it’s partly a celebration of the fact that when there began to be an American sound in classical music, that sound came from black music. Four numbers from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, in Heifetz’s showy yet lyrical arrangements, are an obvious but apt inclusion. Dvořák’s Sonatina in G, written during the Czech composer’s time in New York, has spiritual and Native American music running through it.