Florence Price is having a moment. Call it round two; this native of Arkansas moved to Chicago in 1927, at the age of 30, to escape the endemic racism of the American south. There she became the first African-American woman to have a work premiered by a major American orchestra when her Symphony No. 1 was played in 1933 by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The current renaissance of her music centers around her superbly constructed symphonic output, which has been favorably compared to the style of Dvorˇák. But she wrote in many formats, including solo piano. This collection consists of miniatures, penned between 1928 and 1941. They draw from a variety of influences, including rag, musical theater, spirituals, and generous dashes of Chopin and Debussy. All but a set of five Preludes are descriptive works, presented in a concisely theatrical manner as scenes, sketches, and portraits. Price was not an innovator in any technical way, and her emotional range is somewhat limited, but her elegantly formed music radiates an easy sense of joy and human dignity. That’s a winning formula in my book. American pianist John Tatsuo Cullen presents this material with panache and palpable affection.

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