Acclaim for Aaron Diehl and the San Francisco Symphony’s Florence Price Premiere

After decades of neglect, Florence Price is finally commanding respect. Her Piano Concerto in One Movement from 1933 received its belated San Francisco premiere this weekend at Davies Hall in an electrifying performance by jazz and crossover pianist Aaron Diehl with the radiant Xian Zhang leading the San Francisco Symphony.

“Soloist Aaron Diehl, who in 2020 was one of the first to revive Price’s concerto, pumped up the energy already latent in Price’s rich late-Romantic writing, his playing by turns passionate and sparkling. Especially moving was Diehl’s duet with SF Symphony Associate Principal Oboe James Button in the slow movement, with its tender evocation of African American spirituals.”
San Francisco Classical Voice

“Diehl proved an ideal interpreter for this music, rattling off the technical demands without fear and investing the concerto’s melodic strains with expressive delicacy.”
San Francisco Chronicle