Performance ****      Recording *****

“… Although it [The Ballad of the Brown King] dates from 1954, this is the piece’s premiere recording. It is a very good one… The choral contributions draw palpably on the style of spirituals, without seeming derivative, and are affectionately shaped by conductor Malcolm J Merriweather. Expressive solo singing from tenor Noah Stewart and mezzo-soprano Lucia Bradford further enhances the warmly communicative qualities of the performance… A clutch of songs by Bonds, all darker in tone and content, fills the brief running time of the disc out a little. They pique curiosity to hear more of this composer’s neglected music.”

WQXR – Best Classical Recordings of 2019

“Nearly 60 years after its premiere, conductor Malcolm J. Merriweather and the phenomenal New York-based Dessoff Choirs have at last provided a way experience Margaret Bonds’ genius cantata, The Ballad of the Brown King. After luxuriating in this sumptuous setting of the Nativity story (with a libretto by Langston Hughes), be sure to listen to Bonds’ heart-rending Three Dream Portraits, sung forcefully by Merriweather himself.”