Our May Recording of the Month features gloriously disarming chamber music by British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor performed by the US-based Catalyst Quartet with soloists Stewart Goodyear in the Piano Quintet and Anthony McGill in the Clarinet Quintet. The first volume in a multi-disc series entitled “Uncovered” on Azica Records, the project aims to shine a light on unfairly neglected composers of colour.

Anthony McGill Photo © David Finlayson

Clive Paget caught up with Anthony McGill, Principal Clarinet of the New York Philharmonic and the first African American principal player in the organisation’s history, to talk about both the music on the album and about McGill’s experience as a Black musician in the USA. In the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, the clarinettist launched a powerful musical protest video urging people to #TakeTwoKnees to acknowledge Floyd’s death and demonstrate against historic racial injustice. That video went viral with hundreds responding with their own videos using the hashtag #TakeTwoKnees.


Whose idea was the Uncovered project, and what is its aim?

It’s the Catalyst Quartet’s project and the idea is very simple. It’s there in the title – “Uncovered”...