One of the revolutions set in progress by last year’s Black Lives Matter protests has been the refocusing of the classical music industry’s attention of composers of colour, many of them historical figures formerly the preserve of the curious collector and rarely programmed live.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

New York-based Catalyst Quartet was founded in 2010 by the Sphinx Organization, an outstanding Detroit-based social justice organisation dedicated to transforming lives through the power of diversity in the arts. The ensemble (Karla Donehew Perez, violin; Abi Fayette, violin; Paul Laraia, viola; and Karlos Rodriguez, cello) build programs and projects accordingly and this excellent release of music by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor is the first in a projected series of “Uncovered” CDs focussing on composers overlooked because of race and/or gender (others releases will include music by Joseph Boulogne Chevalier de Saint-Georges, William Grant Still, Florence B. Price, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, and George Walker).

Born in London in 1875, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was mixed-race, his mother being White British and his father a Black doctor from Sierra Leone. A student and admirer of Stanford at the Royal College of Music, Coleridge-Taylor was also a fan of Brahms and Dvořák. All three doubtless...