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The Americanism in the compositions on the program was culled from American hymns, gospel and pre-jazz social music, with a highlight being the recently rediscovered work of Florence Price. 

The strings stabbed, the camera panned in quick spurts with jump cuts, but the performers were still. It was an anxious and enormously effective approach to Rzewski’s prison meditation. 

Downes' playing is soulful, perhaps rather American, which gave Schumann a late-night jazziness. That tendency fit better with selections by Nina Simone and Harlem Renaissance composers Margaret Bonds and Florence Price.