If, nowadays, a black man were to come to London, marry a white woman, produce a son, then dump the pair of them and vanish, it would not cause a great deal of interest. However, when this occurred in the 1870s, the collected dropping of genteel Victorian jaws must have been deafening.
Happily, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, the product of this unhappy union, rose above the social prejudices of that era and went on to compose some very fine music. I purchased this excellent CD on the Marco Polo label, because it contained his Petite Suite de Concert, which I very much enjoyed; but it also contains a number of other Coleridge-Taylor's splendid compositions, including the Hiawatha Overture and the Gypsy Suite.
The RTE Concert Orchestra, Dublin, is skilfully conducted by Adrian Leaper, which makes this a much sought-after recording.