This is really weird. Arguably the most exciting set of reissues in years, and Sony Classical is giving it absolutely no promotion. It’s not on their Facebook page. It’s not listed anywhere on their official website. Instead, they keep pushing their recording of the same old tired New Year’s Concert from Vienna.

Yet I know for a fact that my postings about, and airing highlights from, the newly released “Black Composers Series” have generated notable enthusiasm and resulted in a number of confirmed orders. It’s evident from social media that others who have learned of its reappearance are no less excited. Unfortunately, it looks like, if this set is going to achieve anywhere near the success it deserves, it’s going to have to be totally through word of mouth. Which is a real shame, Sony.

The Black Composers Series was a bold undertaking in the 1970s, a pioneering effort and an idealistic investment in the future – nine albums of unknown repertoire by minority composers, only several of whom may have been on the very periphery of a few collectors’ consciousness, at best. Even so, it’s rumored that the series was originally intended to run to 20 volumes. We are so lucky to have what we got.

On some level, it’s hardly surprising that the plug might have been pulled 40 years ago. After all, the series was a bold gamble. (On the other hand, record labels did take more chances back then, and it was an accepted fact that classical records needed time to find their audience.)

Sadly it appears that, even all these years later, the Black Composers’ Series struggles for the exposure and respect it deserves. It’s especially distressing that the company that produced it displays so little confidence, or perhaps awareness, of its true worth that they have essentially just dumped it on the market.

I don’t mean to sound ungrateful. I am so, so happy that Sony finally got around to making these recordings available again. I only wish the label were more nurturing.

Be that as it may, I’ll continue to do what I can by devoting the entire month of February, #BlackHistoryMonth, to airing highlights from this terrific set. Tune in tonight to hear works by George Walker (pictured) and José Maurício Nunes Garcia.

Walker was the first African-American recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music – as recently as 1996 – for his work, “Lilacs for Voice and Orchestra.” He was the first black musician to graduate from the Curtis Institute of Music and a pupil of Nadia Boulanger. We’ll hear his virtuosic Trombone Concerto of 1957.

Then we’ll travel to South America for music by Nunes Garcia. Nunes Garcia was Master of Music of the Royal Chapel in Rio de Janeiro. He composed over four hundred pieces of music, including the first Brazilian opera. We’ll hear his Requiem Mass, from 1816, written at the request of John VI of Portugal for funeral services for his mother, Maria I.

It’s just an example of this set’s amazing diversity. I hope you’ll join me “Black to the Future, Part II” – the second of four programs devoted to Columbia Records’ forward-looking, if neglected, Black Composers Series – this Sunday night at 10:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.