Gershwin Blue

The popularity of George Gershwin's piano music with audiences and performers, large to begin with, has only grown in the years since 1990, and distinctive new recordings have been appearing frequently. Here's one covering all the music for piano and orchestra, which is an effective way to trace the development of Gershwin's music within a single genre.

Gershwin Rhapsody - Jean-Yves Thibaudet & Michael Feinstein / Commemorating the 1924 premiere of Rhapsody in Blue, pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet collabs with Michael Feinstein, the 'one-man encyclopaedia of the Great American Songbook' to celebrate the magic of Gershwin. Gershwin Rhapsody sees best-loved Gershwin melodies sit alongside world premiere recordings of 4 rediscovered Gershwin songs: 'Graceful and Elegant', 'Dance of the Waves', 'Sutton Place' and 'Under the Cinnamon Tree'.

George Gershwin plays George Gershwin (1991) {2CD Set, Pearl GEMM CDS 9483}
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© 1991 Pearl | GEMM CDS 9483
Classical / Jazz / Early 20th Century / Piano / Historical

The first of these two discs gathers all Gershwin's commercially issued discs as a pianist, including the two abridged Rhapsody in Blue traversals, Gershwin accompanying the Astaire siblings, and twelve solo sides. Hearing the composer play his own music is like getting your ears cleaned out from 75 years of interpretive maulings. Gershwin's crisp touch, clear-cut and unsentimental phrasing, and rhythmic verve comes through more convincingly in these flat discs than in his much-vaunted piano rolls. Also included are the composer-supervised first recordings of An American in Paris and selections from Porgy & Bess, along with a flawed yet revelatory aircheck of Gershwin playing the finale of his concerto. No Gershwin lover should be without this important collection.

Did the world need to hear Gershwin played by a viol consort, with an occasional recorder tootling along? If so, then why not Purcell accompanied by a jazz piano? The idea of combining the two composers in one performance is an attractive one, and the mix of vocal and instrumental pieces by each composer here is intelligently grouped. Arranger and leader Jay Bernfeld offers several parallels. Both composers were, in the broadest sense, urban sensations and musical-theater composers with bigger things on their minds; both managed to complete one towering opera before dying young. He might have added more items to his list: the ground basses of Purcell's time are elaborated by their melody lines in a manner akin to, if not precisely comparable to, the structure of Gershwin's songs.

The acclaimed pianist David Greilsammer performs three pieces that celebrate the strong musical ties between Europe and America during the early part of the 20th century. The disc includes Polish-born composer Alexandre Tansman’s Piano Concerto No. 2, receiving its world premiere recording, Gershwin’s ever popular Rhapsody in Blue, and Nadia Boulanger’s rarely played Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra. Steven Sloane conducts the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.