Gershwin

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Customer reviews

review by: Bernard Davis date: 2003-04-09 rating:
Sparkling Gershwin
All too often Gershwin is recorded as a safe seller for people who don't really like Classical Music, or people who want Easy Listening Music by a Real Composer. The usual result is lazy pigeonholing by pleasant but lightweight jazzing up (frequently with Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris) or the addition of an impressive but inapproppriate late romantic weight and sheen (a frequent failing with the piano concerto).

Virgin did a real service to this composer when they gave Wayne Marshall total control of these performaces as Soloist and Conductor. He lets Gershwin's interplay of classical and jazz elements speak for itself without forcing a marriage or accentuating the jazz element. Instead he revels in the wonderful instrumental phrasing and crystal clear orchestral textures (no wonder Ravel said that he had nothing to teach Gershwin). This approach pays special dividends in the Piano Concerto where the clarity of the phrasing and interplay of piano and orchestra is a delight - think Prokofiev piano works at their most inventive coupled with Ravel's skill at orchestration - and in the Porgy and Bess Symphony Suite - here the refusal to 'swing' everything - instead luxuriating in the particular mood of each piece - means that when a real sassy jazzy feel is actually called at the end for it stands out all the more.

All that and this is as comprehensive a collection of Gershwin's Piano and Orchestra works as you will find - Snap it up!

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