On 08 Mar 2005, at 11:04 PM, Raymond Horton wrote:
Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue (preferably original version, not the orchestral version)
Darcy James Argue wrote:
Funny you should mention that... I've actually been looking for a modern recording of the original orchestration -- you wouldn't happen to know of one, would you? (I've heard the original Whiteman band version with Gershwin at the piano, but it would be nice to have a version with better sound quality.)
Raymond replies:
(Hope you don't mind I made this to the whole list.)
If it's still in print, there was a great one made with Michael T. Thomas conducting an original instrumentation band with the Gershwin piano roll soloing. It was done in the early-mid 80's. The piano roll, which was the solo piano version, had the orchestral notes "plugged-up" so only the piano solo part remained. The amazing thing about that recording is the flaming tempi - the piece FLIES at Gershwin's tempi. I talked at length to Andrew Kazdin, who produced that recording (and also dozens of our Louisville Orchestra First Edition Recordings) about that recording. He said he prepared two versions of the the piano recordings for Thomas, including one with slower tempi, but Thomas preferred the fast tempi. I had seen a bad review of the recording (saying that G. G. may have liked the fast tempos for solo but it was impractical for the big group, and, anyway, you can't tell the right speed on those things, which wasn't true, according to Kazdin, etc) but I absolutely loved it when I heard it.
At the time I had never heard the Gershwin solo roll, which I recently purchased on a low-priced CD. It is also very entertaining, partly because of the fast tempi. (I have sat on stage SO many late nights while some blowhard pianist tries to wrench new meaning out of those solo phrases by playing them O S O S L O W L Y but with S U C H N U A N C E)
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