Three other great recordings
Peter Donohoe (piano)
Simon Rattle’s direction of the
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in this 1990 recording elicits a luminosity that brings the European influences on Gershwin’s music to the fore with great clarity, while Peter Donohoe’s playing is alternately muscular and sensitive. Of special note is the wonderfully sultry trumpet solo in the slow movement: its bluesy smears may be a shade overthe-top for some tastes, but the effect is to transport the listener to those dark urban settings with which jazz has long been indelibly associated in the movies. (Warner Classics 5089952)
Oscar Levant
(piano) There’s a wonderful sequence in MGM’S musical extravaganza An American in Paris
(1951) in which Oscar Levant fantasises that he’s performing the third movement of Gershwin’s concerto in a prestigious concert hall – and not merely performing the solo part, because he also appears as the conductor, orchestral players, and even as the enraptured audience. Levant’s spirited 1942 audio recording of the complete concerto with the
New York Philharmonic under André Kostelanetz remains, in spite of its
monophonic sound, a vivid and often exciting account from a charismatic performer who was a close friend of the composer’s. (Sony Classical 88985471862)
Xiayin Wang (piano)
This 2013 interpretation takes the listener on a thoughtful but often exuberant musical journey featuring many moments of memorable characterisation, as Xiayin Wang deftly balances the incisive dynamism and lush Romanticism which lie at the heart of the piece.
This balance is mirrored by the richly coloured playing of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under Peter Oundjian, and enhanced by the recording’s superb audio quality. (Chandos CHSA5128)
And one to avoid…
In 1984, Previn, again conducting from the keyboard, made a fresh set of Gershwin recordings with his new orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony, of which he was music director from 1976-84 (his tenure overlapping with his last few years at the LSO). This is a respectable enough disc, but rather slick in its overall effect, and somehow fails to recapture the infectious humour, immediacy and energy that had distinguished his magisterial recording with the LSO.