George Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue

[elleng]

https://weta.org/listen-live

[PJMcK]

1. You and I are on some kind of plane together!

I played this wonderful piece this morning when I got to work. The version I have on my phone is Michael Tilson Thomas conducting with George Gershwin playing piano!

The producers of the recording found Gershwin's piano roll recordings and removed his "overdubs" so they had just the solo piano part. They recorded the piano solo by itself. Then Maestro Thomas conducted the orchestra to coincide with the recording of the piano roll. It's terrific fun!

As always, thanks for the link.

[elleng]

2. YVW!

By chance, 'my' radio station played it, at the top of the hour, which is when I move to TV.

FASCinating what the producers of your recording did!

THIS is Leonard Bernstein (piano) | New York Philharmonic | Leonard Bernstein (conductor)
CBS 39454 (Gershwin's Greatest Hits)

Playlist for the rest of the night:

https://weta.org/fm/playlists

[MuseRider]

3. Picking up my music for this tomorrow.

First concert of our American music season.

I am not a Gershwin fan but it is fun to play.

[First Speaker]

4. The Eugene Ormandy version, with Oscar Levant, is my favorite...

...maybe because it's not so melodramatic, doesn't take itself too seriously, and has a fun, bluesy, Saturday-night-in-the-park feel to it...

[PJMcK]

5. I have that on LP

It’s a classic recording especially since Levant was a colleague of Gershwin.

[yellowdogintexas]

6. I think we own 3 different renditions of Rhapsody in Blue

It's one of my favorites!

I have seen it performed live 3 times and all 3 versions had their own style.

Living in the land of the Cliburn International Piano Competition offers opportunites to enjoy piano at its best - one of the pianists I heard live was John Nakamutso who was a Cliburm winner.

The talking heads at the last Cliburn were discussing the music the contestants choose for their programs and one of them said it is only a matter of time until one of them sits down and tears into Rhapsody in Blue! (it could either be part of their solo performances or their big symphony piece.