American Dreams: Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue, Preludes & Transriptions | ICSM Records ICSM011

American Dreams: Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue, Preludes & Transriptions

£13.25

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Label: ICSM Records

Cat No: ICSM011

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Release Date: 3rd May 2019

Contents

Artists

Viv McLean (piano)
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Conductor

Simon Lee

Works

Gershwin, George

An American in Paris in miniature (paraphrased for piano solo by Maurice Whitney)
Embraceable You (arr. Henry Levine)
Funny Face
» My one and only
George Gershwin's Songbook for piano (18)
» no.2 Do-do-do
» no.4 Fascinatin' Rhythm
» no.5 I got rhythm
» no.11 Oh, lady be good!
» no.15 Sweet and low-down
» no.16 'S wonderful
I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise
Porgy and Bess
» Summertime
Preludes (3)
Rhapsody in Blue
Somebody Loves Me
Someone to Watch over Me (arr. Maurice Whitney)
That Certain Feeling
The man I love (arr. Percy Grainger)
Who Cares?

Artists

Viv McLean (piano)
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Conductor

Simon Lee

About

George Gershwin is without doubt one of the most influential composers ever to come out of the American musical scene. He had an uncanny knack of combining popular song with classical compositional technique. In addition to Broadway musicals and comedies he wrote an opera (Porgy and Bess), a piano concerto, a tone poem (An American in Paris) and two rhapsodies for piano and orchestra. He died at the age of 38 after undergoing an operation for a malignant brain tumour. This was a huge loss to 20th-century music who knows what he would have achieved had he lived longer - but his body of work ensures a place in the list of all-time great composers.

This recording of pieces for solo piano - subtitled American Dreams - features Rhapsody in Blue, Three Preludes, and transcriptions of several classic songs and pieces - many of which are now classed as jazz standards. Many of the arrangements are by Gershwin himself - together with those by Percy Grainger, Maurice Whitney and Henry Levine.

Three bonus tracks are also included from the Gershwin Songbook (arranged for piano and orchestra by Hershy Kay) and feature the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Simon Lee.

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