reconstructed Gershwin scores (1 Viewer)

[Matt Stieg]

I'm curious as to what Gershwin scores have been restored and reconstructed. I know there's the five recordings of Girl Crazy, Oh, Kay!, Lady, Be Good!, Pardon My English, and Strike Up the Band from the early nineties. Then there's a two-disc set from a company called New World Recordings with Tip-Toes and Tell Me More. Are there any other complete scores available?

Also, I bought this cheap Gershwin CD back in 1998 just for "Rhapsody in Blue." It was the very first Gershwin CD I ever bought, one of those cheapo Madacy discs that cost like four or five bucks. Surprisingly, though, the recordings of "Rhapsody in Blue," "An American in Paris," and a jazzy "Summertime" are all very good (in fact, the "Rhapsody in Blue" recording is my favorite of that song, maybe just because it's the first I ever owned and I'm so used to it). This is the CD:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/cus...g=UTF8&s=music

Unfortunately, there's no info on the CD at all as to where the recordings originate from (conductor or orchestra or year, nothing). Anyone out there have this disc?

 

[esperlad]

I looked at the website, and it gives a date of September 1994. It looks like the Rhapsody was performed by the Slovak Philharmonic orchestra.

If you want a more 'authentic' recording, I would suggest: Digital George: A Collection Of Gershwin Classics. It has the original version of Rhapsody in Blue with previously unrecorded passages. These would include a few bars of orchestral material, and a few bars (later in the piece) of solo piano material.
I have studied a copy of Grofé's original orchestration, and this recording is the only one that contains all of the orchestral material. The solo piano passages are very difficult to read so I cannot confirm for certain how correct they are. The soloist certainly sounds good.

This CD also has the overture to Strike up the Band (2nd version). The page on Amazon says that it is the first version, but that is incorrect. I also looked at the overture from the published piano-vocal score, and this recording matches very nicely. As I understand, the first version of the overture is lost.

There are two other Gershwin shows that were reconstructed. They are: Of Thee I Sing, and Let 'Em eat Cake.
The orchestrations for Of Thee I Sing (by Robert Russell Bennett and William Daly) were located in a storeroom. The orchestrations for Let 'Em Eat Cake are lost, and a new orchestration was created by Russell Warner.

I hope this information is helpful.

 

[Henry Gale]

They're still available, starting at $0.05 (yes, a nickel)...plus shipping.