Rhapsody In Blue/Gershwin recomendations (1 Viewer)

[George See]

I'm looking for some recomendations on which CD featuring Rhapsody in Blue would be a good one to start on. I've heard some Gershwin but i'm not overly familure so I wanted to get something that would be easy to get into. I saw a Gershwin Greatest Hits CD on amazon which seems to have some great conductors ,Bernstein, Williams, and some outstanding players like Yo-Yo Ma. Does anyone have this? And have any recomendations on it? Or any other Gershwin release that might be a good starting point?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Phil A]

The RCA living stereo release is not bad. It's due to be re-released as a hybrid SACD around the end of Jan. Not expensive either.

 

[Rachael B]

Somebody loaned me a David Hamilton album of Gershwin tunes recently. I recorded about half of it to an MD. It's solo piano. I particularly liked his takes on Somebody Loves Me and Let's Call The Whole Thing Off, which aren't played as much as many of his other pieces, seemingly. Sorry, I don't remember the CD title...!

How 'bout Gershwin's World that Herbie Hancock has done? I haven't heard it. It's coming on SA-CD. Must be a'lotta' Gershwin on it, eh? I really haven't even looked at it or listened to samples...

Deodato did a delightful cover of Rhapsody In Blue on his 2nd U.S. album. I'm not sure it's the right place to start? It's a fun version of it though.

 

[DanFe]

Always liked Tilson-Thomas' rendition on CBS/Sony with the LAPO. Really well done.

 

[Henry Gale]

Oscar Levant's interpretations of Gershwin are considered among the best.

Oscar Levant was born in Pittsburgh, PA in 1906. In the liner notes for his 1942 album of Rhapsody in Blue, (COL MX-251) he started his auto-biographical sketch by commenting:
"I was born, like many other children whose parents happened to live in Pittsburgh, in Pittsburgh, December 27, 1906. It has always been a regret that the event could not have been delayed four days, so that I would have been born in 1907. As it is, I'm reckoned as a nineteen-sixer, and thus thirty-five at the present time, (1942) when I am really only thirty-four."

 

[alan halvorson]

I love Gershwin! This James Levine conducted performance on Deutsche Grammophon is about as good as it gets, in terrific, very dynamic sound. I use this for speaker testing.