Personnel:
Arthur Fiedler (dir), Earl Wild (p), Pasquale Cardillo (cl), George Gershwin (comp), Boston Pops Orchestra
Reference: BMCD 897
Bar code: 8427328008976
· Collector's Edition
· Issued in Digipack
· 2 Original LPs on 1 CD
· Original Cover Art and Liner Notes
· Stereo Recordings
· Newly Remastered in 24-Bit
George Gershwin wrote “Rhapsody in Blue” at the behest of bandleader Paul Whiteman for his concert “An Experiment in Modern Music.” The piece was introduced February 12, 1924, and it was an instant success. As one critic put it, Gershwin “is a link between the jazz camp and the intellectuals. His Rhapsody revealed a genuine melodic gift and a piquant and individual harmonic sense. Moreover, it was genuine jazz music.”
This CD release contains also four main works by the composer. “An American in Paris” is the composer’s love poem to the city. The “Concerto in F” is Gershwin’s great monument, and it represents his highest achievement in the field of “absolute” music. His rarely heard, brilliantly colored “I Got Rhythm” variations for piano and orchestra and the spine-tingling excursion into his “Cuban Overture,” written in 1932, are no less remarkable in their inventiveness and colorful style.
All five compositions are performed here by pianist Earl Wild with Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra. Wild was an acknowledged master among Gershwin interpreters, and his recordings with Fiedler are a living legend of musical rightness, beauty and popularity.
