“GERSHWIN By Grofé” (Ferde Grofé’s original orchestrations and arrangements of Gershwin) – “I Got Rhythm” Variations for piano and orchestra; Rhapsody in Blue; 9 songs – Lincoln Mayorga, p./Harmonie Ensemble of New York/Steve Richman – Harmonia mundi

by | Jul 15, 2010 | Classical CD Reviews | 0 comments

“GERSHWIN By Grofé” (Ferde Grofé’s original orchestrations and arrangements of Gershwin) – “I Got Rhythm” Variations for piano and orchestra; Rhapsody in Blue; The Yankee Doodle Blues; That Certain Feeling; Somebody Loves Me; Sweet and Low-Down; I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise; The Man I Love; Fascinating Rhythm; Summertime – Lincoln Mayorga, piano/Al Gallordoro, reeds/ Harmonie Ensemble of New York/ Steven Richman – Harmonia mundi HMU 907492, 54:46 *****:

These Gershwin works such as the Rhapsody, Second Rhapsody and Variations on “I Got Rhythm” were not originally performed in full symphony orchestra versions as normally heard today.  Instead they were arranged by Paul Whiteman’s top arranger and leading American composer (Grand Canyon Suite) Ferde Grofé, for a small band of 30 or so pieces – namely the Whiteman Orchestra. Gershwin hadn’t yet learned all the complex craft of orchestration when he created his Rhapsody in Blue.  He just furnished Grofé a piano solo version which Grofé than orchestrated.

Some others, including Michael Tilson Thomas, have recorded similar early jazz band versions of the Rhapsodies and Variations; MTT’s even used Gershin’s own piano roll of the Rhapsody in Blue as the solo piano part.  However, this new Harmonie Ensemble effort is a total delight all around and sparkles with a combination of a rather dated sound but yet completely fresh and exciting to hear. I’m talking about the arrangements, not the sonics of the recording. However, one track does have a purposely-dated sonic: The Yankee Doodle Blues, which Gershwin wrote in 1922, is heard first digitally as the first of the nine Whiteman Orchestra arrangements.  But then it is heard a second time as recently recorded acoustically by the Harmonie Ensemble onto the wax cylinder of a restored 1909 Edison Fireside Phonograph.  Of course recordings sounded a bit better in the mid-1920s, but still, an interesting sonic demo!

Grofé’s Gershwin is jazzier and punchier that what we’re used to hearing, and the players are all perfect in interpreting the unique feeling of these special orchestrations. The clarinetist on that famous clarinet opening of Rhapsody in Blue is Al Gallodoro, who was 92 at the time, and had played as a soloist with the Whiteman Orchestra from 1936 to 1965. The piano soloist in the Rhapsody and Variations is Lincoln Mayorga – well-known to audiophiles as one of the two founders of the direct-disc pioneer label Sheffield Records. He has performed all over North America, Europe and Russia, and with artists such as Michael Tilson Thomas and Richard Stolzman.  He was the soloist on a previous CD for Bridge which included the first recording of Grofé’s arrangement of Gershwin’s Second Rhapsody. Steven Richman’s Harmonie Ensemble has done eight CDs, including a Grammy-nominated Stravinsky disc of The Soldier’s Story. Gershwin biographer Edward Jablonski called Richman “The finest Gershwin interpreter around.”

The nine Gershwin tunes arranged by Grofé are great fun. A standout among them is the 1938 version of The Man I Love, which Gershwin composed in 1924. Al Gallodoro is heard on alto sax, clarinet and bass clarinet on several of them.

— John Sunier