Search - Gershwin, Donohoe, Lsf :: Rhapsody in Blue / Piano Concerto / Songbook

The Concerto in F convinces me, but Sir Simon shouldn't try

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 09/21/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I don't think mnay knighted conductors on the order of Sir Simon have ever pretended to be a jazz baby, but Rattle has made forays into Gershwin, Bernstein, and Duke Ellington on half a dozen occasions, and his Glyndebourne recording of Porgy and Bess for EMI has ahcieved classic status. Even so, this CD is a curiosity, a miss-by-a-hair that misses by a mile if you happen to have an American ear. The Rhapsody in Blue from 1987 uses Paul Whiteman's original jazz band arrangement, with raucous saxophones and only a few scrawny violins. Pianist Peter Donohoe, born in Manchester, doesn't come close to Bernstein or Previn in catching the idiom, but he gives it more than a game try. If only Rattle didn't try to bust a gut sounding popular -- it's rather hard on the nerves.



Matters improve in the Piano Concerto in F -- here at least the presence of a symphony orchestra and Gershwin's added seriousness make things easier for Rattle and Donhoe, who both sound more comfortable. They relax enough to almost swing. Their reading is cocktail-lounge suave, which brings a smile or two. In between we get Donohoe as solo pianist in the George Gershwin Song-Book, a romp with dazzling fingerwork thorugh 17 Tin Pan Alley standards, each zipping by in less than a minute on average. Donohoe has tons of fun, and even if the listener doesn't, it's not for lack of energy and brio.



If you're English, this will be a toe-tapping holiday among the Yanks."