SACDs - Gershwin

Founded in 1979 in Los Angeles, the Pacific Trio has played more than 1000 concerts in the United States, Canada and Europe. In addition to touring, they are trio-in-residence at the Idyllwild Arts summer Program in Southern California.

Broadway musicals and jazz belong to the cultural heritage of America. But people thought differently in George Gershwin's day - the 1920s and 30s. Broadway shows were immensely popular, but were rarely considered as art. Jazz was a subculture secretly appreciated by many white Americans, but in the same way as they liked to see wild animals at the circus - at a safe distance. It had yet to be realised that amusement music was a unique and characteristic part of American culture. “American music is not jazz, and jazz is not music”, wrote the influential music critic Paul Rosenfeld in 1929. Precisely what, then, was American music? George Gershwin (1898-1937) was one of the first to show the world. (from: liner notes)

After recordings of English Renaissance and German romantic music, and twentieth- century works from France, The Gents venture across the ocean to the new world, with a CD that takes them to Broadway. Jetse Bremer has specially arranged the last compositions by George Gershwin for this combination of soloist, choir and instruments and the flexibility and homogeneous sound of The Gents matches these songs so well. For the singers of The Gents and soprano Johannette Zomer, with their classical background, this repertoire is a special challenge, raising the question where classical stops or changes into something else....

Freddy Kempf and Andrew Litton with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra here join forces to present a disc of works by George Gershwin.

Rhapsody in Blue was originally arranged by Ferde Grofé for jazz band before being orchestrated for symphony orchestra. Here Kempf and the Bergen Philharmonic play this original version.

Concerto in F was a commission for Gershwin to write a ‘proper’ piano concerto, but still takes the rhythms, melodic structures and bluesy harmonies of popular music.

The disc is completed by Gershwin’s two remaining works for piano and orchestra, the Second Rhapsody and Variations on ‘I Got Rhythm’.

Anton Dvořák’s much loved Violin Concerto is performed on this new hybrid SACD by the outstanding young soloist Liza Ferschtman. The disc also includes George Gershwin’s An American in Paris, and the orchestra in both works is the Netherlands Philharmonic.

Violinist Liza Ferschtman has performed with all the major Dutch orchestras, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Residentie Orchestra, and the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, alongside conductors such as Leonard Slatkin, Jaap van Zweden, and Thierry Fischer. She released her debut recording for Challenge Classics in 2007 with music for violin and piano by Beethoven and Schubert (CC72174), and this was was followed in early 2010 by a disc devoted to the solo violin music of Bach and Ysayë (CC72351). In 2010 she made a critically acclaimed recording of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the Netherlands Philharmonic and conductor Jan Willem de Vriend (CC72384).

The premiere of Anton Dvořák’s Violin Concerto took place in Prague on 14 October 1883, and a month later it was performed in Vienna by the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Hans Richte, where the soloist was supposed to be the great Joseph Joachim, however it seems that he declined possibly because he thought the concerto's form too free for his liking. George Gershwin’s symphonic poem An American in Paris is written in the form of a free rhapsody for orchestra. Although he had not meant it as programme music and certainly not as an autobiographic work, it clearly shows features of both.