Post by erik on Apr 20, 2024 17:18:13 GMT -5
America's greatest opera and America's greatest trench are both in the Classical Works Spotlight this week.
Gershwin: PORGY AND BESS (A SYMPHONIC PICTURE
Grofe: GRAND CANYON SUITE
Detroit Symphony Orchestra/ANTAL DORATI (London]
For many, George Gershwin’s 1935 opera Porgy And Bess is America’s greatest opera, an ethnic love affair set in South Carolina that resonates in a similar way to Mozart’s The Marriage Of Figaro, and Georges Bizet’s Carmen. The fact that its roles are, with only a few exceptions of the supporting kind, played by African-Americans by itself made it unique from its instigation. For those who could not necessarily “get” the entire opera, however, composer Robert Russell Bennett assembled an entire orchestral suite of music based on the great songs and tunes from the work. Including “O Lawd, I’m On My Way”; “Oh, I Can’t Sit Down”; and “It Ain’t Necessarily So”, what Bennett termed “A Symphonic Picutre” was prepared for conductor Fritz Reiner in 1942 when Reiner presided over the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. It has become a work as entrenched in concert halls as the opera itself is on the opera stage.
Another composer with a Gershwin connection was Ferde Grofe. Besides having been a violist in the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra during the 1920’s, Grofe helped arrange Gershwin’s famous “Rhapsody In Blue” for Paul Whitemna’s orchestra. On his own, Grofe became known for a series of orchestral travelogue suites that were arguably American mixed in with very large orchestration a la Richard Strauss. His most popular work in this field was his 1931 “Grand Canyon Suite”, which depicted the changes in a single day out in the huge desert trench in the northwest corner of Arizona. Its five movements are: “Sunrise”; “The Painted Desert”; “On The Trail”; “Sunset”; and “Cloudburst” (the latter about as convincing a musical depiction of a storm as had been heard since the Storm of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony). The suite became a perennial American pops favorite, and in 1958 it was used as the background music for a 1958 short film about the Grand Canyon made by Disney.
Both the Gershwin/Bennett and Grofe works are given marvelous performances by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in this 1982 London/Decca under the direction of the Hungarian-born Antal Dorati, who, though he only served as music director officially from 1977 to 1980, was nevertheless named Conductor Laureate, a position he held until his passing in 1988. Dorati and the orchestra give these masterworks of the American Sound the appropriate amounts of levity and gravitas that are required, making this a great addition to the collection of advocates of our nation’s rich musical heritage.
Gershwin: PORGY AND BESS (A SYMPHONIC PICTURE
Grofe: GRAND CANYON SUITE
Detroit Symphony Orchestra/ANTAL DORATI (London]
For many, George Gershwin’s 1935 opera Porgy And Bess is America’s greatest opera, an ethnic love affair set in South Carolina that resonates in a similar way to Mozart’s The Marriage Of Figaro, and Georges Bizet’s Carmen. The fact that its roles are, with only a few exceptions of the supporting kind, played by African-Americans by itself made it unique from its instigation. For those who could not necessarily “get” the entire opera, however, composer Robert Russell Bennett assembled an entire orchestral suite of music based on the great songs and tunes from the work. Including “O Lawd, I’m On My Way”; “Oh, I Can’t Sit Down”; and “It Ain’t Necessarily So”, what Bennett termed “A Symphonic Picutre” was prepared for conductor Fritz Reiner in 1942 when Reiner presided over the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. It has become a work as entrenched in concert halls as the opera itself is on the opera stage.
Another composer with a Gershwin connection was Ferde Grofe. Besides having been a violist in the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra during the 1920’s, Grofe helped arrange Gershwin’s famous “Rhapsody In Blue” for Paul Whitemna’s orchestra. On his own, Grofe became known for a series of orchestral travelogue suites that were arguably American mixed in with very large orchestration a la Richard Strauss. His most popular work in this field was his 1931 “Grand Canyon Suite”, which depicted the changes in a single day out in the huge desert trench in the northwest corner of Arizona. Its five movements are: “Sunrise”; “The Painted Desert”; “On The Trail”; “Sunset”; and “Cloudburst” (the latter about as convincing a musical depiction of a storm as had been heard since the Storm of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony). The suite became a perennial American pops favorite, and in 1958 it was used as the background music for a 1958 short film about the Grand Canyon made by Disney.
Both the Gershwin/Bennett and Grofe works are given marvelous performances by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in this 1982 London/Decca under the direction of the Hungarian-born Antal Dorati, who, though he only served as music director officially from 1977 to 1980, was nevertheless named Conductor Laureate, a position he held until his passing in 1988. Dorati and the orchestra give these masterworks of the American Sound the appropriate amounts of levity and gravitas that are required, making this a great addition to the collection of advocates of our nation’s rich musical heritage.