Gershwin, George

George Gershwin - Porgy & Bess / Trevor Nunn · Sir Simon Rattle · W. White · C. Haymon · Glyndebourne Opera

This powerful production originated on the stage of the Glyndebourne Festival. It was restaged and filmed on location for the BBC telecast preserved in this video recording. Director Trevor Nunn takes full advantage of the realism, fluidity of movement, and precision of small details that are difficult to achieve when televising a staged performance but easy and natural in a movie treatment.

Nunn's vision, conveyed by an unusually talented cast, is constantly touching and rises to overwhelming intensity at climactic points. For example: the crap game and fight that end in Robbins's death, the hurricane scene, Crown's capture and abuse of Bess on Kittiwah Island, Porgy's fight with Crown, the comically sinister antics of Sportin' Life, the double-edged pathos and absurdity of the scene in which Bess gets "divorced," and the electrifying conclusion, when Porgy throws away his crutches and sets out, naively, to find Bess in New York.

Musically, Simon Rattle and all the performers find the exact style for Gershwin's marvelous score--not only such big numbers as "Summertime," "Bess, You Is My Woman Now," "I Loves You, Porgy," "I Got Plenty o' Nuttin'," "It Ain't Necessarily So," "I Hates Your Struttin' Style," and "O Lawd, I'm on My Way," but such smaller items as the exquisite cries of the street vendors of honey, strawberries, and crabs. There are no weaknesses in the cast. Willard White and Cynthia Haymon are ideal in the title roles, Gregg Baker is a terrifying, larger-than-life Crown, and Damon Evans is a properly slimy Sportin' Life. The white police officers are splendidly repulsive. --Joe McLellan

The Gershwins' musical masterpiece Porgy and Bess is one of America's greatest works. This production was adapted for the screen by Trevor Nunn and Yves Baigneres. It was directed by Trevor Nunn and is based on the highly successful staging of the original Glyndebourne Festival Opera production in 1986-87, which was remounted at Covent Garden in the autumn of 1992 with most of the original cast. Immediately after that performance the production was moved to the giant stage at Shepperton Studios, with much expanded sets and lighting. It was then recorded using EMI's original award-winning soundtrack.

First performed in 1935 and based on the play Porgy by DuBose and Dorothy K. Heyward, Porgy and Bess has achieved worldwide renown through such memorable songs as "Summertime," "It Ain't Necessarily So," "I Got Plenty o' Nuttin'," "Oh Lawd, I'm on My Way," and many more, set to Gershwin's moving symphonic score. 184 minutes.

Porgy: Willard White
Bess: Cynthia Haymon
Crown: Gregg Baker
Serena: Cynthia Clarey
Maria: Mariette Simpson
Sporting Life: Damon Evans
Clara: Paula Ingram (sung by Harolyn Blackwell)
Jake: Gordon Hawkins (sung by Bruce Hubbard)
Mingo: Barrington Coleman
Robbins: D. Alonzo Washington (sung by Johnny Worthy)

Marc-André Hamelin: No Limits - The World of the Piano, Vol. 2

A Gershwin Night

Neil Simon's Jake's Women

Salute to Vienna - A Strauss Gershwin Gala

Anyone who has visited Vienna--and particularly anyone who has attended a concert in the splendid Musikverein Concert Hall--is likely to find Salute to Vienna: A Strauss-Gershwin Gala irresistible. Its special Viennese charm begins with the opening shots of a horse-drawn carriage entering a courtyard and the famous statue of Johann Strauss Jr. playing his violin (which is played by Peter Guth in this concert). The DVD is at its best when it focuses on the spectacle of the Viennese--musicians and audience alike--enjoying their city's distinctive light music: Martina Serafin sipping champagne and becoming progressively more silly in the "Annen Polka"; Eva Lind exulting in the sheer melodic glory of "Voices of Spring"; a percussionist deliberately ignoring the cue for a cuckoo sound effect in the "Im Krapfenwald!" polka; the Vienna Choir Boys in the "Chit Chat Polka"; and the whole audience clapping in unison to the rhythms of the "Radetzky March." The sense of joy is pervasive and infectious.

The Viennese musicians are joined by American colleagues in this program, which includes music of George Gershwin and Aaron Copland as well as the Strauss family and Franz Lehar. Gregory Peck's spoken segments, as host and as narrator in Copland's Lincoln Portrait, may lose their charm over repeated viewings while the waltzes and polkas continue to enchant. But the American- Austrian partnership works superbly: the Boys Choir of Harlem joins the Vienna Choir Boys in "The Blue Danube," there is a spectacular crossover in Georg Lehner's Viennese interpretation of "It Ain't Necessarily So," and Elizabeth Norman is exactly right in "Summertime." --Joe McLellan

Now, for the first time on DVD, experience this exclusive, one-time only Salute to Vienna gala concert, featuring exuberant favorites by Strauss and Gershwin, as well as the music of Lehar and Copeland, performed by some of Europe's leading singers and musicians! This memorable event, hosted by legendary Academy Award winning actor Gregory Peck, also includes the historic world-premiere paring of the Vienna Boys' Choir and the Boys Choir of Harlem, as well as Peck's own show-stopping performance of the "Finale" from Copland's Lincoln Portrait.

A Tribute to George Gershwin - Cuban Overture, Porgy and Bess, Rhapsody in Blue / Gloyd, Makowicz

The 1998 Lugano Festival presented this elegant concert of George Gershwin's orchestral music, including the colorful Cuban Overture and the Rhapsody in Blue. Gershwin's strongest claim to immortality, however, lies in his vocal music--Porgy & Bess and dozens of songs written for Broadway shows but able to stand by themselves. No singing is heard on this disc, but the vocal music is well-represented in a symphonic suite from Porgy & Bess and transcriptions for piano and orchestra of three songs: "Embraceable You," "'S Wonderful," and "The Man I Love."

In a sense, the program is a showcase for pianist Adam Makowicz, who solos gracefully in the Rhapsody and the songs with a self-confident virtuosity that gets to the heart of the music. In the Rhapsody, Makowicz fluently and imaginatively improvises cadenzas, as Gershwin did for the first performance, producing a version that is different from all others. --Joe McLellan

Pianist Adam Makowicz and the Orchestra Della Svizzera Italiana, conducted by Russell S. Gloyd, perform at the Piazza Riforma in Lugano, Switzerland, in July 1998. Tracks: Cuban Overture, Porgy and Bess Suite/Embraceable You/'S Wonderful/The Man I Love, Rhapsody in Blue.

Dawn at Dusk - A Late Night Recital by Dawn Upshaw

A recital by Dawn Upshaw

Dawn Upshaw is one of the most versatile and talented of a new generation of American singers, equally at home on the concert platform and the musical stage.

In this specially recorded late-night recital from the Royal Albert Hall during the 1996 Promenade Concerts, Dawn Upshaw ranges widely over the gamut of American operatic arias and popular songs from the 1920s to the present day. Ms Upshaw gives a truly wonderful performance, full of expression, harmony and sublime singing.

Bernstein: Lonely Town, I Feel Pretty, Somewhere, Times Square, Village Vortex
Copland: Laurie's Song
Weill: Lonely House, The Saga Of Jenny
Sondheim: What More Do I Need?, There Won't Be Trumpets
Rodgers: Manhattan, It Never Entered My Mind, Why Can't I?, I Could Write A Book, Nobody's Heart / Little Girl Blue, He Was Too Good To Me
Gershwin: Someone To Watch Over Me, Do Do Do

Blitzstein: I Wish It So

Fred Hersch, Piano
London Sinfonietta, Conductor Eric Stern

A Life in Music: The Anniversary Gala from Leipzig [DVD Video]

Waldbuhne 2000 - Rhythm & Dance (Gershwin, Ravel, Sousa) / Nagano, Berlin Philharmonic

This outdoor concert at the Waldbuehne Berlin from the summer of 2000 by the Berlin Philharmonic is a curious melange of classical pieces, show tunes, pops, and Far Eastern music, all brought together into a tasty musical stew. Starting things off with Leonard Bernstein's overture from Candide, conductor Kent Nagano and the Berliners also show off their versatility with two Ravel pieces ("La Valse" and the second suite from his ballet Daphnis et Chloe). Sisters Mari and Momo Kodama are the piano soloists in Jean Pascal Beintus's delightful "He Got Rhythm: Homage to George Gershwin"; in Zhao Jiping's orchestral suite from Farewell My Concubine, a myriad of percussionists straddle the line between Eastern and Western music. After that, American soprano Susan Graham offers red-hot renditions of various Gershwin classics like "Summertime," "Someone to Watch over Me," and "The Man I Love" before Nagano and the Berliners wrap things up neatly with a sizzling suite from Bernstein's On the Town. --Kevin Filipski

Under the motto "Rhythm and Dance," Kent Nagano created, with his combination of popular and rather unusual music from the 20th Century, one of the most exciting programs the Berlin Philharmonic ever played at the Waldbuhne, one of Europe's most popular classical music venues. Nagano injected so much sensuality and pulsating vividness that the audience had no choice but to beat the rhythm with their feet and respond with standing ovations. Featuring the music of Gershwin, Ravel, Sousa and the score of "Farewell My Concubine."