George Gershwin -- Playing His Preludes and Rhapsody In Blue

[claynpendleton]

Is this actually Gershwin playing on piano? How many recordings of him actually exist?

[irina65popov]

How interesting! Absolutely no pedal in No.3 Prelude! Thank you for posting it!



[MusikPiratCH]

It's Gershin's own composition. So take him always as the original!

@danorq I agree. Even Bernstein at the Rapsodie in Blue I adore a lot.

[JettRink50]

I wish there were more clips of him playing. I can't even describe his music, I used to have piano rolls, wish I had them now.

[sbutler0727]

I remember hearing this for the first time several years ago and being disappointed. I know the sound quality is not great, but that is not my complaint. The famous Prelude No. 2 is played way too fast in my opinion. At this tempo, the Prelude loses all the simple charm that I associate with the piece. It is played way too fast. This just goes to show that sometimes the composer is not necessarily the best interpreter of his own music.

[illidnarg]

@sbutler0727 I think it is possible that Gershwin played the 2 nd prelude a bit fast so it would fit on the record--which had limited space-in those days-another possibility that he was either a little drunk or hung over--or just plain sick the day he recorded this--Composers are ONLY human !!!

[unclejuniorsoprano]

Not even Gershwin himself could play Gershwin as well as Oscar Levant. Of today's Gershwin pianists, check out Richard Glazier.

[tierzuchtZentral]

@unclejuniorsoprano Compare Krystian Zimerman.

[danorq]

@tierzuchtZentral why comparing? both versions are great. Plus one is dedicated 100% to performance and the other is the one who actually wrote this so a comparison doesn't apply. Not trying to be mean, basically.. I love Both :)

[otirudam]

well i dont know, but i think jack gibbons has done an out of this world reconstruction an/ or transcriptions of gershwins piano music, its probably the best music that will come out of usa for centuries. Gershwin and Gibbons together are absolute magic, they both reach extraterrestrial levels.

[gatomjp]

Gershwin is unique in all of music. He is at the top of my list of the all time great composers.

But I have heard these pieces better interpreted by others. And that's okay. George plays them like exactly what he was...a pop music writer. But the music is much greater than that and it may have taken others with greater skill to bring it all out. Just my 2 cents.

[BroadwayG]

Oscar Levant recordings comes close to the master. Also, Leonard Pinario (sp?) George's sister said when Leonard played it was like hearing her brother.

[1Thompsonmusic]

Oh my GOD! I don't believe it the master himself!

[TedLane]

Thanks for posting

[JoshuaSethComposer]

FWIW, this is not a real-time sound recording of Gershwin playing. It's a piano roll, recovered and edited, which means it may be off a bit. That said, I think most people tend to drag the tempo on this. I prefer to play it more uptempo--not quite as fast as the man himself (or I should say, as fast as the piano roll would indicate), but close.

[fontinau]

@JoshuaSethComposer Are you certain this is a piano roll? It doesn't sound like one to me, and SmilingPessimist's description suggests that it's a live recording. But maybe you know something I don't.

Anyway, if this is a piano roll, it's not particularly sped up, or at least the second prelude isn't. There's a taped radio broadcast where he plays the second prelude, and the performance is more or less identical to this one. (Google "Gershwin Performs Gershwin: Rare Recordings 1931-1935.")

[BOGZASV8MA]

nice music

[blefusku]

for me the greatests american composers af all time are gershwin, duke ellington and frank zappa

[ozyush]

this proves that composer is not always best performer of his works. :)

[ScreamingSkullz99]

@ozyush  i think its just the sound quality

[EmdrGreg]

What this guy created in a mere 39 years is hard to imagine. He seems so 'old time' to many, but it would not have been impossible for him to live until 1998 or beyond. The wonders he could have brought us. But we can certainly enjoy what we have.

[trople]

Thanks so much for posting! So great to hear this.

[kw94544]

If you're going to apply stylistic terms (and why not ) to Gerswhin's music then it should be referred to as Art Deco just as much as DeBussy's music is Impressionistic.

[C3P0meetsData]

Geshwin, I appologize if I'm being creepy, but I have definatley developed an unhealthy obsession with you.

[jakethepianist]

@C3P0meetsData: So have I.

[TheMikester307]

As much as I love prelude #2, the best thing about these recordings is the grand treatment given by the composer to the third prelude, which has been overshadowed by the other two.

[listarraam]

Holly Crap. I can't believe what I am reading though I think Gershwin himself would be amused. His music is and was widely interpreted, even in his lifetime. That is what he expected and wanted from his music, for musicians to make it their own. Levant, Bernstein or Feinstein, Classical or Jazz who cares, it's among the best music every written in any genre. And I bet that Gershwin himself never played it the same way twice. Just a hunch. So stop the ridiculous arguments and enjoy the music.

[fishyfish4444]

@listarraam

Hello,

You seem to be expert. Can you help me find a quality recording of the 1st piano prelude? Michael Tillson Thomas does not have his on YouTube that I can find. The others are students. Of course, I would like to have Maestro Gershwin's, but the recording quality is from original times. Do you have any ideas or resources you can assist me with?

Thank you.

[fishyfish4444]

@listarraam

[56stardust]

Excuse my ignorance, but I've been doing a little online research and this piece has come up under the Jazz genre and the classical genre. Is it Jazz or is it classical?

[marthaaston]

@56stardust: It's both. Gershwin is considered both a Jazz and classical artist. He's quite unique, blending the two worlds together. He's considered one of the best American composers and musicians.

[Doug19752533]

@marthaaston very true. Scott Joplin falls into the same discussion, although Joplin wrote a large ammount of pure classical music (which was lost after his death). but he considered his music and writing classical and an art. Gershwin did the same with jazz. but jazz also has many many sub genres in its self too.

[Doug19752533]

@56stardust thats hard to answer really. Gershwin was a perfect fusioin of classical and the new "jazz" movement of the 20's and 30's. from alot of what ive learned in my 30 some years of playing Gershwin should be classified more as a classical composer. the big factor i think is because classical music has specific forms for the compositions and he used the forms in his writing. the new american styles of the early 20th century like jazz and ragtime can be classical as well as popular

[musiclover59]

The recording of Preludes 1 and 3 must be considered definitive (with Levant's being close). However, Prelude 2 is done rather fast and without swing. This piece is best played either as a slow rag or faster with swing. The Rhapsody theme was nice but Bernstein's version is definitive. Thank you for posting.

[MrRicksStudio]

This piece is best played when played according to the intentions of the composer - hence, the way he recorded it here. If you consider yourself to be a better composer than Gershwin, yes, we'd love to see some of your work. Otherwise, I'll take this comment to be uneducated snobbery.

[musiclover59]

MrDicks, you might check out on Youtube where Antonio Carlos Jobim's says that Oscar Peterson played his composition "Wave" better than him. These things happen. I agree with Michael Feinstein that Prelude 2 is best played when the performer thinks of himself alone in a Manhattan apartment seeped in the blues. My comment on Bernstein's Rhapsody is shared by some critics. Doesn't mean I'm right -- just an opinion (like your insolent diatribe) and maybe others might check out his version.

[MrRicksStudio]

I would consider your diatribe at least as insolent - Gershwin was incomparable in playing his music. I realize others have recorded technically superior versions, but when pianists distort Gershwin's intentions rhythmically or, like Alicia Zizzo, go so far as to restore earlier versions from manuscript or insert measures Gershwin saw fit to delete, this is taking it too far. Compare Ms. Zizzo's edition(?) of the Preludes to what George himself recorded.

[musiclover59]

Gershwin, in my opinion, is America's greatest composer and my ATF. While an exceptionally talented and exciting pianist, he was not America's most talented pianist. A lot of recordings of his music improved upon the original recordings of his time.

[fontinau]

@musiclover59 Of course he plays the second prelude with swing. If you tried to notate this the way he plays it, you'd have to add sometime like a thirty second note to the first eighth note in the treble, and subtract about the same from the next eighth note.

I realize that it's hard to remember in this post-Frank Sinatra era, but there are in fact gradations between "no swing" and "throwing the song in the back of your limo and raping it."

[nmitchell076]

Gershwin really captures the american 20s spirit. He's like the F. Scott Fitzgerald of music (if Fitzgerald wrote ever book the way he wrote The Great Gatsby, which, sadly, he did not) as an American, any time I hear Prelude No. 2 or Rhapsody in Blue, or the first movement of the Concerto, it really brings pride for my country and the culture we have (Gershwin, by the way is an excellent symbol of the cultural mixture. He mixes classical, African American blues, and jazz of the day)

[1057813]

@nmitchell076 you're amazing haha I'm doing a project comparing Gerswhin to the Jazz Age and the Great Gatsby :)

[rvbavel]

Gershwin played the preludes (and the rhapsody in Blue) with a groove....like a jazzmusician!

Often I miss that when classical players perform his music...

[PianoMusicJoJo]

I really like George Gershwin's 3rd Prelude!!!

[bellacantatrice]

Great stuff! What else can we say?

[Mannock]

I've gone to heaven!

[defigi]

I think Gershwin was the most amazing musician in history. I love lots of music and have great respect for all the greats, but Gershwin is unique even now after 70 plus years