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BARBARA HENDRICKS
It’s wonderful: Tribute to George GERSHWIN (1898-1937)
S’ wonderful
Embraceable you
Oh lady, be good
How long has this been going on?
Somebody loves me
The man I love
Love walked in
Fascinating rhythm
I’ve got a crush on you
I got rhythm
Porgy & Bess medley:
Overture (instrumental)
Summertime
My man’s gone now
There’s a boat that’s leaving soon from New York (instrumental)
Porgy, I’s your woman now
It ain’t necessarily so
I loves you
I’ve got plenty of nuttin (instrumental)
Oh Lawd, I’m on my way
Geoffrey Keezer (piano)
Ira Coleman (double-bass)
Ed Thigpen (drums)
Guildhall Strings
Paul Bateman (conductor)
Recorded at Abbey Road, Studio 1, London, May 2000
EMI CLASSICS 7243 5 570492 4 [72.48]

‘Nobody dislikes a Gershwin tune’, says Steven Gilbert in his book about the composer’s music. True, but it does depend on how it’s presented, and Barbara Hendricks does not have the ideal voice so to do. It frankly sounds too trained and operatic, the text delivered in a mannered fashion. She is no Ethel Merman. The arrangements have been doctored by Geoffrey Keezer who has added string parts duly played with a sheen to their sound by the 16-strong Guildhall String Ensemble, a distinguished group not normally associated with this style but who do a pretty efficient job of it, nothing more. Of the ten songs which start the disc it’s Fascinating Rhythm and I got rhythm, which Hendricks does best in foot-tapping renditions once she’s through the formulaic introduction.

The second half of the disc consists of a medley of tunes from Porgy and Bess, a serious operatic work which should suit Hendricks down to the ground, though her diction of the word ‘Summertime’ sounds like ‘Soomerthayme’, and much of the rest of this song is as incomprehensible. It’s all too precious, the vowels all too modified out of any discernible shape, and the arrangements (an awful one of Bess, you is my woman now, introduced by a raucous anonymous saxophonist) crass. Opera singers really do have to take care singing in this style, because it is fair to say that ‘it ain’t necessarily so’ that they can.

Christopher Fifield

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