MW EXCLUSIVE 4CD sets £18 each or £28 for both postage paid
Search
What's New
Classical CD Reviews
Live Reviews
Jazz CD Reviews
Composers
Resources
Contact Us

Classical CD and DVD reviews. MusicWeb is not a subscription site and it is our advertisers that pay for it. Please visit their sites regularly to see if anything might interest you. Purchasing from them keeps MusicWeb free.
  Classical Editor: Rob Barnett  
Founder Len Mullenger   
  




George GERSHWIN (1898-1937)
Dayful of Song [12.23]
Cuban Overture (1932) [10.35]
Promenade [2.50]
Rhapsody in Blue (1924) [16.58]
Lullaby (1919) [8.56]
An American in Paris (1928) [18.27]
Dallas Symphony Orchestra/Andrew Litton (conductor/piano)
Rec McDermott Hall, Meyerson Center, Dallas, Texas, October 1996
DELOS DE 3216 [70.09]



BUY NOW 

Crotchet   AmazonUK   AmazonUS

No hesitation in awarding top marks to this disc for it’s a stunner from the start. Andrew Litton, a fine pianist himself, picked out seven songs hitherto unpublished and had them arranged by Sid Ramin to form a collection he called Dayful of Song (a line in the verse of the hit song ‘I got rhythm’). The seven constituting this premiere recording are ‘Hold on’, ‘I must write a song’, ‘Hot’, ‘One minute more’, ‘Sutton Place’, ‘My honour was at stake’, and ‘Machinery goes mad’ and the result is a valuable addition to the Gershwin repertoire. Taste the swing and wit of these numbers on Track 1 at 01’57", 05’04", or 08’00" to experience the high-spirited manner in which the Dallas Symphony enter into the spirit and style, especially in the fabulous surround sound of the Delos Virtual Reality.

Apart from excellent accounts of the familiar Cuban Overture (with the orchestra in fine Latin-American fettle), Rhapsody in Blue (Litton excelling as soloist) and An American in Paris, the disc also includes a couple of rarities in the brief but sunny Promenade (a fine solo from clarinettist Stephen Girko at Track 3, 00’18") which could have been film music to a black and white B movie comedy (no disrespect intended) and was orchestrated by André Kostelanetz. The Lullaby is a more serious work (1919) originally intended for string quartet (there is a passage for solo quartet at Track 5 6’00" which gives an idea of the original sound the composer had in mind). It was only published by Gershwin’s brother Ira in 1968 for string (muted) orchestra, and a lovely miniature it is, especially its second idea at Track 5 03’15" followed by a plangent viola solo 4’ 50". Its ending is deftly charming.

A thoroughly enjoyable disc - a pity the best of it (and Dayful of Song really is top stuff) is over so quickly after the first twelve minutes.

Christopher Fifield

Advertising Rates
Visitor stats
MusicWeb International
has over 25,000 Classical CD reviews on offer


Gerard Hoffnung Concerts &
The Bricklayer Story

Naxos Classical



Australian Eloquence CDs on Buywell.com


New Releases

Hyperion
New Releases


Guild Music





MusicWeb sells the Polish
catalogue CDAccord
£10.50 post free W-W


MusicWeb sells the
Arcodiva catalogue
£12.00 post free W-W


£11.50
post-free world-wide
Try it and see - Sale or Return

MusicWeb can now offer you discs from the following catalogues:
Prices include postage

[Acte Préalable £13.50]
[Arcodiva £12.00]
[Avie from £6.25]
Brilliant Classics
[British Music Society £13.49]
[CDACCORD from £10.50 ]
[ClassicO £12.50]
[Hallé from £11]
[Hortus £14.99 ]
[Lyrita ONLY £11.50 ]
LYRITA Sale or Return
[Onyx £12.00 ]
ONYX Sale or Return
[REDCLIFFE £11 ]
[Sheva £11]
[Tactus £11.50 ]
[Talent from £12.00 ]
[Toccata Classics £12.50 ]

Musicweb
Special Offers

Google Ads - for information about privacy matters, click here. 

Return to Index



Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.

You can purchase CDs and Save around 22% with these retailers: