2023 Approaching 60,000 reviews and more.. and still writing ...	Search MusicWeb Here

Searching Musicweb Monthly index Recordings of the Year Label index Masterwork index Series index Search engines Review Archive Classical Downloads Jazz Concerts Nostalgia Books Film music Resources Composer pages Tony Duggan's Mahler National Discographies Mark Morris's Guide to C20th Composers Ralph Moore's Surveys Online books Piano Trio Survey Cello Concerto Project Pot Pourri - Early MusicWeb Gerard Hoffnung Arthur Butterworth's columns Philip Scowcroft's British light music Interviews Programme notes MusicWeb Listening Studio Talking about Books Other material Articles Seen & Heard Message Board About Musicweb About Musicweb Contact Musicweb Contributors What they say about us Visitor stats Site Map

Founder: Len Mullenger (1942-2025)                          Editor in Chief:John Quinn

Buy through MusicWeb for £13.99/15.50 postage paid World-wide. You may prefer to pay by Sterling cheque or Euro notes to avoid PayPal. Contact for details Purchase button

Ferde GROFÉ (1892-1972) Mississippi Suite (1925) (original Paul Whiteman Orchestra version) (1925) [13:18] Gallodoro's Serenade for Saxophone and Piano (1958) [5:51] Grand Canyon Suite (1929-31) (original Paul Whiteman Orchestra version) (1931) [31:22] George GERSHWIN (1898-1939) Second Rhapsody for Orchestra with Piano (1931) (orchestrated by Ferde Grofé) [12:22]  Lincoln Mayorga (piano) Al Gallodoro (alto saxophone); Lincoln Mayorga (piano) Harmonie Ensemble, New York/Steven Richman rec. Performing Arts Centre, Purchase College, State University of New York, April 2004. DDD BRIDGE 9212 [63:48]

I enjoyed Naxos's recording of Grofé's Mississippi and Grand Canyon Suites (see review). This was of the more widely encountered and fuller orchestral versions. Here, however, we have something of a novelty in the shape of the original Paul Whiteman band versions of both these suites, and the premiere recording of Grofé's Gallodoro's Serenade, as well as Grofé's arrangement of Gershwin's Second Rhapsody.   The band arrangements naturally add a more immediate sense of time and place as well as a more tactile drama. The rhythm is made more explicit in the Mississippi Suite and indeed its second movement, Huckleberry Finn, emerges as a really cocksure character study with tight brass, Roy Bargy style piano interludes, and finely evocative saxophone cushioning. It means that the work emerges in a less impressionist and in some ways less conventional light. Whereas in the lush orchestral version I heard echoes of Smetana in the first movement and Francophile affiliations elsewhere, here they are harder to locate. Here we have a robust twenties sound; banjo, saxophone and a brassy promise.   The Grand Canyon Suite does however retain its sense of place and evocative summoning up of mood, languor and immensity. The few strings remain lissom when required, and the cor anglais adds plangency to the very precise sound world depicted by Grofé. Orchestration remains tightly organised and full of subtle colouration. The Francophile sweep of the second movement is shrouded in warm haze. And the central movement, On the Trail, that riot of avuncular cowpokery is deftly done, complete with violin solo and celeste. The storm is accomplished with considerable brio and there's a grand finale.   The remarkable Al Gallodoro, now in his early nineties, turns up to give the premiere recording of a piece written for him in 1958, Gallodoro's Serenade. He seems to have lost little of his tonal allure and little of his digital dexterity, or lip come to that. His tone is still full and alluring, his cantabile is free and easy, and the quicker runs are taken with enviable lip and breath control. Youngster Lincoln Mayorga keeps him company.   The Gershwin features the tangy pianism of Mayorga once again. Ensemble is good and there's a winningly warm central section. Peppy and well articulated the playing embraces lyric curve as much as tighter corners, though it does remain an occasionally problematic piece structurally.   The notes are up to Bridge's usual high standard and the recording team have done well to produce so warm and yet defined a sound-stage at the Performing Arts Centre, Purchase College. Symphonic Jazz was always a much-abused term but in these surroundings it goes down like a good Sauvignon.   Jonathan Woolf     Advertising on Musicweb Donate and keep us afloat   New Releases All Naxos reviews All Hyperion reviews All Foghorn reviews All Convivium reviews All Acis Reviews   All Divine Art reviews   All Lyrita Reviews   Obtain 10% discount

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.