Rhapsody in Blue, Gershwin/Whiteman

I found an old record of Gershwin performing his Rhapsody in Blue with the Paul Whiteman band - jazz musicians who did the original performance. In this recording, as one might imagine, the piece lives up to the billing as a jazz concerto. In most performances with large symphony orchestras, the piece almost comes off, unfortunately, as a second rate Rachmaninoff imitation. Not here as Gershwin and Whiteman bring the energy of jazz into the equation while not overdoing the sentimentality of the big theme in the middle of the piece. They also play it at a much faster tempo than is usually taken by the symphony orchestras.

There are some cuts in this recording, mostly in the unaccompanied piano solos. The only one I really missed was near the end of the piece. This is by far my favorite recording of the Rhapsody I have heard. A good orchestral version was done by Oscar Levant with Eugene Ormandy conducting. They also play it at a brisk tempo - and I like the percussive playing of Levant.