OMG! Best Gershwin performance EVER!

The forum for petitions, theoretical discussion, gripes, or other off topic discussion.

Moderator: James Steele

Forum rules
The forum for petitions, theoretical discussion, gripes, or other matters outside deemed outside the scope of helping users make optimal use of MOTU hardware and software. Posts in other forums may be moved here at the moderators discretion. No politics or religion!!
User avatar
Shooshie
Posts: 19820
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 10:01 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: Dallas
Contact:

Re: OMG! Best Gershwin performance EVER!

Post by Shooshie »

Hey, this is definitive: Rhapsody in Blue is a 12:40 composition. Here it is from the hands of the man:
Gershwin plays Gershwin with Gershwin

This is George, overdubbing himself in Rhapsody in Blue, four hands. Its prodigious and wonderful.
(not a piano roll)
shoosh

[edit] actually, it may BE a piano roll. If so, the tempo is not definitive at all. It sounds to me like a heavily remastered 78 or 45 rpm record. Of course, that would have had to be recorded on two sides, but I hear the occasional scratchy static sound of an analog recording that the remastering noise removal didn't pick up. But that could also be the player piano motor, and those vacuums are noisy. I don't know how it was recorded, but it doesn't have the mechanical sound of a player piano.

For those who want to see and hear Gershwin play, Click Here and go to 33:54 if it doesn't take you there. It's I Got Rhythm, and you can sure tell it's the same hands. I haven't listened to the whole documentary, but it looks pretty good. [/edit]
|l| OS X 10.12.6 |l| DP 10.0 |l| 2.4 GHz 12-Core MacPro Mid-2012 |l| 40GB RAM |l| Mach5.3 |l| Waves 9.x |l| Altiverb |l| Ivory 2 New York Steinway |l| Wallander WIVI 2.30 Winds, Brass, Saxes |l| Garritan Aria |l| VSL 5.3.1 and VSL Pro 2.3.1 |l| Yamaha WX-5 MIDI Wind Controller |l| Roland FC-300 |l|
User avatar
mikehalloran
Posts: 15134
Joined: Sun Jan 25, 2009 5:08 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: Sillie Con Valley

Re: OMG! Best Gershwin performance EVER!

Post by mikehalloran »

The only way to get it onto 2 sides of a 12" 78 is to play it well under 13'. I have recordings of Gershwin playing his Preludes and he certainly had the chops to play it that fast.
DP 11.31; 828mkII FW, micro lite, M4, MTP/AV USB Firmware 2.0.1
2023 Mac Studio M2 8TB, 192GB RAM, OS Sonoma 14.4, USB4 8TB external, M-Audio AIR 192|14, Mackie ProFxv3 6/10/12; 2012 MBPs Catalina, Mojave
IK-NI-Izotope-PSP-Garritan-Antares, LogicPro X, Finale 27.4, Dorico 5.2, Notion 6, Overture 5, TwistedWave, DSP-Q 5, SmartScore64 Pro, Toast 20 Pro
User avatar
Shooshie
Posts: 19820
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 10:01 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: Dallas
Contact:

Re: OMG! Best Gershwin performance EVER!

Post by Shooshie »

I kept exploring after that, and found the 1929 recording with Paul Whiteman's orchestra, which was done in 9 minutes and change. They cut sections to do that, though. It was the only way to fit it on to the record. The guy played like a mofo. There's a bari sax soli on that record that is absolutely gorgeous. Playing the melody with strings. I guess the bari was the cello section or something, but what a sound! Perfect pitch. Some of those old guys were great.

Shoosh
|l| OS X 10.12.6 |l| DP 10.0 |l| 2.4 GHz 12-Core MacPro Mid-2012 |l| 40GB RAM |l| Mach5.3 |l| Waves 9.x |l| Altiverb |l| Ivory 2 New York Steinway |l| Wallander WIVI 2.30 Winds, Brass, Saxes |l| Garritan Aria |l| VSL 5.3.1 and VSL Pro 2.3.1 |l| Yamaha WX-5 MIDI Wind Controller |l| Roland FC-300 |l|
Post Reply