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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]

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.

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