Ferde Grofé; George Gershwin - Grand Canyon Suite; Catfish Row (Erich Kunzel)

Information

Composer: Ferde Grofé; George Gershwin

• Gershwin - Catfish Row, Symphonic Suite from Porgy & Bess
• Grofé - Grand Canyon Suite

Cincinnati Pops Orchestra

Erich Kunzel, conductor

Date: 1987

Label: Telarc

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Review

Gershwin's Porgy and Bess was not the success he had hoped for at its New York premiere in 1935 and, alas, he did not live to see its stature grow until the musical world finally discovered he had written a masterpiece. So in the early 1950s he selected a suite to include some of the more effective passages and it was Ira, his brother, who christened it Catfish Row. It is a more fragmentary piece than Robert Russell Bennett's famous Symphonic Picture (which uses much of the same material to create a vivid yet smoothly tailored, and certainly more voluptuous, continuous potpourri). That was commissioned by Fritz Reiner in 1941, so already existed when Gershwin made his own choice of material. It is pointless to make comparisons: both works are very effective and worth having. Gershwin's includes a brief piano section which is played here by William Tritt with more obvious idiomatic feeling than Weissenberg (EMI), and while that is a lively account, the Berlin orchestra is less obviously suited to this repertoire.

The Cincinnati performance is admirable in all respects and very well recorded. But Dorati's account of the Bennett Symphonic Picture (the coupling to his Grand Canyon) is splendid; marvellously played, both evocative and full of character, and never overblown or vulgar. He too is given top-quality sound—by Decca. Which brings us to the Grand Canyon Suite. Again, Dorati's performance is outstanding and the Detroit strings play with splendid commitment and body of tone, while the hammered timpani strokes at the end of ''Sunrise'' give the climax an unexpected breadth and power. The Cincinnati players are excellent too, but at the opening of ''Sunset'' the Cincinnati strings have just that bit less breadth and richness and generally the performance is more picaresque. But it is fresh and very enjoyable and the celesta solo near the end of ''On the Trail'' brings a delightful moment of nostalgia before the lively coda. The recording, like the Decca, is very much in the demonstration class and made the more so by its fascinating appendix.

Over a long period the Telarc engineers patiently tried to record some extra sound effects. Thunderstorms can be elusive, but finally a master tape was assembled from recordings made in Sedona, Arizona and southern Utah. Of course Grofe creates his own orchestral special effects, but they are a little redolent of a Universal Studios horror-movie score. On the Telarc CD we are first offered the complete Grand Canyon Suite as Grofe wrote it; then as an additional band we are given an encore of the final ''Cloudburst'' with the thunderstorm tape edited in with great skill. The result is overwhelmingly effective, and sonically thrilling—a tour de force admittedly Hollywood-ian in concept but marvellously brought off. For once the caution to those with small speakers is justified, for the very wide dynamic range can easily tempt one, at the deceptively gentle opening, to set the volume level too high.

— Ivan March

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Ferde Grofé (27 March 1892 – 3 April 1972) was an influential American composer and arranger. Raised in a musical family, he became a versatile performer and later introduced innovative arranging techniques that separated brass and reed sections, contributing to early big band jazz. As pianist and chief arranger for Paul Whiteman orchestra, Grofé orchestrated George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and helped blend jazz rhythms with classical forms. His own notable works include Grand Canyon Suite and Mississippi Suite, along with later programmatic orchestral compositions and film scores.

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George Gershwin (26 September 1898 – 11 July 1937) was a pivotal American composer who combined classical training with popular styles such as ragtime and jazz. Collaborating closely with his brother Ira, Gershwin produced enduring Broadway works and songs, including Lady, Be Good and I Got Rhythm. His concert pieces, Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris and Porgy and Bess, blended jazz idioms with classical forms and gained international acclaim. Though his classical status remains debated, Gershwin is widely regarded as a significant musical innovator whose influence crossed genres and continents.

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Erich Kunzel (21 March 1935 – 1 September 2009) was an American conductor best known for his leadership of the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. Educated at Dartmouth, Harvard and Brown, he studied under Pierre Monteux and later joined the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Kunzel also served as a frequent guest conductor with major orchestras across the United States, including the Boston Pops, Chicago Symphony and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras. His recordings with the Cincinnati Pops achieved unprecedented commercial success, with dozens of albums topping classical crossover charts.

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