Various Composers - Born to Play (Wayne Marshall)

Information

• Paquito D'Rivera - Brazilian Fantasy (arr. by Daniel Freiberg)
• George Gershwin - Rhapsody No. 2, for Piano and Orchestra
• Paquito D'Rivera - The elephant and the clown
• George Gershwin - Strike up the band: Ouverture (orch. by Don Rose)
• George Gershwin - Girl Crazy: Ouverture
• George Gershwin - Of Thee I Sing: Ouverture (orch. by Don Rose)
• George Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue, for Piano and Orcherstra (orch. by Ferde Grofe)

Paquito D'Rivera, clarinet

Andy Miles, saxophone

Omar Rodriguez Calvo, bass

Rolando Villalón, percussion

Daniel Freiberg, piano

WDR Funkhausorchester Köln

Wayne Marshall, conductor

Date: 2020

Label: CAvi-music

-----------------------------------------------------------

Review

Wayne Marshall has always occupied a niche between jazz and classical music, while extremely accomplished in both genres. He's recorded solo keyboard jazz work, and is also one of the world's finest classical organists. For the last 10 years he has been chief conductor of the WDR Funkhuasorchester in Cologne.

This CD – whose title is a slight misnomer, as four tracks are Paquito D’Rivera's compositions – is his farewell to the orchestra as he resumes his solo career. And the CD itself sits between jazz and classical music, with the most overtly jazz-orientated material coming in D’Rivera's ‘Brazilian Fantasy’, featuring the composer on clarinet, and arranged by pianist Daniel Freiberg. D’Rivera's gorgeous tone is at its best on the opening ‘Corcovado’, ushered in by the sumptuous tenor of Andy Miles. Then comes a set of Gershwin overtures, more jazz source material than jazz itself, with ‘Girl Crazy’ the best of the three. But it is Marshall's own pianism on ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ (in the 1927 Grofé arrangement for Paul Whiteman) and – even better – the ‘Rhapsody No. 2 for Piano and Orchestra’ that brings the disc to life. I have a soft spot for the composer's own 78 of ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ (with Whiteman) and grew up with that and the Bernstein Columbia SO version. It is fair to say that Marshall is somewhat less romantic than either. But his energetic, nay dazzling, reading of the ‘Rhapsody No 2’ is worth the price of the disc alone.

— Alyn Shipton

-----------------------------------------------------------

Wayne Marshall (born 13 January 1961) is a British pianist, organist and conductor. Born in Oldham to Barbadian parents, he studied at Chetham's School of Music, the Royal College of Music and the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna. He served as Chief Conductor of the WDR Funkhausorchester Cologne (2014–2020) and Principal Guest Conductor of Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi (2007–2013). Renowned for his interpretations of Gershwin, Bernstein and other 20th-century American composers, he has conducted leading international orchestras and remains an active recitalist, broadcaster and educator.

-----------------------------------------------------------