Customer Reviews

Gershwin - Porgy and Bess / White · Haymon · Blackwell · Baker · LPO · Sir Simon Rattle

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Like Amazon.com and the previous reviewer, I agree wholeheartedly. I have owned several recordings of this opera, as it is one of my favorites- and this is the best one out there.

I had read all the opera guides and they ALL said this is the recording to get- I don't know why I bought so many others - but they have since been sold.

The singing is immaculate and Rattle is the perfect Gershwin conductor.

Like the previous reviewer I agree with "Bess you is my woman now." Willard White is the PERFECT Porgy and his "Oh, I got plenty o nuttin'" is simply incredible. Blackwell is wonderful as Clara and the only woman I've heard sing "Summertime" better is the great Leotyne Pryce! As well, Simpson is a great Maria and "I hates yo struttin' style" is so great. I love that song and just laugh every time- she has great delivery. The highlight for me though is Evans "It ain't necessarily so." He sings this the way it seems like it should be sung.

Those are a few of the highlights on this incredible recording of a great American masterpiece.

As well, it is very fitting that this recording is with an all African-American cast... It sounds natural to these singers, and they deliver a great package.

I was very surprised to see negative reviews of this recording...because it is incredible.

I rate this up there with Giulini's "Don Giovanni," Callas' "Tosca," and Karajan's "Die Meistersinger" as some of the greatest recordings ever.

You won't regret this purchase. It's a classic!

I cannot agree with the prior reviews that found this recording of Porgy and Bess so wanting. Perhaps they grew up listening to a recording that they think is the gospel and don't want to consider another. I certainly cannot agree with them on the quality of the recording, which is excellent.

The Rattle recording is among the very best of Porgy and Bess. Coming off performances at Glyndeborne, there is a confidence in all involved, singers, orchestra and chorus, that makes this a great rendering of George Gershwin's opera. It was the winner of the 1989 Gramophone Award for Opera, and I think if the Rattle recording received the highest number of votes there is a good reason behind it.

I think an unbiased listener will find this a marvelous recording; one you will want to keep for years.

Rattle's Porgy was a revalation in the theatre (Glyndeborne and Royal Opera House) placing Gershwin firmly in the list of operatic masters of the C20th. This sumptuous recording brings it all back - I've owned it since it came out and listen to it frequently with enormous pleasure. The White/Hayman rendering of "Bess you is my woman now" is for my money one of the great operatic duets on record - beautiful and deeply moving. Rattle handles it all with consumate care and skill. Buy it.

I've been in love with "Porgy and Bess" for longer than I care to admit. Since before the now legendary excerpt recording starring the breathtaking Leontyne Price. Since before the Metropolitan Opera undertook its' epochal first staging of the work. Since before the fine first complete recording on Decca, conducted by Lorin Maazel.

But now, finally, someone got it exactly right. Or at least as "right" as mere mortals have a right to expect. IMHO there are no weaknesses at all in this recording. Any negativity about this stunner voiced by critics here, I suspect, carries with it personal agendas better left elsewhere.

Simply put, there are currently three complete recordings of Gershwin's masterpiece in the catalog. It is an embarrassment of riches, as each, in its' own way, is wonderful.

The first, conducted by the afore mentioned Maazel, is a fine effort, and a trailblazer. All involved are to be commended. As an analog recording, because of Decca's famous audio wizards, it holds its' own against the more modern versions.

Second is the RCA version, the first to benefit from digital recording, based on the Houston Grand Opera production and well conducted by John DeMain. It is fine. The recorded perspective is not to be faulted. The interpretation, leaning more to the Broadway musical side of the street, is perfectly valid and very well done. The artists, almost without exception, simply cannot be faulted. There is much to admire here, and admire it I do.

However, again IMHO, the Glyndeborne-derived version under discussion here comes out on top. The performers are exemplary in every way. The recorded sound is absolutely state-of-the-art, the orchestra and chorus are committed and, in every respect, remarkable, and the conducting is without peer.

This is, quite simply, one of the finest recordings of any opera ever made. It deserves pride of place in every serious opera (and musical) collection.

There are differences in every recording of a piece, some good, some bad.
I just bought this recording the other day, and I was satisfied. The recording was very dramatic (unlike the 1976 Maazel recording) and the jazzy elements were treated very well (also unlike Maazel's recording). The lyrical pieces of the opera (Bess You is my Woman & Summertime) were especially haunting and tender. And the spiritual-type songs with the shouts of "Amen" and "Hallelujah!" were perfect!

But, as another reviewer noted, I did not care for Rattle's interpretation of the grace note in Bess You is My Woman Now. And some of the tempos were either too fast or too slow, i.e. the accelerando at the end of the introduction was totally UNNECESSARY. On that matter, Gershwin did mark his tempos, but have you heard the Introduction at Quarter Note=112? It seems rather draggy. And Summertime was just a hair slow for my taste. At times the recording seemed overblown and bombastic with the full orchestra and its pompous brass (most notably in "I Hates Yo' Struttin' Style" the beginning of Act 2, and the beginning of "What You Want Wid' Bess?")

All in all a good recording and one worth keeping, despite the little things. I recommend the 1976 Maazel recording, if you can find a copy. I was lucky enough to find it on CD at our local library. The performances aren't exactly as dramatic, and Maazel almost kills the jazz feel, but it is a fine recording also. I have not heard the Houston Grand Opera recording. Maybe when I get more money...

It is significant to hear, so many decades from its composition, Gershwin's opera recorded uncut (Rattle, Maazel, John de Maine) to recognize its full musical, theatrical span. Rattle's marriage with the London Philharmonic Orchestra was prodigious; Gershwin's (own) grand, multicoloured orchestrations spring-out to full bloom as soloists and choir respond to its mentor's every gesture or whim with reliance and conviction.

There are some drawbacks: Cynthia Clarey's heartful singing as Serena Robbins lacks characteristic wit and theatricality in her recitatives-also, conspicuously, Marietta Simpson's Maria. The recording heartily blends-in singing with orchestral texture (Abbey Road studios, recreating the Glyndebourne atmos) although at times most of these soloist's lines (and more than a few others') get swamped. A long, long `pull' from Lehman Engel's and producer Goddard Lieberson's (maniacally cut) 1951 studio version where every line is heard (almost too) loud and clear-in detriment of the orchestral texture. Even so, that lovely, old recording inmortalized the performances of four original cast members... wow! (Jake, Crown, the Crab Man and the Straaaawbeeeeryy woman). In this recording, commitment between performers and conductor sometimes gets dissipated when an over-indulgent choir apes Sportin' Life's improvisations (in his glorious mock-biblical Aria), also Camellia Johnson's Strawberry Woman, ad-libing in her sublime (utmost simple) vendour cadenza, who spoils unnecessarily the repeat phrase. Discussable so, the dragged grace-notes in the Love Duet (Rattle translates them almost as long as a quaver) which substract mellismatic, folk character.

There is much more to praise, as nowadays modern recording techniques can capture so faithfuly the artistic performance: The grandious flow and the monumental structure of the opera comes to life more than ever; specially Act I and III. In the "Train" Spiritual that ends Act I, Rattle innovates, producing an exaggerated pianissimo from orchestra and choir that works well, the rhythm perfectly crisp and alert. Maybe the crescendo arrives too late, yet the climax is exhilarating. Act III provides magnificent thunderous orchestral swellings during the storm sequences; then, a beautifully judged plaintive chorale "Clara, Clara".

During the long Act II there are jewell moments, like the last ten or so minutes of Scene One: the love duet, magnificently slow (albeit the dragged grace-notes), gorgeous string section blending perfectly with the voices, then the stage-band and chorus (taken VERY fast) followed by the dreamy farewell music where Rattle creates an impressionistic, poetic trance.

In spite flaws, a compelling, persuasive rendering of Gershwin's operatic and theatrical masterpiece.

Porgy and Bess is perhaps not an unqualified masterpiece, but it is still in very many ways a remarkable work; not the least of which being, of course, the way so many distinctive styles and cultures are synthesized into a very coherent musical language (spirituals, jazz, blues and not the least Ravel and Debussy); and of course there are all the memorably and impressively carried out individual numbers (both the well-known and the less famous) and the ingenious use of leitmotivs (sometimes emerging and reemerging in very different guises). In addition to the musical virtues, the opera benefits from the strength of a coherently told, genuinely touching story and Gershwin's unfailing theatrical instincts. In short, it has everything needed for sustaining a continued success on stage.

And the performance here is uniformly excellent. First of all, it really captures the atmosphere of the stage, full of drama and emotional tension and turmoil. The LPO is wonderfully able to capture the details and moods and make sense of Gershwin's still somewhat awkward orchestration, including some brilliant solo playing and wonderful brass. Second, Rattle himself has an unfailing grasp of the score and the ability to make an utterly convincing and cogent case for the overall coherence of all the contrastive musical strands.

Thirdly, he has a superb cast of soloists; Blackwell is luminously brilliant, giving us - with the LPO's gorgeous playing and Rattle's choice of almost dangerously slow tempo - the most stirringly atmospheric Summertime on record. Willard White's warm, strong voice gives us a hauntingly multi-dimensional portrayal of Porgy and Cynthia Haymon a passionately touching Bess. Damon Evans is utterly effective as Sportin' Life as well, with a characterization full of mischief and malice. Fourthly, the supporting roles are excellently cast, and the chorus of the Sunday revivalist meeting is as harrowingly fervent as one could possibly dream of (still one of the highlights of the entire opera, in my view).

There is furthermore the case of the sound quality, which is really superb - clear, detailed and with real depth, and, not the least, capturing that feeling of the stage I mentioned above. To sum up, this set is a glory from start to finish; urgently recommended.

I found the prior reviewer's comment that "Summertime wasn't meant to be a funeral dirge..." to be interesting, although I'm afraid I can't agree. Like all great works of art, the vision of its author can perhaps never be completely understood, so must be left to interpretation by others.

And what an interpretation....this performance of Summertime has an atmospheric wistfulness which comforts and haunts like a sad lullaby, and brings tears to my eyes whenever I hear it. It moves me like almost nothing I've ever heard, because I can feel the ache in her soul across the decades, as she sings it.

While there are so many excellent things about this recording, Rattle's tempos often ruin what would have been a top-notch recording. Gershwin carefully marked all of his tempos with metronome markings, and indeed he even made a rehearsal recording (with himself playing the piano part) that carefully details his intended tempos. From the opening introduction, Rattle disregards many of these, and takes the fast tempos way too fast, and the slow tempos way too slow. The introduction has carefully marked accents that are not playable when the orchestra is playing too fast, and it just becomes a mad scramble. And "Summertime" is not meant to be a funeral dirge.

A little better preparation on Rattle's part (especially listening to Gershwin himself) would have made him a much more faithful, and a much better Gershwin conductor.

My title isn't meant to be a put-down. It's exactly what makes it, to my taste, not just the best - but actually the only realization of the music on its true operatic scale. It's true that the *singing* has been realized on an operatic scale before - i.e. Leontyne Price's immortal performance as Bess in the 1963 studio recording. But with all due props to the RCA Studio Orchestra - whose genuine talent was, it must be admitted, exercised in a context of hackery: They could probably have hardly imagined, let alone peformed on their instruments, a vision of the music as profound as that summoned by Sir Rattle [the title feels appropriate here] on this instantly definitive version.

Put aside any musical theater-level preconceptions of scale you may have brought. When that boat gets to leaving soon for New York, and the score's brilliant orchestrations are depicting the Manhattan skyline like a jazz-age-drunk's view of the yawning gates of Hell, Rattle cranks the London Philharmonic to 11 and pumps out sonic profundity like this was Mahler's 9th. When the scene ended, I needed to light a cigarette.

Now like I said, that's the way I roll. But if that's a heavier Art Moment than you have the emotional commitment for at a given time, but you still want to hear "Summertime", by all means cue up Price. But remember that, as far as realizing the score of the one American opera that can compete on the same playing field as your Bohemes and Traviatas is concerned, it's the difference between AAA ball and the World Series.