Search - Gershwin, Ottley, Power :: Fantasy on Porgy & Bess

At ease, please

Eduard Hanslick Is Dead | 08/03/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I obtained this recording soon after seeing the American duo pianists Bonnie Gritton and Susan Duehlmeier in concert at Carnegie Hall; their creative collaboration on Stravinsky's "Petrouchka" sparked my interest. Brought up undoubtedly in the German school of pianistics, they perform with infallible intellectuality and attention to detail, but in this recording seem a bit on the cautious side. Certainly, the Gershwin selections are played with vigor and thorough interpretation, but little sway allowed to the music. Somehow, the jazzy side of these compositions seems unjustified by the maintenance of an almost cold, metronomic rhythm. In only on case- the opening to the Henry Wolking arrangement of "It Aint Necessarily So" is there evident the kind of flexibility Gershwin's pieces should be more endowed with.

Otherwise, a fine recording!"