DJ; RE:" Gershwin "
>while taxing in munich delta played me coupla bars of
something called 'american in Paris'. Not bad, man. Keep
composing...
I really like Gershwin (to play) for a lot of reasons, DJ. His melodies are taken from the ethnic blues, which is the kind of music I grew up listening to in New Orleans, and can play by ear (after all, most have only three chords and a back-beat to tap your foot by). But the fingering - my god! His sense of the tactile - the way he makes you move those digits - is like Bach's sense of mathematical order, only realized in a different medium: touch.
Most modern pianists play 'Rhapsody in...' and 'American in...' way too fast - as a piano/pyro-technics piece. There are times when you need to effortlessly run three octaves, yeah - like the way Spielberg or Lucas would spend 15% of the movie's budget on a spectacular scene (that only lasted 120 seconds on-screen) - only to return to the original, human-scale of the presentation. Oscar Levant had it down. Maybe you have to be really crazy (^_^) I don't think Glenn Gould could do it right.
OTOH, I really like Katchaturian a lot - I've collected old, Moscow Radio Orchestra recordings of Oistrakh for many years. As Gershwin reflects the ethnic soul of the Americans, Oistrakh did the same for mother Russia. Perhaps I just like really fine soul music.
Of course, I can't read music, DJ - that really makes learning 'Rhapsody in...' a lot more fun!
-Steve
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