Search - G. Gershwin :: George Gershwin: Ultimate Collection/Various

Marvelous mixture of songs and instrumentals on 2 CD's

01/14/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This collections includes seventeen Gershwin songs sung by superb artists over several decades and 11 wonderful "best of" instrumentals. Singing artist incude original recordings by Billie Holiday, Louis Armstong, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, and others. Instrumentals include Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris. Many of the instrumentals were recorded by Arther Fiedler and the Boston Pops. There is 140 minutes of music on two CD's"

Mixed Bag

D. Grady | Oak Ridge, TN | 11/11/2001

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This Gershwin collection is divided into two CDs; the first has many of his more popular pieces from Broadway productions, and the second has a selection of his symphonic works. Some of the songs on the first CD are performed by singers such as Billie Holliday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Bing Crosby, and sound absolutely spectacular. Unfortunately, the compilers opted for some lesser know and less talented names for several of the tracks, rendering about a quarter of the CD mediocre. The one pick that really didn't fit in, however, was Audrey Hepburn's rendition of "How Long Has This Been Going On?" Audrey Hepburn, despite all her wonderful acting talent, simply cannot sing, and listening to the entire song even once is a difficult thing to force yourself to do. In my humble opinion, however, listening to Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong singing "Summertime" completely makes up for it.The performances on the second CD are wonderful across the bar, and a delight to listen to. My own personal gripe with this CD, however, is that, instead of selecting three or four compositions and including full performances of all of them, the producers have used a number of medleys and suites in order to include a larger representation of Gershwin's work. You may like this, and as I said, all the performances are top notch, but I found myself wishing that entire works had been used, instead of just pieces of them. There are a few which are presented in the entirety: the ubiquitous Rhapsody in Blue (an extremely good recording of it), Lullaby, and his three preludes for the piano, but these are the only ones.I, sadly, do not have the discriminating ear of a musician, but there were certainly no flagrantly obvious problems with the sound on either of the discs; this album seems extremely well done from a technical perspective. I would recommend it to someone looking for a Gershwin album with a little of everything, but for someone who already has or is looking to start a collection of his work, this CD will add very little of note."

Wonderful

Linda A. Lutz | 06/15/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"My original CD was stolen from my car so I was very pleased to be able to replace it."