Seems Like Those Bones Don't Give Me Nothin' But Boxcars Tonight
Summertime
What, That Chile Ain't Asleep Yet?...A Woman Is A Sometime Thing (Lissen To Yo' Daddy Warn You)
Honey Man! Honey Man! Here Come De Honey Man
They Pass By Signin' (No, No, Brudder, Porgy Ain' Sof' On No Woman)
Here Comes Big Boy!
Crown Cock-Eyed Drunk...Oh, Little Stars
Oh, Stop Them! Don't Let Them Fight!
Wake Up An' Hit It Out. You Ain't Got No Time To Lose
Gone, Gone, Gone (Where Is Brudder Robbins?)...Overflow
Um! A Saucer-Buryin' Setup, I See
My Man's Gone Now
How De Saucer Stan' Now, My Sister?
Leavin' For The Promise' Lan' (Oh, The Train Is At The Station)
It Take A Long Pull To Get There (Oh, I'm A-goin' Out To The Blackfish Banks)
Oh, I Got Plenty O' Nuttin'
Mornin', Lawyer, Lookin' For Somebody?
Dey's A Buckra Comin'
'Lo, Bess, Goin' To De Picnic?
Bess, You Is My Woman Now
Oh, I Can't Sit Down
Track Listings (26) - Disc #2
Allegretto Barbaro Ha Da Da, Ha Da Da
It Ain't Necessarily So
Crown! - You Know Very Well Dis Crown
Oh...What You Want Wid Bess?
Honey, Dat's All De Breakfast I Got Time For
Well, If It Ain' Ole Peter!
Oh, Doctor Jesus
Oh Dey's So Fresh An' Fine...I'm Talkin' About Devil Crabs
Porgy, Porgy, Dat You There Ain't It?
I Loves You, Porgy
Why You Been Out On That Wharf So Long, Clara?
Storm
Oh, De Lawd Shake De Heavens
One Of Dese Mornin's...Oh, Dere's Soebody Knockin' At De Do'
You Is A Nice Parcel Of Christmas
A Red-Headed Woman
Jake's Boat In De River, Upside Down!
Clara, Clara, Don't You Be Downhearted
Ha Ha Ha
Summertime
Introduction/Wait For Us At The Corner, Al
Listen: There's A Boat Dat's Leavin' Soon For New York
Occupational Humoresque/Good Mornin'
It's Porgy Comin' Home
Oh, Bess, Oh Where's My Bess
Where Bess Gone?...Oh Lawd, I'm On My Way
This is the first recording of George Gershwin's classic to incorporate the composer's final revisions for the 1935 premiere. Apparently it differs from the original published score though it won?t sound all that different... more » to a layman who?s heard the versions dating from the 1970s onward, which replaced spoken dialogue with the sung recitatives Gershwin wanted. Musicology aside, there are gains and losses in this new set. The gains are a tighter, more focused narrative line due to the cuts, which amount to about half-an-hour of music. But those cuts are losses too, since they include some familiar and well-loved numbers. The performance is a good one though, if not necessarily preferable to previous recordings by Maazel, DeMain, and Rattle, all of which have their own shortcomings. Alvy Powell makes for a finely honed Porgy, and while one could ask for a bigger-voiced Bess, Marquita Lister sings and acts well. Many of the smaller roles are admirable too, with Lester Lynch scoring as a menacing Crown but Nicole Cabell, the Clara, has a wide vibrato on sustained high notes marring her "Summertime," here performed in the faster tempo of the 1935 score. --Dan Davis« less
This is the first recording of George Gershwin's classic to incorporate the composer's final revisions for the 1935 premiere. Apparently it differs from the original published score though it won?t sound all that different to a layman who?s heard the versions dating from the 1970s onward, which replaced spoken dialogue with the sung recitatives Gershwin wanted. Musicology aside, there are gains and losses in this new set. The gains are a tighter, more focused narrative line due to the cuts, which amount to about half-an-hour of music. But those cuts are losses too, since they include some familiar and well-loved numbers. The performance is a good one though, if not necessarily preferable to previous recordings by Maazel, DeMain, and Rattle, all of which have their own shortcomings. Alvy Powell makes for a finely honed Porgy, and while one could ask for a bigger-voiced Bess, Marquita Lister sings and acts well. Many of the smaller roles are admirable too, with Lester Lynch scoring as a menacing Crown but Nicole Cabell, the Clara, has a wide vibrato on sustained high notes marring her "Summertime," here performed in the faster tempo of the 1935 score. --Dan Davis
CD Reviews
A Huge Disappointment
William S. Oser | Florida, USA | 10/05/2006
(2 out of 5 stars)
"If I were to have only one recording of Porgy and Bess, it would definately be the Houston Grand Opera recording on RCA. It is COMPLETE and wonderfully cast and conducted. The cuts, albeit sanctioned by George Gershwin are very bothersome. While the main characters are a bit more focused, they lose depth because they are no longer an integral part of a rich tapestry of community life. Other reviewers mentioned specific cuts that they regretted. I will second that opinion, I miss what was cut as well. The casting would be fine for a performance in a regional opera house, but not the stuff of great recordings. Even though the principals in Houston's recording did not have major careers in major American Opera Houses, they all rose to levels of greatness. Simon Rattle's Glynbourne recording is cast with singers who had and have major careers and next to this recording, it shows. With all that said, I prefer John Mauceri's conducting over Rattle's which can be a bit idiosyncratic. American Popular music is not mother's milk to Sir Simon Rattle, and while he conducts decently in all the major moments, he does not make transitions as well as he might. This is Mauceri's strength, he knows how this music should go and how to make it flow because it is part of him and has been for many years. Oh what he could have done with a complete recording and a first rate cast. First choice among Porgy and Bess Recordings is definately Houston Grand on RCA, second choice for me is Lehman Engle in a 1950s mono performance for Columbia, which although badly cut is brilliantly sung and conducted. Simon Rattle is for those for whom Porgy is a singer's opera, which is not me. It is the most gloriously sung and has much to recommend it. Beyond these three recordings, the rest are major disappointments."
My Jasbo's Gone Now!
Mr. Philip D. Lambert | Melbourne, Australia | 10/01/2006
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Q: What do Pogy & Bess and Verdi's Don Carlos have in common?
A: Both fell victim to 'Last Train Syndrome'.
How interesting to learn that both these scores, so full of glories, so rich in human character and emotion, arrived at the rehearsal room as huge, rambling structures, only to have drastic cuts forced on them before opening night in order that audiences wouldn't miss the last trains back to the suburbs!
Gershwin, unlike Verdi, never got to revise his score following its first stages production, so we'll never know what his final thoughts may have been had he lived a normal lifespan. This new recording, the fruit of meticulous research into the original pit parts and production notes, reproduces what the first New York audiences heard in the theatre. Approximately 25 minutes of music was cut from the original, published score. The result was an admittedly more focused narrative, with a stronger through-line for all the main characters.
But, musically, the losses are hard borne. Most sadly missed are the evocative Jasbo Brown blues, the quasi-religious prelude to the crap game, I Ain't Got No Shame, Maria's tirade against Spotin' Life and...oh, what's the point of going on?
In addition, the singing {with the welcome exceptions of Crown and Mingo) is competent rather than distinguished, and Mauceri's conducting safe, rather than inspired.
I enjoyed the dramatic integrity of this set, but it will never replace John de Main and Houston Grand Opera."
A Mauceri Porgy And Bess
W. S. Ankenbrock | New York, NY USA | 09/21/2006
(2 out of 5 stars)
"Following in the line of his recordings of STREET SCENE and REGINA, the John Mauceri recording of PORGY AND BESS, alas, underwhelms. The people involved state this as the PORGY Gershwin wanted. I would rather say that it's the PORGY Gershwin realistically settled for.
The use of subsequent changes in the libretto and lyrics for certain offensive words alone calls into question the historical accuracy of this "1935 version". One has to wonder what other unspoken compromises have been made. Further statements in the notes for this recording have a scent of self-congratulation and self-justification rather than musical scholarship, at the expense of Gershwin's full, original version. One glaring statement involves Act III's "Occupational Humoresque", stating this recording captures its first performance since 1938, ignoring the fact that the effect was heard in the 1959 film and its soundtrack album.
As for the recording itself, no one will accuse it of mimicking Maazel's "conservatory" approach. Mauceri isn't that careful. He allows his soloists a wide berth, to the point where at times they're not with the orchestra at all. At times, its just sloppy. The one good thing this abridged version does is bring into proper perspective the musical and dramatic cohesiveness and magnitude of Gershwin's full score as we have thankfully known it for the last thirty years.
In short, this recording is not recommended- a wasted opportunity for an American masterwork. For the original complete score that Gershwin composed and orchestrated, I would go with the Houston Grand Opera recording, not the Glyndebourne. And a better two-disc (slightly abridged) recording on Sony or Naxos(UK) conducted by Lehman Engel in 1951 is a personal favorite."
Jazz babies would fall asleep
Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 09/21/2006
(2 out of 5 stars)
"New versions of Porgy and Bess are rare on CD, and for almost two decades the ultra-complete set under Simon Rattle (EMI) has dominated the field. It's been waiting for an American production to challenge it, but Mauceri's new set isn't it. For one thing, the conductor is woefully flat and foursquare in his rhythms--it's embarrassing to hear the jazz drained out of every number.
The two principals, Alvy Powell and Marquita Lister, are decent, but both have wobbly voices under pressure and a tendency to tip-toe through their most famous numbers, as if passion is too vulgar ('Bess, you is my woman now' is especially lifeless). The performers in general seem uncertain about how to play the dated Catfish Row denizens, so we hear every kind of accent from Sportin' Life's blackface caricature to Bess's hoity-toity opera vowels. The selling point that this is "how Gershwin himself would have done it" might carry more weight if the performance itself wasn't so lackluster."
Best version, lesser performance
John Ellis | New York, NY United States | 03/12/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"The other "Porgy"s are recordings of the first draft. This version plays as theater first and foremost. The revisions to the orchestrations and the vocal backings are sometimes subtle but wonderful. The cast isn't the greatest ever assembled unfortunately. The "Buzzard Song" was cut because the original Porgy Duncan's voice would have given out; it should have been recorded here. Which leaves it up to someone else to take this and build the definitive version. Any new version should use these orchestrations - they are definitively improvements. And the cut songs put back in in the latest orchestrations that exist (Gershwin like Weill did his own orchestrations). Gershwin had always been assumed to have bitten off more than he could chew and lost his theater instincts in the process - this version proves that isn't true. Making "Porgy" like "Candide" - a masterpiece puzzle with the pieces never yet properly put together. But as musical drama this is the best recording, entirely because Gershwin solved the problems it was assumed he hadn't listening to the other recordings. It is a shame Gershwin died so suddenly and so young - undoubtably he intended to return and finish polishing this score, his greatest work."
Track Listings (23) - Disc #1