Search - Gershwin, Zizzo :: Rediscovered

Zizzo Masters Gershwin Touch

Thomas Griffin | Colorado Springs, CO United States | 02/27/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Alicia Zizzo, one of the foremost Gershwin experts of our day, has selected many famous and lesser known pieces and made them sing. The touch is absolutely amazing, an aspect most musicians (including myself) have never been able to attain when playing this difficult composer's works. She makes it sound so easy.When I compared my recording of Gershwin playing his own stuff (Gershwin Plays Gershwin: The Piano Rolls) to Ms. Zizzo I was amazed to find that not only does she perfectly follow the mood Gershwin intended, but also throws in a few of her own interpretave surprises. Even though Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris get long after 16 min, the rest of the songs, including Blue Monday (Actually better than Rhapsody in Blue), Novellete in Fourths, and the Preludes, are wonderful. This CD is perfect for background music while you're working, or even just listening while in the car. This is one of my favorite CDs that I own."

Best Gershwin Interpretation Period

Thomas G. Griffin IV | Santa Monica, CA | 10/01/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Alicia Zizzo, one of our foremost contemporary authorities on Gershwin, put a lot of effort into combining a beautiful and often elegant mix of many of Gershwins' more and lesser known pieces. The result, while occasionally not exactly riveting, portrays such an artistic grasp of his style that I (who taught piano for many years) am left without words to praise her highly enough.Much of the joy of listening to this performance comes from the "non-oft-recorded" pieces, such as "Blue Monday," the seed-cellar Gershwin drew/ grew from to create what many consider to be his masterpiece, "Rhapsody in Blue." While some claim that the recording includes too much reverb, I encourage those of you who hear this CD to embrace the slight and realistic sometime echo - it provides more of a studio sound, which not only hearkens to the stylistic nature of many of Gershwin's piano works, but also enables a broader artistic palette for Ms. Zizzo to work with.Honestly, this recording is the best Gershwin I have ever heard - even his own piano rolls, while wonderful, do not quite have the live sound that Ms. Zizzo captures so beautifully. Other renditions, which do manage to capture the live sound, come nowhere close to her technical proficiency. She has hit on both aspects in a way rarely found today in modern classical recordings. This CD is well worth the investment."

Gershwin the Genius!

Peeeeep | Culver City, CA | 10/27/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I found this music absolutely delightful. You can never get enough Gershwin. Alicia Zizzo plays these never-heard-before pieces with the emotion I'm sure George intended. Bravo!"