Following a litany of requests, Dorati’s supreme recording of Grofé’s Grand Canyon Suite is reissued on Eloquence together with the original coupling of Robert Russell Bennett’s swaggering and masterly orchestral synthesis from ‘Porgy and Bess’. As a bonus, Howard Hanson’s bright Mercury recording of Grofé’s ‘Mississippi Suite’ fills out this reissue.
FERDE GROFÉ
Grand Canyon Suite
Mississippi Suite*
GEORGE GERSHWIN
Porgy and Bess – A Symphonic Picture (arr. Robert Russell Bennett)
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Antal Dorati
Eastman-Rochester Orchestra*
Howard Hanson*
‘superlative Decca recording, very much in the demonstration class … Yet the performance combines subtlety with spectacle and this version is very much in a class of its own’ [Grand Canyon Suite] *** Penguin Guide to CDs
‘Persuasively presented, especially the exuberant portrait of Huckleberry Finn’ [Mississippi Suite]
**(*) Penguin Guide to CDs
‘never more beautifully recorded … the performance is totally memorable and the sound quite superb’ [Porgy and Bess] *** Penguin Guide to CDs
‘This disc is a must-have…stunningly well recorded and played to the nines… a very attractive issue’ MusicWeb
‘… this CD is hard to resist’ Fanfare
‘conducted with bags of conviction, rhythmic animation and a sense of purpose, and with playing of real quality’ International Record Review