Fantasy on Porgy and Bess   

Gershwin (arr Grainger)

1. Introduction and It Ain't Necessarily So

2. Clara and Strawberry Call

3. Summertime

4. Oh, I Can't Sit Down

5. Bess, You Is My Woman Now

6. Oh, I Got Plenty of Nuttin'

7. Oh Lawd, I'm on My Way

George Gershwin's folk opera, "Porgy and Bess" was written in 1935.  The first performance was given later that year on September 30th in the Colonial Theatre, Boston, Massachusetts  and was followed just ten days later by the New York première at the Alvin Theatre.

The plot is based on Edward bu Bose Heyward's novel "Porgy", which he adapted for the opera working alongside Ira Gershwin on the libretto and the lyrics.  The highly innovative musical score, with its outstanding use of American Negro idioms, gave rise to a new genre, the "folk opera".  The songs from Porgy and Bess

are now known worldwide and the opera has earned its place in the repertoire of such presigious opera houses as The Metropolitan Opera and Glyndebourne.

Percy Aldridge Grainger was a great admirer of Gershwin's work and would often play arrangements of his songs for solo piano and transcriptions for two pianos with his wife, Ella.  In this excellent fantasy, written in 1951, he uses the two pianos to great effect, passing the melodies between them, and creating an impressive range ofpianistic tone colours.

© Apollo Recordings 2001