SACD Arthur Fiedler – Gershwin: An American In Paris / Rhapsody In Blue

Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue / An American in Paris as a hybrid multichannel SACD from Analogue Productions’ RCA Living Stereo series: Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra, with Earl Wild at the piano, remastered by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound from the original master tape. Both works play in one sequence – Rhapsody in Blue first, then An American in Paris.

Where the concert hall starts to swing

Two Gershwin works in which concert form and American popular rhythm meet without apology. Arthur Fiedler’s long years with the Boston Pops made him the ideal guide to music that needs orchestral discipline, theatrical timing and a feel for swing in equal measure. In Rhapsody in Blue, Earl Wild takes the solo part.

It all begins with the clarinet’s famous rising glissando – an entrance that instantly opens the concert hall to new possibilities. Wild moves between percussive drive, grand chordal gestures and the broad central melody, while Fiedler holds the many episodes together. An American in Paris sets off on a different journey: taxi horns, walking rhythms and bright orchestral exchanges paint the city’s surface, before a long, blues-tinged section brings homesickness and distance. When the opening energy returns, that pause has changed it.

The pairing is ideal: in one work the piano faces the orchestra; in the other, the orchestra itself becomes traveller, street and memory. Heard together, the two works show how naturally Gershwin moved between improvisatory gesture, formal design and popular rhythm – without giving up any part of himself.

The hybrid multichannel SACD from Analogue Productions

CAPC 2367 SA is a hybrid multichannel SACD from Analogue Productions’ RCA Living Stereo series. According to the publisher, Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound remastered it from the original master tape. For the three-channel programme you need a multichannel-capable SACD player and a matching setup; the CD layer plays on any conventional CD player. The disc contains both works: Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris.

You order from Michael 45 in Germany. We arrange the US import and ship from Hilden.

More from the series: RCA Living Stereo Series

Also in another edition: Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue / An American in Paris

Customer question: Buying Analogue Productions records in Europe