Benjamin Grosvenor: Rhapsody in Blue

The three principal works that Benjamin Grosvenor has chosen for his first concerto album complement each
other perfectly. The urbane charm and dazzling virtuosity of Saint-Saens lead naturally on to the brittle brilliance
and dry wit of his fellow Frenchman Ravel. Ravels distinctly jazzy G major Concerto was written soon after hed
met Gershwin, and just a few years after the great Broadway songsmith had so spectacularly gateced his
way into the classical world with his syncopated, note-bending Rhapsody in Blue.

Rhapsody in Blue needs neither verbal advocacy nor apology from me, says Benjamin Grosvenor. It s simply
a work of rapturous inventiveness a sort of musical kaleido of America, as Gershwin himself called
it.

In his new , Benjamin Grosvenor puts aside the large and less wieldy symphonic version in favour
of the original jazz-band arrangement that Ferde Grofe made for the works 1924 premiere, given by Gershwin
himself with the Paul Whiteman Band. Its a more version, says Grosvenor, very colourful and
extremely interesting it even includes a banjo, which adds a unique sound.

As for the two French concertos, theyre very much part of a personal crusade: Ive often felt that the French piano repertoire is underrated or that its judged as no more than opulent mood-music or pictures in sound, but I ve adored the Ravel and Saint-Saens concertos from the first time I heard them.

The CD also features Benjamin Grosvenor playing three solo encores, one from each composer represented.
For Saint-Saens, hes chosen Leopold Godowskys deliciously free transcription of The Swan, the famous
cello solo from The Carnival of the Animals. Ravel is represented by a brief Prelude that he wrote in 1913 as
a -reading test for students at the Paris Conservatoire. And, to end the CD, there s Gershwins immortal
song Love Walked In in a piano transcription by his friend, the eccentric and eclectic Australian-born
pianist composer Percy Grainger, who created it specifically to serve as an encore for his own performances of
Gershwins Piano Concerto and Rhapsody in Blue.