Gershwin: Porgy and Bess

BBC Music Magazine December 2007 ***** “This was the first complete recording of Gershwin's masterpiece, and it remains one of the two best. It has vitality, intensity and is idiomatic, with a wonderful line-up of soloists.” Penguin Guide “This superb recording established the work's formidable status beyond question ... Maazel includes the complete text ... some half hour of virtually unknown music, including many highly evocative passages and some striking choruses, reinforces the consistency of Gershwin's inspiration ... the recording is one of the most vivid that even Decca has produced. Willard White is a magnificent Porgy, while Leona Mitchell's vibrant Bess has a moving streak of vulnerability. But it is above all Maazel's triumph, a tremendous first recording with dazzling playing from the Cleveland Orchestra ... one of the most impressive transfers of an analogue original that Decca has yet issued …”