Name: Rhapsody in Blue
Price: 15.5 USD
Availability: InStock

reservations pale into Beckmesserish scratchings besides the delights of this disc and especially of Grosvenor's pianism. I can only concur with other critics who hear in his tone and phrasing... — BBC Music Magazine, October 2012, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 26th Apr 2024
Catalogue No: 4854929
Label: Decca

Presto Recording of the Week

6th August 2012
Gramophone Magazine

November 2012

Editor's Choice

Gershwin: Love Walked In

Benjamin Grosvenor (piano)

Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 22

Benjamin Grosvenor
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
James Judd

Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major

Benjamin Grosvenor
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
James Judd

Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue

Benjamin Grosvenor
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
James Judd

Ravel: Prélude

Benjamin Grosvenor

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Celebrating the 100-year anniversary of Rhapsody in Blue, Decca is reissuing Benjamin Grosvenor’s recording with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra on CD. This album was Benjamin's second disc, featuring some of the foremost romantic piano concertos accompanied by the lush textures of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. The disc also contains compositions by Gershwin, Ravel and Saint-Saëns. "One of the most dazzling records to have come my way for many years." - Gramophone

Reviews

October 2012

reservations pale into Beckmesserish scratchings besides the delights of this disc and especially of Grosvenor's pianism. I can only concur with other critics who hear in his tone and phrasing echoes of a golden age...For me, his playing of the Godowsky version of Saint-Saens's Swan is a high point...A champagne disc - fizz and finesse.

November 2012

he opens [the Saint-Saens] with a rhetorical grandeur before setting the keyboard ablaze with a burst of swaggering, supercharged virtuosity...He has technique to burn and his pungency and force are things to marvel at...Grosvenor's Ravel brims over with individual touches...while in Gershwin his virtuosity is once more exultant rather than brash...Grosvenor's is, at the least, a talent in a thousand.

6th August 2012

He has a sparkle and spontaneity to his playing.

11th August 2012

Grosvenor and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic achieve a fine balance between [the Ravel's] urban bustle and more reflective passages...[Rhapsody in Blue is] less cluttered and more demotic in style, with more of a swing than in some stiffer, stuffier versions.

10th August 2012

in an age of ready-made virtuosos, his gifts are already distinctive — poetic, romantic, almost old-school in the way he makes phrases teeter on the edge of a pause or when one hand hesitates before the other in laying down a texture...Grosvenor’s rendition of the Rhapsody is definitely European, warmly sensuous rather than American pizzazz.

30th September 2012

His playing belies his youth; this is deliciously individual, mature pianism. The sound is warm, the style impulsive, affectionate. He’s not striving for technical perfection (though you won’t find any fluffs here), more content to draw the listener in and spin a good yarn...Immaculate, characterful orchestral playing from James Judd and the RLPO too.

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