Anne Overell:

>I agree about the Labeque recording - having bought it on the basis of a
>good review somewhere, I was very disappointed and am now looking for a
>good recording (preferably) with Gershwin's original orchestration - any
>recommendations?

As far as I know (and as David points out, I didn't know about the Grofe
arrangement, so take this with a grain of salt), no recording of the
original Gershwin orchestration exists.  However, there are several good
ones of the standard version:

Wild/Fiedler
Levant/Kostelanetz (mono)
Golub/Miller
Entremont/Ormandy
Blumenthal/?

Wild/Fiedler on RCA is a fiery performance.  Levant/Kostelanetz is rough,
but historically important.  Levant was about the only pianist keeping the
work alive after Gershwin died.  Entremont/Ormandy on Sony is an elegant
reading.  Blumenthal on Marco Polo (I believe now deleted) has the best
piano playing.  I'm very high on Blumenthal as a pianist.  Golub/Miller on
either Pro Arte or Arabesque is the most detailed reading.  I don't know if
I like it because I've heard other performances or because it's wonderful
in its own right.  At any rate, Miller brings out the inner lines of the
score like no other.

William Tritt/Erich Kunzel have a performance on Telarc which I plan to
review in detail.  Right now, I haven't heard it enough to give an opinion.

Steve Schwartz