My version of "Rhapsody in blue"

[fnork]

Hi,

I'm quite new on this forum, registered yesterday. I don't know if I'm posting this on the right forum, but anyway I'd like to share my recording of Gershwins "Rhapsody in blue", which was recorded with my school orchestra some 8 months ago. Now when you listen to this, remember that the people in the orchestra are 16-18 years old, and their playing skills vary a lot. We have perhaps two or three amazing violinists for instance, but the rest of them aren't very good... I also make some mistakes in the piano part near the end (this was the third take and I might have been a bit tired..).
However, I would love to hear some opinions, thoughts etc from people here. If you've listened to it, please let me know what you think!

Here's the link: https://www.angelfire.com/music6/fnork/

/Martin

[donjuan]

wow there were parts when I forgot it was a school orchestra- mostly your solos.

The people who carry the melody are usually pretty good, but there are times especially in the horns that it sounds amateurish in terms of dynamics nd rhythm.  

I really enjoyed listening however!  I wish my school had an orchestra like that that plays great composers like Gershwin.  Ill I ever hear out of school bands around my area is the theme from the Simpsons played really badly and simplified to disgusting lengths.

Congratulations!

donjuan

[paolo]

I'm jealous!
That's all i can say

[fnork]

wow there were parts when I forgot it was a school orchestra- mostly your solos.

The people who carry the melody are usually pretty good, but there are times especially in the horns that it sounds amateurish in terms of dynamics nd rhythm.  

I really enjoyed listening however!  I wish my school had an orchestra like that that plays great composers like Gershwin.  Ill I ever hear out of school bands around my area is the theme from the Simpsons played really badly and simplified to disgusting lengths.

Congratulations!

donjuan

Thanks a lot! I should add, that this school orchestra has been more concentrated and played much better (so have I) than on this recording. We played it on a school concert for an exciting audience, my greatest playing experience ever... This recording, however, wasn't recorded for audience, and the orchestra wasn't focused.

Also, basically noone in this orchestra looks at the conductor, that might explain why some things sound wierd too  

[pseudopianist]

Hi,

I'm quite new on this forum, registered yesterday. I don't know if I'm posting this on the right forum, but anyway I'd like to share my recording of Gershwins "Rhapsody in blue", which was recorded with my school orchestra some 8 months ago. Now when you listen to this, remember that the people in the orchestra are 16-18 years old, and their playing skills vary a lot. We have perhaps two or three amazing violinists for instance, but the rest of them aren't very good... I also make some mistakes in the piano part near the end (this was the third take and I might have been a bit tired..).
However, I would love to hear some opinions, thoughts etc from people here. If you've listened to it, please let me know what you think!

Here's the link: https://www.angelfire.com/music6/fnork/

/Martin

Excuse me but I know A Martin who preformed this piece with a school orchestra...

Are you by any chance a Swede? 18 years old? Live in Gothenburg? And goes to the school Hvitfeldska?

If so... I'm Pär Stenberg. MU2A

[fnork]

Excuse me but I know A Martin who preformed this piece with a school orchestra...

Are you by any chance a Swede? 18 years old? Live in Gothenburg? And goes to the school Hvitfeldska?

If so... I'm Pär Stenberg. MU2A

Haha! Jävlar, hej Pär! Didn't think I would find someone from my school on a forum like this

[Shagdac]

Fnork....I truly enjoyed listening to this....both times!!!
You are talented, and did a great job. Thanks for sharing this with the forum. Really nice, loved it!

S

[pseudopianist]

Haha! Jävlar, hej Pär! Didn't think I would find someone from my school on a forum like this

Same. I'm a classicalgeek so I come here to my haven.

Nice playing, live as well.

[fnork]

Fnork....I truly enjoyed listening to this....both times!!!
You are talented, and did a great job. Thanks for sharing this with the forum. Really nice, loved it!

S

Thanks! Wow, I thought everyone here would make comments about that the orchestra wasn't that good etc, but everyone is really positive about the recording... that's nice
I made some mistakes near the end, but we have another take of it and we'll do some editing.

Since you guys are so positive, I'll try to post some other things when I get the chance Right now, I can't record, but I might be able to do that next week.

[liszmaninopin]

I like it!

If I had a suggestion to you, I might say to be a bit less "polite" with your playing, you really did do a good job, but it could have been even more exuberant (this is strictly my opinion).

How technically difficult did you find it?  The only concerto I've played is the Rach 2-I've never touched the Gershwin. 

[alextryan]

I'll chime in to say that this piece was surprisingly non-difficult technically.  In fact, the hardest-sounding parts to me ended up (mostly) being the easiest. 

The one place where I still struggle is just a bit before the "cadenza."  The right hand states the United Airlines theme twice, and the first one is a real bear.  The left hand has to make these weird jumps, in time, while the right smashes out the melody and then drops that delicatle little high figure in.  From there on, though, it's very playable. 

Gershwin, in my opinion from having played this piece, writes wonderfully pianistically. 

[fnork]

I like it!

If I had a suggestion to you, I might say to be a bit less "polite" with your playing, you really did do a good job, but it could have been even more exuberant (this is strictly my opinion).

How technically difficult did you find it?  The only concerto I've played is the Rach 2-I've never touched the Gershwin. 

Thanks for sharing your opinion. What you say is probably quite true - I could have "played around" with the music a bit more. However, I hate these pianists who try the best they can to give it a more swingy feeling in some places (like somewhere in the middle before the cadenza, where the hands switch place and melody is played by right hand in lower register). It sounds extremely lame, and it's obvious that most classical pianists don't know anything about swing anyway... But yeah, I think I know what you mean and I should've done it more. But as I might have said, this is in no way the best performance of it. The one I enjoyed the most - when I played in concert - wasn't recorded, unfortenately.

Alexryan is right, it's not very difficult technically. It's safe to say that it's quite easy to learn. Especially since you've played something as advanced as Rachs second concerto! Did you play the whole thing? That one is really difficult, I'm working on the first movement now. Anyway, try to play the rhapsody. Once you know what you've memorized the notes, it's easy... and fun to play, most of all! It's a wonderful piece to play. Easy to memorize too, I think. Watch out for Gershwins own recording of it though... it's not the best, I must say. It might be because they had a time pressure, because they only recorded 8 minutes of it and skipped several parts. To me, it sounds like they just rush through the piece... most soloists are really good, though.

[waldstein]

Does any one have sheet music for Rhapsody in blue by Gershwin. Am unable to find it anywhere (free) on the net.

Can some one lend me a PDF file of the same

Thanks