Gershwin's 'An American in Paris' in Building a Library with Ben Gernon and Andrew McGregor

Andrew McGregor with the best new recordings of classical music.

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Kate Kennedy selects her choice of the best new releases

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Ben Gernon picks his favourite recording of Gershwin's symphonic poem, An American in Paris.

Penned in the winter of 1928, just two years after Gershwin’s visit to the French capital, the inspiration for his symphonic poem apparently came while writing an unrelated orchestral ballet when a melodic fragment he’d originally gifted to his Parisian hosts - Robert and Mabel Schirmer - bubbled to the surface as he was peering out of his apartment window at the Hudson river. 'I love that river”, he wrote, “and I thought how often I had been homesick for a sight of it, and then the idea struck me - An American in Paris, homesickness, the blues.' The work's portrayal of an American visitor in Paris, s they stroll about the city, not to mention its unusual orchestration - featuring real car horns - left critics lukewarm at its premiere, but it has since become a perennial favourite of orchestras everywhere.

Top choice:
Gershwin: An American in Paris
Hollwood Bowl Symphony Orchestra
Felix Slatkin (conductor)
Diapason 58843

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Record of the Week: Andrew’s top pick.

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