GEORGE GERSHWIN

Porgy & Bess Complete

 

CD 1

01         Act 1 - Scene 1 - Introduction - ‘Summertime’     

02         ‘A woman is a sometime thing’   

03         ‘Here come de honey man’         

04         ‘They pass by singin’ ’    

05         ‘Oh, little stars; Touch that money an’ meet yo’ Gawd’      

06         ‘Wake up an’ hit it out’   

07         Act 1 - Scene 2 - ‘Gone, gone, gone’       

08         ‘Overflow, overflow’       

09         ‘Um! A saucer-burial setup, I see’           

10         ‘My Man’s gone now’      

11         ‘How de saucer stan’ now, my sister?’     

12         ‘Oh, the train is at the station’     

13         ‘Oh, he’s gone, gone, gone’        

14         Act 2 - Scene 1 - ‘It takes a long pull to get there’            

15         ‘Oh, I got plenty o’nuttin’ ’          

16         ‘Mornin’, Lawyer, lookin’ for somebody?’  

17         ‘Bess, you is my woman now’     

18         ‘I stayin’ with Porgy’      

19         ‘Oh, I can’t sit down’      

20         ‘Goodbye, Porgy!’          

 

CD 2

01         Act 2 - Scene 2 - ‘I ain’ got no shame’     

02         ‘It ain’t necessarily so’   

03         ‘Tell me...’        

04         ‘Oh .. What you want wid Bess?’

05         Act 2 - Scene 3 - Interlude         

06         ‘Honey, dat’s all de breakfast I got time for’         

07         ‘Oh, doctor Jesus’          

08         ‘O dey’s so fresh an’fine’            

09         ‘I’m talkin’ about devil crabs’      

10         ‘Porgy, Porgy, dat you there’      

11         ‘I wants to stay here’     

12         ‘What you stand and watchin’ for, Clara?’

13         Act 2 - Scene 4 - ‘Oh, de Lawd shake de Heavens’           

14         ‘Oh, dere’s somebody knockin’ at de do’ ’            

15         ‘A red-headed woman’   

16         ‘What’s de matter?’        

17         Act 3 - Scene 1 - ‘Clara, Clara, don’t you be downhearted’            

18         Interlude (Death of Crown)        

19         Act 3 - Scene 2 - Introduction     

20         ‘Wait for us at the corner, Al’

21         ‘Oh, Gawd! They goin’ make him look on Crown’s face!’    

22         ‘There’s a boat dat’s leavin’ ’      

23         Act 3 - Scene 3 - Introduction     

24         ‘Thank Gawd I’s home again!’     

25         ‘Oh, Bess, oh where’s my Bess’

 

Leontyne Price, William Warfield, Cab Calloway

 

Live Recording - Titania Palast, Berlin 21 September 1952

 

As George Gershwin celebrated his thirtieth birthday in 1928, he was at the height of his early maturity. It must have seemed to such a self-confident artist as he that there was nothing he could not achieve if he so wished. However, Gershwin at the age of thirty had not yet written his masterpiece, although he had had ideas for setting an operatic libretto to be fashioned from Du Bose Hayward's novel Porgy for some years, ever since he began reading it one night, unable to sleep, and – gripped by the telling – stayed awake until daybreak before he had finished it. Several factors conspired to delay the realisation of his dream. The musical theatre continued to beckon: in 1929, he wrote two Broadway shows – the first was Show Girl, a somewhat hastily put together vehicle which utilised An American in Paris as a ballet. This admixture did not work too well, and the second show was the revised version of Strike Up The Band, which opened early in January 1930, six months after Show Girl and over two years after the first version.

 

Guild Historical 2cds GHCD2313-4