Gershwin: An American in Paris (Utah Symphony Orchestra)

I’ve always been scared to dive too heavily into the analog world, for the existence of two specific fears/possibilities:

1.) What if I grow to hate digital?!?!?
2.) What if I end up spending all my time converting unavailable recordings to a digital format, for myself, my students and others?

Of the supplies that have newly become available to me, I selected, at random the following recording of the Utah Symphony Orchestra playing Gershwin’s An American in Paris. At first, I was amazed at the sound quality. My arrogant digital ears were expecting hissing, popping and only the most horribly-obvious points of editing (note: my expectations for rough editing were unfortunately realized on this album’s Rhapsody in Blue). I’m happy to report that I was wrong on all three of these assumptions in An American in Paris. In fact, when I got to the famed trumpet solo, I was blown away by the clarity, not only of the saxes, trumpet soloist and rest of the orchestra, but the bass drum! I can only imagine the size of this mammoth beast - I can tell that the performer must have had to have a careful touch getting this sound without overpowering everyone else. It just has “that sound” of an extremely large bass drum, being lightly struck with care. This can be heard clearly in the recording and was so resonant, that I actually jumped a bit, the first time I heard it.

I don’t hate digital, and likely never will (it has served me too well, in recent years), but this does have me a bit concerned that I’ll spend a lot of time converting little moments like this to digital. I’ll have to see how bad this gets and I might have to cut myself off, at some point. Also, I’m sure, if the producers and recording engineers for this record heard the crude quality of our modern MP3s, they’d be rolling in their graves at the thought of me emailing any segment of this recording to all my friends... Oh well. I’m sure I’ll find a healthy balance.

Clip from this Album - (Disclaimer: Not a particularly great conversion)

Aside from the impressive trumpet solo (which I like, not in small part, due to the fact that only a light felt hat or other material was used, something that I like quite a bit), the interpretation of the entire work is fantastic for countless specific reasons (tempi and transitions being among the most impressive) and I believe it to be the most musical interpretation of the piece I’ve ever heard.

Summary: Analog - So far, so good!

Album Information:
Gershwin: Concerto in F, An American in Paris, Rhapsody in Blue
Utah Symphony Orchestra with Jerome Lowenthal, piano, Maurice Abravanel, conductor
1967 Vanguard Cardinal Series VCS-10017