2010/11/24 by Gábor Ferencz · 2 citations
Arts and Humanities · #Musicology and Musical Analysis #Theater, Performance, and Music History #Music History and Culture #Symphony #Suite #Opera #Art #Art history #George (robot) #History #Humanities #Archaeology
paper · doi:10.1093/musqtl/gdq019
openalex publication_date 2010/11/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
The popularity of Porgy and Bess holds steady at the opera's seventy-fifth anniversary. George Gershwin's score has maintained a strong concert-hall presence since 1935, circulating most widely—in purely orchestral dress—in his own Suite from Porgy and Bess (1936, later Catfish Row) and the 1942 Symphonic Picture, scored by Robert Russell Bennett at conductor Fritz Reiner's behest. Other “contenders” include the Porgy and Bess “Orchestra Selection” medley by Hans Spialek (1936), Bennett's similarly compact, all-purpose “Selection” (1961), and Morton Gould's Porgy and Bess Suite of 1955. But they have developed little staying power in concert or on recordings and are mentioned infrequently in scholars' and critics' Suite and Picture discussions.1 Though the Suite practically dropped from sight for two decades after Gershwin's death in 1937, the Picture quickly rose to prominence in concert, on recordings, and over the airwaves, being regularly welcomed onto “all-Gershwin” programs by America's leading orchestras. At present, a half-century after the Suite's rediscovery, the Picture remains the more performed and recorded of the two, which coexist as established repertory and are frequently compared superficially. Critical evaluation has been nonetheless impaired because (i) full scores of Gershwin's Suite and opera remain unpublished, (ii) the Suite and Picture share a history of recordings and performances characterized by undisclosed cuts and revisions, and (iii) the Picture's backstory—especially Fritz Reiner's role as its catalyst and architect—is largely untold.