Barbara Hannigan (soprano/conductor)Ludwig Orchestra
Alpha · ALPHA293 · 57 minutes
Hannigan singing while conducting is the kind of feat that could easily feel like a stunt, but here it just makes everything more electric — you can hear her breathing the orchestra into shape around her own voice. The programme itself is a wild ride, jumping from Gershwin’s flapper-era exuberance to Berg’s aching Lulu Suite to Berio’s fractured, mercurial Sequenza III, and somehow it all holds together as one continuous character study of women pushing against the roles written for them. By the time you reach the Gershwin encore that gives the album its title, you realize you’ve been won over completely, no rules flouted without reason.
Awards:
- Presto Recording of the Week — 22nd September 2017
- BBC Music Magazine — December 2017 — Recording of the month
- Presto Recordings of the Year — Finalist 2017
- The New York Times — Recordings of the Year 2017
“Crazy Girl Crazy is an album that – just like its muse and protagonist – flouts the rules…The litheness of Hannigan’s voice beguiles, so that the near-segue into the Lulu Suite (1934) comes…”
— BBC Music Magazine, December 2017,5 out of 5 stars
George Gershwin (piano), Ethel Waters (vocal), Tommy Dorsey (trombone), Mannie Klein (trumpet), Ben Selvin (violin), Jimmy Dorsey (clarinet), Buck & Bubbles, Buck Washington (vocal, piano), John "Bubbles" Sublett (vocal), Joe Bushkin (piano), Artie Shaw (clarinet), Bunny Berigan (trumpet), Cozy…
Sony · S2K89913 · 2 hours 29 minutes
There’s something a little wild about hearing Gershwin himself at the piano, tucked in alongside Ethel Waters, Bunny Berigan, and a whole roster of jazz-age greats who each treated his tunes as raw material rather than sacred text. What comes through across two and a half hours is how porous the line was between “classical” and popular song in Gershwin’s world — a rhapsody and a rag could share the same DNA. Dip in anywhere and you get a snapshot of American music figuring out what it wanted to be.
Awards:
- Grammy Awards — 19th Awards (1976) — Best Engineered Album, Classical
John Holiday (countertenor), Kevin Miller (piano)
Pentatone · PTC5187583 · 64 minutes
John Holiday’s voice has this uncanny way of sounding both otherworldly and totally unguarded at once, and that tension is exactly what makes Over My Head such a compelling listen. The Carlos Simon Vocalises are the real test here — no words to hide behind, just pure line and breath — and Kevin Miller matches him phrase for phrase rather than simply accompanying. Sixty-four minutes that ask you to sit still and actually listen, which feels like a rare and welcome demand these days.
Awards:
- Presto Recording of the Week — 17th July 2026
“There’s scrupulous attention to words, elegant phrasing, and a happy partnership with the pianist Kevin Miller, handsomely on show in three demanding Vocalises by Carlos Simon.”
— BBC Music Magazine, August 2026,3 out of 5 stars
Angela Hewitt (piano)
Hyperion · CDA68341 · 75 minutes
There’s something wonderfully personal about a pianist choosing to arrange songs herself, and Hewitt’s own transcriptions here are the real heart of this collection — you can feel her affection for these melodies in every phrase. She has that rare gift of letting the piano sing without ever forcing the issue, so the lyricism just unfolds naturally, unhurried and clear-eyed. Seventy-five minutes of love songs could easily tip into syrup, but Hewitt’s clean, spacious touch keeps everything honest.
Awards:
- Presto Editor’s Choice — July 2021
- BBC Music Magazine — September 2021 — Instrumental Choice
“Hewitt’s spacious, uncluttered approach revels unashamedly in the pianism while still letting the original songs sing. The real treats are Hewitt’s own arrangements…In all, this beautifully…”
— BBC Music Magazine, September 2021,5 out of 5 stars
Isata Kanneh-Mason (piano)
Decca · 4851663 · 62 minutes
There’s something quietly radical about building a whole program around the idea that American concert music and jazz-inflected melody deserve to sit at the piano’s center rather than its margins. Isata Kanneh-Mason moves through Gershwin, Coleridge-Taylor, and Price with a touch that never overplays the nostalgia — her Summertime transcription breathes rather than croons, letting the tune’s ache come through on its own terms. It’s a recording that makes a persuasive case for repertoire too often treated as crossover novelty, played instead like it’s always belonged in the canon.
Awards:
- Gramophone Magazine — July 2026 — Critics’ Choice 2021
- Gramophone Magazine — August 2021 — Editor’s Choice
- Presto Editor’s Choice — July 2021
“[In the Coleridge-Taylor Impromptu] Kanneh-Mason’s controlled phrasing and shimmering tone is exquisite.”
— BBC Music Magazine, September 2021,3 out of 5 stars(Performance) /4 out of 5 stars(Recording)
Louise Dearman, Matthew Ford, Louise Dearman & Matthew FordThe John Wilson Orchestra, John Wilson
Warner Classics · 2564649373 · 75 minutes
There’s a particular alchemy John Wilson brings to these Hollywood arrangements that goes beyond mere nostalgia — he and his orchestra dig into the original pit-band scoring with a lushness and precision that most studios abandoned decades ago. Dearman and Ford sound like they’re having genuine fun rather than performing museum pieces, trading lines with the kind of chemistry that makes you forget you’re listening to a recording rather than watching it happen live. Seventy-five minutes of Gershwin at his most glamorous, played by people who clearly understand why these tunes never got old in the first place.
Awards:
- Presto Recording of the Week — 6th May 2016
- Presto Recordings of the Year — Finalist 2016
“I don’t believe there is any such thing as a bad Gershwin song, but the very best of them feature in this luxury assortment…and this being a John Wilson album with his eponymous orchestra, they…”
— Gramophone Magazine, June 2016
Anne Marie McDermott (piano)Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Justin Brown
Bridge · BRIDGE9252 · 72 minutes
Gershwin’s piano writing walks this tightrope between Tin Pan Alley swagger and genuine symphonic ambition, and it takes a pianist who can do both without winking at the audience. Anne Marie McDermott plays it completely straight — no exaggerated jazz mannerisms, just clean, confident phrasing that lets the blue notes and syncopations land on their own terms. Getting the Rhapsody in Blue, the Concerto in F, and the two rarer pieces all on one disc, all played this well, is the kind of thing that makes you reconsider how much substance is actually packed into this music.
Awards:
- Gramophone Magazine — October 2008 — Editor’s Choice
“It’s rare enough to have all four Gershwin works for piano and orchestra on a single disc but rarer still for each one to come near or top of the class.First, and unusually enough, McDermott…”
— Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010
