Jazz Influenced But Not Jazz

Another month, another BBC Music mag cover disk. This one features two piano concertos with links to jazz. The BBC National Orchestra of Wales plays Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F ( conductor David Charles Abell and soloist Peter Donohoe ) and Ravel's Piano Concerto in G ( Francois Xavier Roth conducting and Jean-Philippe Collard at the piano ). The Ravel is a favourite piece about which I posted back near the beginning of this blog. I don't have any other recording of the Gershwin and have to admit that it isn't repertoire that appeals to me, a bit too close to music theatre in which he was obviously a master but which I can take in only small doses when in a particular mood. Donohoe swings nicely though and even if the BBCNOW are a bit insecure at times in the live concert recordings,the Ravel receives an accomplished performance from Collard. Ravel's subtle use of jazz inflected chords and blue notes convinces much more than Gershwin's pastiche, the very Rhapsody In Blueish brass and woodwind motif in the first movement of the Ravel notwithstanding !