RALPH VOTAPEK: Votapek plays Gershwin

Ralph Votapek

Votapek plays Gershwin

© 2006 2006 Blue Griffin Recording Inc. (649288330623)

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A culmination of Ralph Votapek's life-long commitment to the music of the great American composer. Mr. Votapek, winner of the prestigious Naumburg Award and Gold Medalist in the first Van Cliburn International Piano Competition

tracks

1 Promenade
2 My One and Only/Nobody But You
3 Who Cares?/Fascinating Rhythm
4 I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise/Do It Again/Swanee
5 That Certain Feeling/S’ Wonderful/The Man I Love
6 Clap Yo’ Hands/Do Do Do/Strike Up The Band
7 Somebody Loves Me/Sweet and Low Down
8 Liza/I Got Rhythm
9 Prelude 1 Allegro ben ritmato e deciso
10 Prelude 2 Andante con moto and poco rubato
11 Prelude 3 Agitato
12 Grand Fantasy on Themes from Porgy and Bess-Jasbo Brown Blues
13 Grand Fantasy-Interlude
14 Grand Fantasy-Summertime
15 Grand Fantasy- Can’t Sit Down
16 Grand Fantasy-My Man’s Gone Now
17 Grand Fantasy-I Got Plenty ‘O Nuttin
18 Grand Fantasy-The Buzzard Song
19 Grand Fantasy-It Ain’t Necessarily So
20 Grand Fantasy-Interlude
21 Grand Fantasy-Bess, You Is My Woman Now/I Loves You, Porgy
22 Grand Fantasy-There’s a Boat Dat’s Leavin' Soon for New York
23 Grand Fantasy-I’m On My Way
24 Seven Virtuoso Etudes-Lady Be Good
25 Seven Virtuoso Etudes-Embraceable You

notes

"In everything he plays on this disc, there is also a depth of color and shading that is subtle but adds so much... That he is so comfortable with Gershwin's music and seems to truly enjoy it makes this album a complete pleasure to hear." All Music Guide

"..captivating new disk... charismatic performances... pianist is ideally suited for the material... It’s a pleasure to hear these pieces shaped so lucidly, with judicious use of the pedal and keen attention to contrapuntal lines to set textures in crystalline perspective." Gramophone

"Ralph Votapek plays the Songbook like ragtime, and it’s delightful that way—sounds perfectly natural. The pianist has real flair, and it is hard not to enjoy this... [Votapek] sounds terrific" American Record Guide

"The song transcriptions are elegantly cheeky—spiky but never aggressive, ironic but never campy, and always alert to Gershwin’s harmonic genius. ... excellent release. Fine sound too" Fanfare Magazine

Ralph Votapek’s early triumphs –as winner of the prestigious Naumburg Award and Gold Medalist in the first Van Cliburn International Piano Competition–were an auspicious prelude to an even more remarkable career.

Mr. Votapek has made literally hundreds of appearances with major American orchestras, partnered by such legendary conductors as Raphael Kubelik, William Steinberg, Joseph Krips and Erich Leinsdorf. With concerto appearances abroad ranging through London, Paris, and into the Far East, Mr. Votapek has made a special commitment to Latin America where he has toured every other year for some four decades. He is equally familiar as a solo recitalist throughout four continents. In New York alone he has performed repeatedly at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center.

Mr. Votapek has shown a wide-ranging interest in music of all periods and styles, from Bach to Bartok, from Mozart to Piazzolla, and all major composers in between. Though refusing to specialize in any particular composer, he has sometimes been identified with the music of George Gershwin. At the age of seventeen he performed the Rhapsody in Blue with Paul Whiteman in Milwaukee. Since then he has performed the Rhapsody and the Concerto in F with numerous orchestras, including those of Chicago, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Houston and Dallas, as well as overseas in Taipei, Lisbon, Minsk, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, and Sao Paulo. He recorded Gershwin’s Second Rhapsody on London Records with Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops.

His most recent recordings have been on the Ivory Classics label featuring music of Debussy, Granados, Falla, Piazzolla, Poulenc, Ginastera and Szymanowski.

Born in Milwaukee, Mr. Votapek began his musical education at age nine when he enrolled in the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. Continuing his studies at Northwestern University, he subsequently attended the Manhattan School of Music and the Juilliard School where his principal teachers were Rosina Lhevinne and Robert Goldsand. For many years he has served as Artist-in-Residence at Michigan State University.

reviews

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  • Great CD
    author: Karl Disler

    This is the finest renditiion of Gershwin I have ever heard. I rate this as #1 in my collectiion of this genre.

  • Votapek's Gershwin dances!
    author: DS

    This is the best piano interpretation of Gershwin's music I've heard in a long time. Votapek makes Gershwin dance!

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