SOMM is delighted to announce the debut recording of composer-pianist Iain Farrington’s Art Deco Trio, featuring 15 new instrumental arrangements blending classical and jazz influences of songs by George Gershwin.
In 2012, Farrington played piano in the London Olympic Games’ opening ceremony in a comic performance of Chariots of Fire with Rowan Atkinson (as Mr. Bean) and the LSO conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. His Beethoveniana – a thrilling distillation of Beethoven’s nine Symphonies into a seven-minute piece for 323 BBC orchestra musicians, the BBC Singers and two dancers – was a highlight of the locked-down 2020 BBC Proms.
Taking its name from the defining style of the Gershwin era, the Art Deco Trio – Peter Sparks (clarinet), Kyle Horch (alto and soprano saxophones) and Farrington (piano) – “mixes elegance and clean lines with the exuberance and bold colours” of its distinctive signature. The present programme takes its title from Farrington’s Fantasia on five Gershwin standards stamped through with infectious rhythmic energy and the most memorable of melodies. First heard in shorter form at the 2018 BBC Proms, "Gershwinicity" is a dazzling celebration of one the 20th century’s most popular songwriters.
The melody-filled material ranges from early hits such as I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise and The Man I Love to the late, lasting classics They All Laughed and Our Love is Here to Stay. Gershwin’s stage masterpiece Porgy and Bess is represented by arrangements of Summertime and It Ain’t Necessarily So, alongside Broadway favourites (The Man I Love, I Got Rhythm) and rarities (Fidgety Feet, I’ve Got a Crush on You).
Iain Farrington’s arrangements of Holst’s Ode to Death - “the pick of the piece” - and Fauré’s Requiem were heard on In Remembrance. Lauded by the British Music Society as “a very fine performance and recording in every respect”, MusicWeb International declared it “an album that will have enduring value into the future”. © SOMM