The sleeve describes this as the ''original version for two pianos'' of An American in Paris, and, as Gershwin always thought of it as an orchestral work, this needs some explanation. He usually prepared two-piano versions of his orchestral pieces, and in this case the keyboard score was finished first. When he did the orchestration he decided to make relatively small cuts, and these were incorporated in the excellent piano solo score done by William Daly and in the two-piano version by another hand which appeared some years later. The composer's own two-keyboard score, the only one containing the unfamiliar passages, was forgotten, has only lately been recovered, and is here recorded for the first time.
It has to be said that the cuts Gershwin made were beneficial, giving the work, as normally heard, a satisfying concise structure. But the additional passages must obviously be of great interest to admirers of the composer, and they will need to have this performance. The sleeve-note claims for the Labeques that they spent much time studying the 1929 orchestral recording by Nat Shilkret made under Gershwin's supervision (now on Halcyon HDL101, 2/84). If that is so, then it must further be said that they made some notably independent decisions of their own. These chiefly concern minutiae which cannot be detailed here, though one must regret their tendency to take the composer's p markings as pp and some of the fs as ff; also, on several of its appearances the blues theme ought to be both mroe sultry and more emphatic. But their sharply recorded playing has the characteristic freshness and vitality which made their accounts of Gershwin's Piano Concerto and Rhapsody in Blue (Philips 9500 917, 6/81) so enjoyable.
One two-piano work that the composer did not undertake was a fantasy on themes from Porgy and Bess, although the absence of Percy Grainger's name from the front of the sleeve might suggest otherwise. Another version of the latter's piece has just appeared, by Richard McMahon and Martin Jones (Oriana ONA003, reviewed on page 502), and it is surprising that the normally speedy Labeques take almost three minutes longer. Finely balanced and again beautifully recorded, their reading sometimes has a meditative, exploratory air, as if they are in the process of discovering the music; and in places a sense of repose most unusual with these artists. But the point is that this is a magnificent performance.'