As a man whose music has heightened the impact of so many favourite films, one might expect John Williams, the conductor, to do the same for these Gershwin classics. Alas, not a bit of it. Characterization is at a premium here, be it in the French capital or on Catfish Row. This American in Paris is a spruce specimen, comfortably (indeed rather uniformly) paced, smoothly executed, but lacking the essential excitability and surprise as the Parisian sights and sounds flash by. I don't feel the sudden rushes of adrenalin; the intoxication of the Charleston, for instance, which needs snappier footwork. There is a lovely cool trumpet in the central blues but how I wish Williams were freer with the phrasing; the lipcurling saxes are also too shy.
It's more or less the same story throughout the disc. I expected fireworks not faint hearts from the Boston Pops in the opening measures of Porgy and Bess (indelible memories, here, of Rattle both at Glyndebourne and on EMI); and again Williams does not turn the melodies as sumptuously as I hoped he would. Rhapsody in Blue is adequate but hardly competitive: Mischa Dichter doesn't overplay his hand, keeping it lively and on the move (not too many fits and starts in the phrasing), but there just isn't that sepia-toned jazz-age flavour. Five minutes and three numbers of Girl Crazy enjoy the standard Leroy Anderson gloss but I'd have been happier with the original Robert Russell Bennett Overture. Warm, plushy recording—among the last from Philips whose attentions now turn to the newly formed Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. Recommendations for An American in Paris remain the same: Chailly (Decca), Previn (with the Pittsburg SO on Philips or LSO on EMI); for the Rhapsody I favour the jazz-band original from Litton (RPO Records/Pickwick) or Donohoe and Rattle (EMI).'