3 Preludes, 115 Ways

It seems there are few pieces of music as adaptable to different voicings as George Gershwin's "3 Preludes."

Gershwin wrote six preludes for a tour with a Peruvian contralto in 1926, and then published three as separate but linked piano compositions. He recorded them himself, but the better known recording was made by his longtime pal Oscar Levant, who told him, "George, nobody plays your music better than you. Except me."

These were the first recordings of the prelude we heard, on blue label Columbia 78s in the CHAB library, but since then there have been many more, almost all with different twists.

Jascha Heifetz was the first to rework the preludes, transcribing them for violin and piano. Some sixty years later, Yo-Yo Ma, following the Heifetz transcriptions, rewrote them for cello and piano; in his recording, Jeffrey Kahane is the pianist.

The Eroica Trio (Adela Pena, Sara Sant'Ambrogio, and Erika Nickrenz) recorded the preludes in an arrangement for violin, piano and cello by the Brazilian composer Raimundo Penaforte, and there is a particularly brilliant performance by Jens Lindemann with pianist Alison Gagnon. Lindemann, an alumnus of the Canadian Brass, plays a variety of trumpets and mutes in his version of the preludes, cleverly inserting wisps of "Rhapsody in Blue" and "I Got Rhythm."

Many fine and individual performances of Gershwin's "3 Preludes." Can the ukelele and tuba version be far behind? We're off to Sikora's to see.