Fantasy on Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess”

Grainger loved Gershwin. There is no evidence that he ever met the composer of Porgy and Bess but he certainly rated his songs alongside those of classical giants like and Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms. He admired his piano music too and regularly played Rhapsody in Blue and the Concerto in F in his concerts, often adding one or the other of his own piano arrangements of his favourite Gerswhin songs, “The man I love” and “Love walked in,” as an encore.

The Fantasy on Porgy and Bess, which was written in 1951 as a piano duo for himself and his wife Ella, is not only on much bigger scale but also in a more fanciful style than the song arrangements. While the tunes are clearly Gershwin’s, their treatment is just as clearly Grainger’s. It is brilliantly imaginative two-piano music, abundant in virtuoso opportunities for both pianists and highly resourceful in the essential give and take of thematic interest between them. Beginning with a heavily percussive introduction and a kind of fanfare, it alludes to no fewer than nine numbers in the opera: “My man’s gone now,” “It aint necessarily so,” “Clara, don’t you be downhearted,” “Strawberry Woman’s call,” “Summertime,” “Oh, I can’t sit down,” “Bess, you is my woman now,” “I got plenty o’ nothin,” and “I’m on my way.” Different songs are approached in different ways - “It aint necessarily so” obliquely, “Summertime” impressionistically, “Oh, I can’t sit down” restlessly, “Bess, you is my woman now” poetically, “I got plenty o’ nothin” fugally, “I’m on my way” riotously.