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LONDON
CONCERTS
Queen Elizabeth Hall,
London JACK GIBBONS plays GERSHWIN Award-winning pianist JACK GIBBONS returned to
London for the last of his annual Gershwin concerts at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, following
sell out performances at New York's Carnegie Hall in February 2005 and at the Queen
Elizabeth Hall in July 2004. Gibbons’ famous ‘Authentic Gershwin’ concerts
have been an eagerly awaited annual event on London's South Bank for over 15 years. The
programme for 2005 included the original version of ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ and
‘Cuban Overture’, plus Gibbons' famous transcriptions of Gershwin's breathtaking
original show-tune improvisations painstakingly reconstructed by Gibbons from the
composer’s historic 78 recordings and piano rolls, and unplayed by anyone since the
composer’s own performances in the 1920s and 30s.
The concert also
included the UK premieres of several of Jack Gibbons’ own compositions, recently
given their World Premieres at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Gibbons returned to
composing after an absence of 25 years during his long recovery from a life-threatening
car accident in 2001. |
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Jack Gibbons is widely regarded as one of the world's finest piano
interpreters of Gershwin, being described by the BBC as "THE Gershwin pianist of
our time" and by New York's premier classical music station, WNYC, as "utterly
unique in the music world". His all Gershwin concerts feature his own unique
reconstructions of Gershwin's breathtaking show-tune improvisations, with which the
composer dazzled high-society New York party goers in the roaring 20s. His programmes also
include immortal Gershwin concert masterpieces such as the Rhapsody in Blue (in Gibbons'
own reconstruction from Gershwin's 1925 piano-roll). "Jack Gibbons is able to reproduce Gershwin as Gershwin performed, in a remarkable recreation of Gershwin's unique keyboard style." |
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Jack Gibbons'
Gershwin performances at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall have become legendary
and
have been an eagerly awaited
annual event in the South Bank calender. Over the years his programmes have included no
less than 48 Gershwin world premieres, painstakingly reconstructed by Gibbons from the
composer’s historic 78 recordings and piano rolls, and unplayed by anyone since the
composer’s own private performances in the 1920s and 30s. In 2001 Gibbons was about
to chalk up another milestone of Gershwin performances when his career came to a dramatic
halt after he narrowly cheated death in a horrendous automobile accident. After a
year’s recovery Gibbons made a “miraculous”
(Sunday Express) return to a sell-out Queen Elizabeth Hall in July 2002. In 2003 he again
played to standing ovations from a totally sold out hall, in a programme that also
featured Gershwin readings by the Oscar-winning actor Sir Ben Kingsley. Musical Opinion
wrote of the concert: “There are few pianists
today who can fill the Queen Elizabeth Hall, but Jack Gibbons is certainly one of them.
His unique style of playing has lost none of its power and communicative qualities”. |
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WHAT THE PRESS SAYS ABOUT JACK GIBBONS... "There's no finer player of Gershwin
around than Jack Gibbons" WNYC (New York City's premier classical music station) "Gibbons
dashes off the most insanely difficult passage-work with a broad grin. This is music that
requires verve, nerve, and Gibbons' enviable capacity to generate party atmosphere." "Jack Gibbons is
not simply a pianist, he is a magician whose playing brings back to life another era.
Gibbons' enthusiasm was evident from the start... his interesting and at times humorous
commentary gave the performances a stamp of authority that made the evening
memorable." "Gibbons incarnates
an uncanny representation of Gershwin's piano style that EDWARD JABLONSKI (biographer of Gershwin, New York) |
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| Click on the image and visit the Press Room to read more rave reviews from the Daily Mail, Sunday Express and Musical Opinion of JackGibbons' recent appearances at the Queen Elizabeth Hall |
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