I just made a second recording of "They Can't Take That Away From Me". Only this one is 2 minutes long versus the first recording which is over 4 minutes. I still had to do a little 'arranging' between the two scores I have, but I think this one works okay. I also made a little change to the ending - the score has something that reminded me of "Swanee River" written by Stephen Foster, so I changed a few notes and rhythm to make it sound pretty clearly like "Swanee River". I think Gershwin may have appreciated some of Stephen Foster's music and Gershwin himself wrote "Swanee" (how I love ya, how I love ya..), so that's why I did it. If someone thinks it sounds stupid, I'll change it back to the original ending. So....I know you guys have been kind enough to listen and comment on my previous recordings here, but if someone could please listen to the attachment here and tell me if you think it is better than my first version, I would be VERY appreciative!!

Monica,
I just had a listen to this and I like it very much but have a question. You play the main portion of the melody "straight" but then there's that little bit afterwards (both times) that is in "swing;" why is that? I have no score, but it seems to me that you could do the whole melody in the "swing" style: da dah, da dah, da daaaah; instead of da, da, da, da etc. (if you catch my drift?). Regarding the ending, sounds great to me.

Hi Monica,

I went to YouTube to search for that Astaire sequence on the staircase, but could not find it there. Might have been in the movie "Blue Skies".

Yeah, the Nicolas Bros. were incredible! That dance especially was fantastic! It might have inspired Astaire to come with his own dance on the staircase.

David

Thanks, Eddy. I'm too embarrassed now and have deleted the attachment. I do know exactly what you are talking about. It's Gershwin after all, and should really swing! I don't know what happened to me.....maybe because I was playing some Clementi at the same time or something...I dunno...
Well, as Scarlett O'Hara said, "tomorrow is another day"...and that is when I will re-re-record this piece, albeit with the proper amount of swing.

@David - that's okay, all of Astaire's dance scenes are great. I'll look for that movie when I next have some free-time.

I've decided to ditch my long version of "They Can't Take That Away From Me" and have opted for the shorter version instead. It also swings now and I didn't fool around with the ending.

Gershwin - They Can't Take That Away From Me

Hi Monica,
I have enjoyed your two performances a lot! It´s good when Americans play jazzy pieces, there comes the right feeling. (I have played the "Rhapsody in Blue", btw, and I have also tried here to do my best concerning the swing.)
Your contemplative version of "The man I love" is very good, very interesting. Continue so!

From water to wine! Nothing in common with the 1st version and so much better! Congratulations! I do like it now and sound just as it should.

Yes I agree I think it also sounds better. I think the time feeling is much better.

I think it sounded really nice, and it was good to hear some Gershwin like this on the site.

I'm glad BOTH pieces are okay now. I wouldn't have tried for better re-recordings had it not been for all your thoughts and comments. Sort of like PS intervention!

Thank you, ALL!

Yes it sounds more convincing and confident this time.

Well, it seemed to me here there was no combing for errors ("you know, the middle note of the left-hand chord on beat two of bar 3 was rather f. maybe you could have played mf" sort of thing), as I so often see, but quite simply suggestions for a better performance.

I feel that such level of error-combing should be reserved for when you know and play a piece yourself. Had I known these pieces like my back pocket, and checked with score, I might have done some nitpicking. Also of course in Bach, every single note probably counts a bit more than in Gershwin.

I often wonder if knowing a piece that well is conductive to good criticism of a piece or it is best to listen with fresh ears. I find myself not being able to listen to pieces that I know backwards because I keep noticing dropped notes, a smudge here and there or noticing the absence of pauses (and I am speaking of Horowitz, for example, or Alicia de Larocha).

Depends on what you call "good criticism". Knowing a piece backwards enables one to do the real nitpicking like Andreas ans I do with each other's Bach recordings. Whether you consider that good or bad critique depends on your level of perfectionism. I well agree it isn't all there is to it, but at least it's objective (provided the victim can hear it, too )

I read most of the posts in this topic and you put in quite some efforts in the music and re-recordings and they came out very well!
Jazzy music and I guess it was "the thing" by the time he composed this music. Not really "my thing" but nice music. Out on twitter it goes .