After several albums respectively dedicated to Liszt's Transcendental Études or Mussogorsky and Schumann, or to Concertos by Tchaikovsky (the First) and Prokofiev (the Second) for the Myrios Classics label, Russian-American pianist Kirill Gerstein is diving into the colourful and rhythmical world of Gershwin. Happily, he has chosen the Jazz Band (1924) version of Rhapsody in Blue, which he has transformed into an almost-cubist work, in perfect symbiosis with the equally-keen work of David Robertson: the piano-playing is really angular, sometimes chilling; the brass recalls the most modernist work of Bartók or Prokofiev or the new American music, at the start of the 1920s. The same goes for 1925's Concerto in F, the extraordinary Earl Wild's cool playing under the direction of Arthur Fiedler (RCA, 1959) dissipates with Gerstein and Robertson, to make way for more percussive sounds. Kirill Gerstein also offers - this album being made up of recordings made in concert - various arrangements (or paraphrases) of some of the more famous American songs, including a particularly juicy I Got Rhythm from Earl Wild. A particularly stimulating album for the winter months. © 2018 Théodore Grantet/Qobuz