CSO’s Litton on Gershwin, Porgy & Bess

interview with Andrew Litton

Colorado Symphony Orchestra music director Andrew Litton visited “Take Note” with Susan Gatschet Reese to preview their weekend performances of the Gershwin opera Porgy & Bess.

“Had (George Gershwin) lived, I am absolutely positive that he would have been our greatest opera composer ever,” Litton told Gatschet Reese.   In the early 90s Litton edited “the best parts” for an orchestral suite, and the Gershwin family approved.  Duain Wolfe directs the Colorado Symphony Chorus.  Soloists are Janice Chandler Eteme, Karen Slack, Howard Haskin and Gordon Hawkins.

Susan and Andrew spent a little bit of time during the interview discussing how he conducts from the piano (getting his players to have “a jazz-like sense of ensemble”), the future of Boettcher Concert Hall (“a holding pattern”), and the essential work of building audiences for jazz and classical music.  

The feature closes with Oscar Peterson’s “I Wants to Stay Here (I Loves You Porgy),” from the CD Oscar Peterson Plays Porgy & Bess.