Manhattan: Music from the Woody Allen Film (CD) by New York Philharmonic

0886976114527. New condition. CD. George Gershwin died about 40 years before the start of principal photography on writer/director/star Woody Allen's Manhattan, yet, as with An American in Paris, which appeared more than a decade after Gershwin's death, he can be considered the film's scorer simply because all the music is his. Allen decided Gershwin's music perfectly matched his black-n-white vision of the island he was celebrating in his '70s comedy, and it's hard to disagree. To provide the music, he engaged the New York Philharmonic conducted by Zubin Mehta. Sixteen-and-a-half of the soundtrack album's 40 minutes are taken up by a full-length treatment of "Rhapsody in Blue," with Gary Graffman sitting in on piano in place of Gershwin. Otherwise, the score consists mostly of brief arrangements of songs Gershwin wrote for shows and films, usually lasting only a minute or two each. There are two jazz performances. "Mine" is done as a piano (Dick Hyman), bass (Milt Hinton), and drums (Eric Cohen) arrangement in a '20s style, and "Love Is Here to Stay" features Hyman and Hinton supporting Lewis Eley's violin on one of Gershwin's final songs. The music is familiar, of course, and fans of it may wish for more complete versions of the songs. But it really does evoke Manhattan, whether of the '20s or the '70s. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi