The linchpin of this album is indeed the dozen beautiful Songs from Gerswhin’sSongbook, adapted by the composer himself for solo piano for some of his countless songs. But far from being a blend of jazz melodies played away on a piano, this extraordinary collection oscillates between jazzy languages – true – and Rachmaninoff, Debussy, Ravel, sometimes ragtime, with a pianistic writing of flawless flair, truly impeccable writing, and a real joy for both the pianist and the listener. Around this linchpin, David Lively has constructed a magnificent array of American works from Ives to Joplin for the oldest, to William Bolcom, Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber and even Eliott Carter for the most recent − and probably the most avant-garde of all, in fact it is the time the album forays into avant-garde material, may the anti-avant-garde be reassured! The range from Ives – him too a pioneer before his time, whose 1919 South Paw Pitching is an extraordinary moment of modernity and farce − to Carter is immense, but the language of American music indeed comes through, throughout the album. Just aslively as the pianist’s name suggests!