André Mathieu: Concerto No. 3. George Gershwin: An American In Paris

Andre Mathieu (1929-1968), “the Canadian Mozart,” completed his Concerto No. 3 in 1943, 
and it had a “hybrid” life as the Concerto de Quebec in a movie, Whispering City. In 2008, 
Georges Nicholson and Jacques Marchand consulted the Mathieu archives in Ottawa and 
discovered the composer’s original autograph copy of a two piano version. Marchand 
restored the adolescent composer’s original intentions, adding a first mvmt cadenza in 
order to “compensate for a lack of development.”
The performance with Lefevre and Falletta celebrates Canada’s 150th 
anniversary. Mathieu conceived the work as a composition for two pianos, with virtually no 
knowledge of orchestration. So, the Marchand edition provides an educated guess as to how 
the music ought to sound. Mathieu’s 14-year-old gift lay in his natural sense of melody. 
When the melodies soar or make the “big splash,” they convey a Hollywood sense of drama, 
an amalgam of Rachmaninov, Gershwin, and Alfred Newman. The last mvmt Allegro con 
brio has a jazzy, thrusting energy.
The bustling taxis and hustling Parisian crowds from Gershwin’s 1928 symphonic poem An
American in Paris liven up a familiar score. Dennis Kim provides a piquant solo accompanied by horns and flutes, creating an ambling, haze-filled luster that saunters along the “Boul Miche.”
The blues element has its liquid expression, a touch of New York nostalgia superimposed on the Paris byways. Trumpet, trombones, and exuberant strings bear witness to a deep-seated 
affection for this elegant picture postcard by one of our most eloquent melodists.