Porter: Overtures & Within the Quota

The prolific songwriter Cole Porter was the king of musical during the Broadway golden age, composing dozens of hit songs that would become jazz standards. But he also composed film scores and, less well known, a ballet commissioned by the Ballets suédois and Darius Milhaud. Within the Quota, a jazzy satirical work about the restrictive 1921 Immigration Act, premiered the same evening as Milhaud’s La creation du monde and was orchestrated by Charles Koechlin. Only one recording exist, and here it is, for the first time on digital platforms! It is coupled with frantic overtures and orchestral excerpts of Porter’s main musicals, such as Anything Goes or Gay Divorce, irresistibly performed by John McGlinn and the London Sinfonietta. Too darn hot!