George GERSHWIN (1898-1937)
Rhapsody in Blue (1924) [18:44]
Second Rhapsody (1931) [15:22]
Piano Concerto in F major (1925) [32:29]
Variations on I got Rhythm (1934) [9:14]
Cecile Licad (piano)
South Denmark Philharmonic Orchestra/Gerard Salonga
rec. 2019, Alsion Concert Hall, Sřnderborg, Denmark
Anthology of American Piano Music Volume 4
DANACORD DACOCD869 [75:48]
Few readers will need a detailed introduction to George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. There are currently some 220 recordings listed in the Arkiv CD database alone (several of these will be repackagings). It is regularly heard in concert halls and on the radio. From the opening clarinet trill and upward scale, this work for piano and orchestra is instantly recognisable after only a split second. Its big tune is justifiably regarded as one of the best.
The Rhapsody was first heard in 12 February 1924, played by the Paul Whiteman Orchestra with Gershwin at the piano. Its revised, orchestral version made by Ferde Grofé immediately became popular with audiences and composers in the United States and Europe. It can be argued that it was the one work that led to acceptance of jazz idioms into the Western classical music tradition. It was an early example of classical/jazz fusion. Criticism was usually aimed at the work’s structure rather than its tunefulness, pop style or pianistic content.
From that clarinet solo trill, via the jaunty second subject to the well-known blues song first heard on the strings, followed by an opulent account for full orchestra, to the final peroration – this music never fails to please and sometimes even to inspire the listener. Maurice Hinson has noted: “this music sums up the 1920s as much as a Johann Strauss waltz does the Vienna [of the late nineteenth century]”. Cecile Licad brings a strong sense of rhythm that is required to be flexible and strict at almost the same time. I would only comment that Licad’s account is quite leisurely, running to 18:44. This is between two and four minutes longer than several other versions. I think it could be described a little over-classicized: it seems to have lost a little of the sparkle and bounce. That said, I enjoyed this performance.
The least known work on this CD is the Second Rhapsody for piano and orchestra, composed in 1931. The music had its origins in Gershwin’s film score for the musical Delicious starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell. The plot involves a young Scottish girl immigrating into the United States. She has legal difficulties, goes on the run and finally joins an itinerant group of musicians. George and Ira prepared six songs and two musical sequences but only two made it into the film: the so-called non vocal Rhapsody of Rivets, and the dream sequence The Melting Pot. The Rhapsody of Rivets (at least one minute of it) was used to accompany the heroine as she runs around, lost in the streets of Manhattan. The rivets are those one uses in the construction of the skyscrapers.
George Gershwin used this material as the basis of his Second Rhapsody, adding a powerfully tailored blues song and an attractive rumba tune. The ‘Rivet’ material is recapitulated at the end of the Rhapsody. The piece had never caught on. The musicologist David Ewen summed up the main reason well: “while it represents a decided advance in technique, it is mainly contrived, where the first rhapsody [in Blue] was inspired”. Several versions of this score exist, with orchestrations by the composer, by Ferde Grofé and (most often heard) by Robert McBride. The liner notes do not mention the edition used here.
If Rhapsody in Blue is played here a little languorously, the Piano Concerto on F major seems just about right. This work, commissioned by the New York Symphony Society, was completed in 1925. The Concerto received its premiere performance on 3 December of that year, under the baton of Walter Damrosch and with George Gershwin as soloist. Most commentators will probably agree that it is a highly successful effort at fusing jazz idioms and riffs with classical notions of concerto form.
John Whitmore captures the right interpretive approach in his review of the recording of the Concerto with Orion Weiss and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by JoAnn Falletta (Naxos 8.559705). He suggest that “there are two extreme ways of approaching [this] concerto – either as an orchestrated piece of jazz or as a romantic piano concerto with jazz influences”. For my money, Cecile Licad and the South Denmark Philharmonic Orchestra tend towards a classically restrained account of this work. It is well judged. I was particularly moved by the beautifully wrought slow movement.
On a personal note, George Gershwin’s Piano Concerto was the first example of the genre I heard. Long before getting to know major concertos by Rachmaninov, Mozart or Tchaikovsky, I loved this work. It was on an LP which I picked up in the well-known flea market in Glasgow, The Barras. Nearly 50 years on, I cannot recall who the performers were… I guess my all-time favourite exponent of this Concerto is Oscar Levant, as seen and heard in Gene Kelly’s film masterpiece, An American in Paris.
The Variations on I Got Rhythm from 1934 are deservedly popular. The original theme was extracted from the musical comedy Girl Crazy (1930) which was to make Ethel Merman a household name. Four years later, Gershwin went on tour with the [Leo] Reisman Symphonic Orchestra where he gave performances of his own music. The Variations were written specially for this tour. They are a splendid composition with constant changes to the original song’s harmony, form, melody and structure. Here are musical allusions to the waltz and the Orient where the soloist “imitates Chinese flutes playing out of tune”. There follows a variation where “the left hand plays the melody upside down and the right hand plays it straight, on the theory that you shouldn’t let one hand know what the other is doing!” There is a jazz variation that uses a slap-bass sound and a driving finale. Well played here. This recording does not use the original Gershwin orchestration, but the 2017 edition prepared by Philip Rothman based on the 1953 arrangement by William C. Schoenfeld. Complicated!
Jeremy Nicholas’s comprehensive liner notes include a fair bit of Gershwin anecdote and trivia. This makes for enjoyable reading. The South Denmark Philharmonic Orchestra with their conductor Gerard Salonga give good accounts all four works.
I noted the classical mood in much of this recording. That does not imply that Cecile Licad does not handle the jazzy bits with impeccable taste. She has simply managed to create an interpretation which presents classically valid structures, as opposed to series of jazz-infused idioms threaded together like a string of pearls.
John France
