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GERSHWIN, George: Gershwin and Friends (1927-1951)




Total playing time: 01:17:23

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GEORGE GERSHWIN Vol.2

‘Gershwin & Friends’ Original Recordings 1927-1951

A talent as great as George Gershwin’s was bound to be a magnet. It is not surprising that, as the years rolled on after his too-early death in 1937, virtually everyone who ever met him claimed to be "a friend". Yet, he did have close friendships with many of those other talents who were drawn into his orbit. Part of that vast galaxy is represented by this CD.

One of the early proponents of Gershwin was conductor Nathaniel Shilkret. His credits include songwriting ("Jeanine, I Dream of Lilac Time" and "Lonesome Road"), clarinetist in brass bands and symphonic orchestras, prodigious arranger and mainstay conductor for the corporately intertwined National Broadcasting Company and Victor Records. Their friendship began in childhood days and lasted through Gershwin’s final days in Hollywood, when Shilkret served as musical director at RKO-Radio Pictures on George and Ira’s score for Shall We Dance.

Without doubt the best known of the Shilkret—Gershwin collaborations was the première recording of Gershwin’s tone poem, An American in Paris, which opens this Naxos disc. Although it has been recorded hundreds of times with many of the world’s greatest symphonic orchestras since its first performance on 13 December 1928, Shilkret’s Victor recording remains one of the best. Although the orchestra is less than fully symphonic in size, it was just right, capturing the work’s muscular qualities when needed, but also its delicateness. Shilkret never overpowers the piece. The legendary story is told of George — as was his wont — getting in Shilkret’s way as they prepared to record. To keep him occupied and out of his hair, he asked George to play the celeste part, saying he "hadn’t remembered" to hire a player. Listen for George missing his cue on the first celeste entrance.

No story or musical compilation on Gershwin and friends would be complete without Oscar Levant. He first saw Gershwin when he was twelve and living in Pittsburgh. Gershwin was then accompanist for singer Nora Bayes. Levant later wrote, "I had never heard such fresh, brisk, unstudied, completely free and inventive playing." A deep friendship began a few years later and they often hurled revealing barbs at each other. Levant recalled sharing a bedroom on an overnight train with Gershwin, who commented, "Upper berth, lower berth. That’s the difference between talent and genius." A later Levant quip was, "George, if you had it to do all over again, would you fall in love with yourself?" Despite the verbal jousting, Levant was a truly committed proponent of his friend’s work, both during Gershwin’s life and after. And Gershwin did much to help Levant’s career.

In his entertaining autobiography, Memoirs of an Amnesiac, Levant recalls getting an early morning call to rush to the Brunswick New York studios to replace a pianist who had not show up for conductor Frank Black’s recording of Rhapsody In Blue. Despite the fact that half the orchestra appears to be off mike, the recording is remarkably good. Levant gives a performance that is typical Levant: exciting. Harry Reser, founder of the legendary Clicquot Club Eskimos of the 1920s, is also in there playing banjo.

Levant is also heard in two recordings made for the strange but enjoyable Warner Bros. film biography, Rhapsody In Blue. The film was a badly reworked version of half of a script by playwright Clifford Odets (the discarded portion became the John Garfield—Joan Crawford blockbuster, Humoresque). But what it lacked in believability was more than compensated for in its soundtrack; a Gershwin film concert is how it is often described by Gershwin fans. Levant appears in the film as himself and also provides many of the piano recordings that were "synched" by actor Robert Alda. These did much to give the film a sound of authenticity that it lacked in its script.

Included here are the condensed Concerto In F and the complete Rhapsody In Blue. Both were issued to U.S. servicemen on V-Discs in advance of the film’s delayed 1946 release. Without seeing the film, those soldiers may have been puzzled by the "memory lapse" in the first movement of the Concerto, which was used dramatically to indicate the first signs of the brain tumour that eventually killed Gershwin at age 38.

The recording of the Rhapsody is used in the sequence depicting its première performance at Aeolian Hall under the baton of Paul Whiteman, who played a pivotal role in Gershwin’s rise to fame. But the recording has the unmistakable Warner Bros. Music Department sound and bears the imprint of musical director Ray Heindorf. Wielding the baton on the recording stage and acting as musical alter ego, Heindorf even managed to capture Whiteman’s tendency in later years to play with the Rhapsody’s tempo. It is still a thrilling performance, thanks largely to Levant. Also heard are banjo player Mike Pingitore, who played at the première performance as a member of Whiteman’s orchestra, and clarinetist Al Galladoro, who supplies the spine tingling glissando that opens the recording.

Samuel Dushkin’s Short Story is an interesting and often forgotten work. Dushkin was one of many violinists who befriended and admired Gershwin early in his career. This work is an adaptation of two Novelettes that Dushkin noticed while visiting Gershwin’s 110th Street apartment in late 1924. Gershwin agreed to Dushkin’s suggestion that they should rework them into what became Short Story. Although charming, the work has not been extensively performed. This is a scarce recording made in London for HMV, but only issued in France, Austria and Italy.

The other violinist who did much to promote Gershwin was Jascha Heifetz, who first met and sang Gershwin’s praises in the 1920s. His recording of the Preludes, accompanied by pianist Emanuel Bay, was made for Decca and was part of an album that included his transcriptions of several songs from Porgy And Bess; those tracks are included in Naxos’ two-disc Porgy And Bess set (Naxos Historical 8.110219-20).

Following Gershwin’s death, all the major labels rushed out tribute recordings and compilations of previously waxed material. The first tribute disc to be recorded is the English Columbia disc included here. In those low-tech days, it must have been quite a technical miracle. It weaves new sections by orchestra leader Carroll Gibbons, mouth organ virtuoso Larry Adler (a close Gershwin friend) and vocalist Hildegarde with snippets of the 1926 Gershwin—Fred Astaire Half Of It Dearie Blues and Gershwin’s solo disc of Sweet And Low Down, all wrapped up with narration by BBC announcer and programme presenter Christopher Stone.

Rounding out this collection is a rare broadcast recording from Hollywood Bowl’s 1951 all-Gershwin concert, featuring M-G-M musical director Johnny Green. Green grew up in a wealthy New York family and was privileged to first meet Gershwin — along with Gertrude Lawrence, Jack Buchanan and Bea Lillie — when he accompanied his parents to a backers’ party for the Broadway import of the London stage musical, Charlot’s Revue. Green was fifteen and, in his own words, "was planet number one orbiting around George from that moment on."

Gershwin was amused by young Green’s gushing admiration and even more impressed with his piano and arranging talents, which he encouraged. When George and Ira’s show, Rosalie, was in tryouts in Boston late in 1927, Green was in his final year at Harvard University. Gershwin enlisted him to help arrange the show. Green was later to conduct the superb Astaire Brunswick recordings of the songs from Shall We Dance, which brought much comfort to Gershwin in his final days. And Green won his second of five Academy Awards, in collaboration with Saul Chaplin, for their tasteful work on the film musical, An American In Paris; a film that still sits well visually and aurally.

The Hollywood Bowl concert broadcast recording of Porgy And Bess: A Symphonic Picture is a high note on which to conclude this collection. Green handles the orchestra in his typically elegant manner. He was not one to play around with works he felt needed no improvement. Even when he was criticized for his reworking of "An American In Paris" for the lengthy ballet used in the film, he pointed out that he and his colleagues, Chaplin and arranger/orchestrator Conrad Salinger, were all longtime Gershwin proponents and had done no more than George himself would have done to reshape the music to the dictates of the dance. In this view, Ira Gershwin certainly concurred. And who could have more lovingly protected George’s musical memory than his own brother?

The admiration and reverence of Gershwin’s friends are apparent in these beautifully restored recordings. They wind up being not just apt mementoes of Gershwin, but of his friends, too. Their talents and devotion were obviously well placed.

Greg Gormick, 2003

The Naxos Historical labels aim to make available the greatest recordings of the history of recorded music, in the best and truest sound that contemporary technology can provide. To achieve this aim, Naxos has engaged a number of respected restorers who have the dedication, skill and experience to produce restorations that have set new standards in the field of historical recordings.

David Lennick

As a producer of CD reissues, David Lennick’s work in this field grew directly from his own needs as a broadcaster specializing in vintage material and the need to make it listenable while being transmitted through equalizers, compressors and the inherent limitations of A.M. radio. Equally at home in classical, pop, jazz and nostalgia, Lennick describes himself as exercising as much control as possible on the final product, in conjunction with CEDAR noise reduction applied by Graham Newton in Toronto. As both broadcaster and re-issue producer, he relies on his own extensive collection as well as those made available to him by private collectors, the University of Toronto, the International Piano Archives at Maryland, Syracuse University and others.


Disc 1


    An American In Paris (more info)
    Performed by: Victor Symphony Orchestra
    Composed by: George Gershwin
    Conducted by: Nathaniel Shilkret
    George Gershwin,
    Recording date: 03-Feb-1929
    Produced by: Lennick, David

  1. An American In Paris - 16:12


    2. Rhapsody In Blue (more info)
    Performed by: Frank Black Orchestra
    Composed by: George Gershwin
    Conducted by: Frank Black
    Oscar Levant,
    Recording date: 01-Dec-1927
    Produced by: Lennick, David

  2. Rhapsody In Blue - 09:11


    3. Short Story (more info)
    Composed by: George Gershwin
    Samuel Dushkin, violin
    Recording date: Jan-1928
    Produced by: Lennick, David

  3. Short Story - 02:53


    4. Gershwin: King Of Rhythm (more info)
    Performed by: Carroll Gibbons Orchestra
    Composed by: George Gershwin
    Conducted by: Carroll Gibbons
    Larry Adler,
    Hildegarde,
    Recording date: 19-Jul-1937
    Produced by: Lennick, David

  4. The Man I Love-Do Do Do-My One And Only-'S Wonderful-Half Of It Dearie Blues-Fascinating Rhythm-... - 08:17


    5. Concerto In F (Excerpts) (more info)
    Performed by: Paul Whiteman Orchestra
    Composed by: George Gershwin
    Conducted by: Paul Whiteman
    Oscar Levant,
    Recording date: 1943
    Produced by: Lennick, David

  5. 1st movement - 03:15
  6. 3rd movement - 02:24


    7. Preludes (more info)
    Composed by: George Gershwin
    Jascha Heifetz,
    Emmanuel Bay, piano
    Recording date: 27-Nov-1945
    Produced by: Lennick, David

  7. #1 (Allegro ben ritmato e deciso) - 01:29
  8. #2 (Andante con moto e poco rubato) - 02:48
  9. #3 (Allegro ben ritmato e deciso) - 01:11


    10. Rhapsody In Blue (more info)
    Performed by: Paul Whiteman Orchestra
    Composed by: George Gershwin
    Conducted by: Paul Whiteman
    Recording date: 1943
    Produced by: Lennick, David

  10. Rhapsody In Blue - 08:33


    11. Porgy And Bess: A Symphonic Picture (more info)
    Performed by: Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra
    Composed by: George Gershwin
    Conducted by: Johnny Green
    Recording date: 03-Aug-1951
    Produced by: Lennick, David

  11. Porgy And Bess: A Symphonic Picture - 21:06

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Product Details
 
Composer(s)/ Author(s):
Gershwin, George

Conductor(s):
Black, Frank; Gibbons, Carroll; Green, Johnny; Shilkret, Nathaniel; Whiteman, Paul

Orchestra(s):
Carroll Gibbons Orchestra; Frank Black Orchestra; Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra; Paul Whiteman Orchestra; Victor Symphony Orchestra

Artist(s):
Adler, Larry; Bay, Emmanuel; Dushkin, Samuel; Gershwin, George; Heifetz, Jascha; Hildegarde; Levant, Oscar

Label: Naxos Nostalgic
UPC: 636943266427
Item Number: 8120664
Release Date: Feb 1, 2003

 
 
 
 
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