|
George Gershwin's rhythm
[APs photo: 1998]
Skitch Henderson conducts the New York Pops orchestra in New York in 1998. Henderson will conduct some Gershwin favorites during the Florida Orchestra Super Pops concert this weekend. |
By ROBERT HICKS
© St. Petersburg Times
published May 23, 2002
His music, from the show tunes, arias and ballads to the classical Rhapsody in Blue, inspire pianist Michael Kim in ''Gershwin, By George.''
|
 |
NEW YORK -- George Gershwin's romantic affair with Tin Pan Alley and Broadway spanned two decades, from his vaudeville show Scandals of 1920 to his masterful opera Porgy & Bess. Along the way, he gave audiences serious orchestral works, opera, popular song and Broadway musicals. His musical legacy is truly reflective of the jazz, Yiddish theater, classical and popular music that helped define the Roaring Twenties and Jazz Age in America.
Part of that legacy will be celebrated this weekend when the Florida Orchestra, featuring pianist Michael Kim under guest conductor Skitch Henderson, presents "Gershwin, By George."
The all-Gershwin program includes the popular songs Of Thee I Sing/Wintergreen for President from the 1931 musical that opened at New York's Music Box Theatre. Selections from his 1935 opera Porgy & Bess and his major 1928 orchestral work An American in Paris showcase his more serious side. His taste for Broadway musicals shows in I Got Rhythm Variations, an orchestral work with piano obligato, derived from the 1930 show Girl Crazy.
Kim, 34, an assistant professor at Lawrence University in Wisconsin, is making his Florida debut tonight. He first discovered Gershwin during his youth in Calgary. He remembers hearing Rhapsody in Blue over the Canadian Broadcasting Company. He bought the sheet music at a local music store, but his teacher steered him instead to Bach, Beethoven and Chopin. Kim later studied at the University of Calgary and Juilliard School of Music. Finally, in 1996, he got his first opportunity to perform Gershwin with the Boston Pops Orchestra.
"I rank Gershwin as one of the great geniuses of the 20th century," Kim said. "He really knew how to write good music.
"The classical music establishment has sometimes turned their noses up at Gershwin. He wasn't a neoclassicist, nor was he an avant-garde composer. In a way Rachmaninoff suffered from the same kind of stigma. Rachmaninoff was another one who chose to write in his own post-Romantic vein. He wrote music that was just straight from the heart, and I think Gershwin was much the same way."
Gershwin began writing Rhapsody in Blue on Jan. 7, 1924, and it premiered Feb. 12 at New York's Aeolian Hall. Well known for incorporating jazz idioms in his music, Gershwin poses a unique challenge to classical pianists.
"Everybody has a different way of playing Rhapsody in Blue. I think that's the great joy of it," Kim said. "When I first started playing it, I really tried to make a lot out of the jazz idioms. As I played it more and more, I realized it's a fairly classical piece. The great thing about it is that Gershwin took a classical framework, not only in the form of a rhapsody, but in the way he approached it.
"If you treat it somewhat classically and follow his markings, I think it comes off much more effectively as a classical work rather than trying to make it into a jazz piece. I think it's a classical work with jazz idioms.
"So my vantage on it is more classically oriented. That's not to say one doesn't play around with it and have fun with it."
PREVIEW
Florida Orchestra Super Pops presents "Gershwin, By George," with Michael Kim, piano, and Skitch Henderson, guest conductor. 8 p.m. tonight, Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater; 8 p.m. Friday, Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Tampa; and 8 p.m. Saturday, Mahaffey Theater at Bayfront Center, St. Petersburg. $20-$38. (813) 286-2403 or toll-free 1-800-662-7286.
Back to Weekend
© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111
|
