Is there anyone who doesn't like the music of George Gershwin? In the history of Western music he is unique in appealing to "popular" and "classical" tastes alike. The greatly overused word "genius" certainly applies to him.

Although Gershwin's life and times were vastly different from Mozart's, he is as close as any American to being on the same plane: a natural musician with legendary keyboard skills; an improvisor capable of capturing on paper those elusive ideas within extended forms; popular and successful during a tragically short lifetime (Gershwin died in 1937 of a brain tumor at the age of 38).

Yet scholars of "serious" music have been slow and even reluctant to welcome George Gershwin into their august pantheon. One reference work, The International Cyclopedia of Music and Musicians, states that "the ultimate value of (Gershwin's) symphonic compositions is questionable" and that it is "doubtful whether he had the ability to produce a lasting work of art." Apparently it is not enough to have written the Great American Opera ("Porgy and Bess") or the most-performed orchestral works by an American composer (An American in Paris, Concerto in F and Rhapsody in Blue)!

New Dominion Chorale's presentation of "Mostly Gershwin" this afternoon centers around Rhapsody in Blue in its original two-piano version, featuring our amazing accompanist, Thomas Pandolfi, who is internationally renowned for his performances of Gershwin's music. Morton Gould, who knew Gershwin well, stated upon hearing Pandolfi's debut performance at Lincoln Center, "That was the best performance of the Rhapsody I have heard since Gershwin played it himself!"

Most of this glorious music will be familiar to our audience with the possible exception of two original Gershwin works for chorus from the movie "Damsel in Distress", based on a novel by P.G. Wodehouse: they are madrigals in "British" style, sounding more like Gilbert and Sullivan.

There are many legends about Gershwin's phenomenal talents, but the story of the writing of Rhapsody in Blue is the best, although there are conflicting versions of the tale. Paul Whiteman, whose Palais Royal Orchestra had raised jazz into a new art form, approached Gershwin about writing a piano concerto in jazz style and there had been a vague commitment on Gershwin's part, even though he was over-committed to the writing of shows. A couple of months later he was surprised to read in the New York Herald Tribune - on January 4, 1924 - that Whiteman and his orchestra were going to perform a concert of American works in Aeolian Hall, including the premiere of a piano concerto by George Gershwin; the date: February 12! Gershwin dropped what he was doing and the score, orchestrated by Ferde Grofe, was complete in time for rehearsal three weeks later - minus the piano part, which Gershwin improvised for the first performance (shades of Mozart). The original title was "An American Rhapsody", but later, inspired by an exhibit of paintings by James Whistler, changed to "Rhapsody in Blue."

We couldn't resist revisiting our Richard Rodgers Centennial concert with excerpts from Oklahoma featuring, by special permission, Rodgers' original choral parts to the final chorus.

-- Thomas Beveridge

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